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So David and Avishai went to the soldiers by night. Sha'ul was lying there asleep inside the barricade. His spear was stuck in the ground next to his head, with Avner and the troops asleep all around him.

Avishai said to David, "God has handed your enemy over to you today; so now, please, let me pin him to the ground with just one stroke of the spear. I won't strike him a second time."

So David took the spear and the water jug from Sha'ul's head and got away. Nobody saw or knew about it, and no one awoke, because they were all asleep — a deep sleep from Adonai had fallen over them.

David said to Avner, "Aren't you the brave one! Who is there in Isra'el to compare with you? So why haven't you kept watch over your lord the king? Someone came in to kill the king, your lord!

Please, now, may my lord the king hear what his servant is saying. If it is Adonai who has stirred you up against me, let him receive an offering. But if it's human beings, then a curse on them before Adonai ! — because, as things stand today, they have driven me out, so that I can no longer share in Adonai 's inheritance — they've said, ‘Go, serve other gods!'

Look: just as I put great value on your life today, so may my life be given great value by Adonai . May he deliver me from every kind of trouble!"

Sha'ul answered David, "Blessings on you, my son David! No question that you will accomplish everything you set out to do!" So David went on his way, and Sha'ul returned to his place.

So David set out with his six hundred men and passed on to Akhish the son of Ma‘okh, king of Gat.

The reason David spared neither men nor women to be brought to Gat is that he thought, "We don't want them telling on us, saying, ‘David did so-and-so.'" That's how he conducted his raids for as long as he lived in the country of the P'lishtim.

So Sha'ul disguised himself by wearing different clothing, went with two men, came to the woman by night and said, "Tell me the future, please. Bring up from the dead the person I name to you."

He asked her, "What does he look like?" She said, "An old man is coming up; he's wearing a cloak." Sha'ul realized it was Sh'mu'el, so he bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.

Sh'mu'el asked Sha'ul, "Why have you disturbed me and brought me up?" Sha'ul answered, "I'm very upset; because the P'lishtim are making war against me; and God has left me and doesn't answer me any more, neither by prophets nor by dreams. This is why I've called you, so that you can let me know what to do."

Now therefore, please, you listen to what your servant says: let me put a little food in front of you; then eat, so you will have some strength when you go on your way."

So Akhish summoned David and said to him, "As Adonai lives, you have been upright; and I myself would be more than pleased to have you go on campaign with me; because I haven't found anything wrong with you between the day you arrived and now. However, the chiefs don't trust you.

Therefore, now, go on back; and go in peace, so as not to do what appears bad to the chiefs of the P'lishtim.

So get up early in the morning with the servants of your lord who came with you; and as soon as you are up and it gets light, leave."

So when David and his men arrived at the city, there it was, burned down, with their wives, sons and daughters taken captive.

So David went, he and the six hundred men with him. They came to Vadi B'sor, where those who were to stay behind waited.

But some of the men who had gone with David were evil men, scoundrels; and they said, "They didn't go with us, so we're not giving them any of the property we've recovered. Each man can take his wife and children and leave."

The fighting went hard against Sha'ul; then the archers overtook and wounded him, so that he was in agony.