Study Desk

He went at once and located the exact place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, slept. Saul slept inside the camp, and his men camped around him.

So that night David and Abishai entered Saul's camp and found Saul sleeping in the center of the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the troops were sleeping around him.

Abishai said to David, "God has put your enemy in your power tonight. Now let me plunge his own spear through him and pin him to the ground with just one blow—I won't have to strike twice!"

But David said, "You must not harm him! The Lord will certainly punish whoever harms his chosen king.

By the living Lord ," David continued, "I know that the Lord himself will kill Saul, either when his time comes to die a natural death or when he dies in battle.

The Lord forbid that I should try to harm the one whom the Lord has made king! Let's take his spear and his water jar, and go."

You failed in your duty, Abner! I swear by the living Lord that all of you deserve to die, because you have not protected your master, whom the Lord made king. Look! Where is the king's spear? Where is the water jar that was right by his head?"

Your Majesty, listen to what I have to say. If it is the Lord who has turned you against me, an offering to him will make him change his mind; but if some people have done it, may the Lord 's curse fall on them. For they have driven me out from the Lord 's land to a country where I can only worship foreign gods.

Saul said to David, "God bless you, my son! You will succeed in everything you do!" So David went on his way, and Saul returned home.

So David and his six hundred men went over at once to Achish son of Maoch, king of Gath.

David and his men settled there in Gath with their families. David had his two wives with him, Ahinoam from Jezreel, and Abigail, Nabal's widow, from Carmel.

During that time David and his men would attack the people of Geshur, Girzi, and Amalek, who had been living in the region a very long time. He would raid their land as far as Shur, all the way down to Egypt,

David would kill everyone, men and women, so that no one could go back to Gath and report what he and his men had really done. This is what David did the whole time he lived in Philistia.

But Achish trusted David and said to himself, "He is hated so much by his own people the Israelites that he will have to serve me all his life."

Now Samuel had died, and all the Israelites had mourned for him and had buried him in his hometown of Ramah. Saul had forced all the fortunetellers and mediums to leave Israel.

Then Saul ordered his officials, "Find me a woman who is a medium, and I will go and consult her." "There is one in Endor," they answered.

So Saul disguised himself; he put on different clothes, and after dark he went with two of his men to see the woman. "Consult the spirits for me and tell me what is going to happen," he said to her. "Call up the spirit of the man I name."

Saul refused and said he would not eat anything. But his officers also urged him to eat. He finally gave in, got up from the ground, and sat on the bed.

She set the food before Saul and his officers, and they ate it. And they left that same night.

The five Philistine kings marched out with their units of a hundred and of a thousand men; David and his men marched in the rear with King Achish.