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David was told, "The P'lishtim are fighting Ke‘ilah and plundering the threshing-floors." David consulted Adonai , asking, "Should I go and attack these P'lishtim?" Adonai answered David, "Go, and attack the P'lishtim, and save Ke‘ilah." David's men said to him, "Look, we're already afraid here in Y'hudah. How much more, then, if we go to Ke‘ilah to fight the armies of the P'lishtim!" David consulted Adonai again; and Adonai answered him, "Set out, and go down to Ke‘ilah, because I will hand the P'lishtim over to you." David and his men went to Ke‘ilah and fought the P'lishtim. They defeated them in a great slaughter and led away their livestock. Thus David saved the inhabitants of Ke‘ilah. When Avyatar the son of Achimelekh fled to David in Ke‘ilah, he had brought a ritual vest with him. Now Sha'ul, on being informed that David had gone to Ke‘ilah, had said, "God has put him into my hands. He's trapped himself by entering a town with gates and bars." So Sha'ul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Ke‘ilah and besiege David and his men. David knew that Sha'ul was plotting something against him, so he told Avyatar the cohen, "Bring the ritual vest here." Then David said, " Adonai God of Isra'el, your servant has certainly heard that Sha'ul intends to come to Ke‘ilah and destroy the city just to get me. Will the men of Ke‘ilah turn me over to him? Will Sha'ul come down, as your servant has heard? Adonai God of Isra'el, please tell your servant!" Adonai said, "He will come down." Then David asked, "Will the men of Ke‘ilah hand me and my men over to Sha'ul?" Adonai said, "They will hand you over." So David and his men, now around six hundred, got up, left Ke‘ilah and went wherever they could. It was told Sha'ul that David had escaped from Ke‘ilah, so he called off the expedition. David stayed in the desert strongholds, remaining in the hills of the Zif Desert. Sha'ul kept trying to find him, but God did not hand him over to him. David saw that Sha'ul had mounted another expedition to seek his life. David was then at Horesh in the Zif Desert. Y'honatan Sha'ul's son set out and went to David at Horesh to encourage him in God. He said to him, "Don't be afraid, because my father's forces will not find you; you will be king over Isra'el, and I will be second to you. Sha'ul my father knows this, too." Then the two of them made a covenant in the presence of Adonai , after which David stayed at Horesh and Y'honatan returned home. The people of Zif came to Sha'ul in Giv‘ah and said, "David is hiding himself with us in the strongholds at Horesh, on Hakhilah Hill, south of Yeshimon. So now, king, since you've wanted so much to come down, come down! Our part will be to turn him over to you." Sha'ul said, "May Adonai bless you for showing me compassion! Please go and make still more certain exactly where he is and who has seen him there, because I've been told that he's very tricky. So look closely, find out where all his hiding-places are, and come back when you're sure. Then I will go with you, and if he is there in that territory, I'll search till I find him among all the thousands of Y'hudah." They set out and went to Zif before Sha'ul. But David and his men had gone on to the Ma‘on Desert, in the ‘Aravah south of Yeshimon. Sha'ul and his men went searching for him. David was told, so he came down to the rock and stayed in the Ma‘on Desert. When Sha'ul heard that, he pursued David in the Ma‘on Desert. Sha'ul went along one side of the mountain, while David and his men went along the other. David was hurrying to get away from Sha'ul, while Sha'ul and his men were trying to surround David and his men in order to capture them. But then a messenger came to Sha'ul, saying, "Hurry, come, because the P'lishtim are invading the country!" So Sha'ul stopped chasing David and went to fight the P'lishtim. Therefore they called that place Sela-Hamachlekot [rock of divisions].

Sha'ul took three thousand men chosen from all Isra'el and went searching for David and his men on the cliffs where the mountain goats are.

Near some sheep pens along the way was a cave, and Sha'ul went inside to relieve himself. It happened that David and his men were sitting in the recesses at the back of the cave;

He said to his men, " Adonai forbid that I should do such a thing to my lord, Adonai 's anointed, as raise my hand against him! After all, he is Adonai 's anointed."

By saying this, David stopped his men and would not let them do anything to Sha'ul. Sha'ul got up, left the cave and went on his way.

Then David too got up and went outside the cave, where he called after Sha'ul, "My lord the king!" When Sha'ul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.

A man finds his enemy and lets him go unharmed?! May Adonai reward you well for what you did to me today.

So swear to me by Adonai that you will not kill my descendants after I die or blot out my name from my father's family." David swore to Sha'ul, and Sha'ul went home, but David and his men went back up to the stronghold.

Sh'mu'el died. All of Isra'el assembled to mourn him and bury him at his home in Ramah. Then David set out and went down to the Pa'ran Desert.

Now there was a man in Ma‘on who had property in Karmel. He was very rich, having three thousand sheep and a thousand goats; and he was shearing his sheep in Karmel.

The man's name was Naval, and his wife was named Avigayil. The woman was intelligent and attractive, but the man was surly and mean in his actions; he belonged to the clan of Kalev.

David, there in the desert, heard that Naval was shearing his sheep.

David said to his men, "Buckle your swords on, all of you!" Each one buckled on his sword, David too; and there went up after David about four hundred men, while two hundred stayed with the equipment.

But one of Naval's men told Avigayil his wife, "David sent messengers from the desert to greet our master, and he flew on them in a rage,

So now decide what you are going to do, for clearly harm is on its way to our master and all his household, but he's so mean that no one can tell him anything."

She was riding her donkey down past the hiding-place in the mountain, when David and his men descended toward her, and she met them.

David had said, "What a waste it has been guarding everything this fellow has in the desert, so that nothing of his was missing! He has repaid me bad for good!"

Having fallen at his feet, she said, "It's all my fault, my lord, all my fault! Please let your servant speak in your ears, and listen to what your servant says.

Please! My lord shouldn't pay any attention to this worthless fellow Naval, because he's just like his name — ‘Naval' means ‘boor,' and his boorishness stays with him. But I, your servant, did not see my lord's men, whom you sent.

what happens here will not have become an obstacle to you or a cause for remorse to my lord, neither that you shed blood without cause nor that my lord took vengeance into his own hands. Finally, when Adonai has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant."