Study Desk

And the king said to the guards who were attending him, "Turn around and put the priests of the LORD to death, because their hand also is with David and because they knew that he was fleeing and did not inform me." But the servants of the king were unwilling to reach out with their hands to attack the priests of the LORD.

He also struck Nob the city of the priests with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and infants; he also struck oxen, donkeys, and sheep with the edge of the sword.

"Stay with me; do not be afraid, even though he who is seeking my life is seeking your life. For you are safe with me."

Then David and his men went to Keilah and fought the Philistines; and he drove away their livestock and struck them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

Now it came about, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.

When it was reported to Saul that David had come to Keilah, Saul said, "God has handed him over to me, for he shut himself in by entering a city with double gates and bars."

Then Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, "Is David not keeping himself hidden with us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon?

"So look, and learn about all the hiding places where he keeps himself hidden, and return to me with certainty, and I will go with you; and if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah."

So he said to his men, "Far be it from me because of the LORD that I would do this thing to my lord, the LORD'S anointed, to reach out with my hand against him, since he is the LORD'S anointed."

And David rebuked his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul got up, left the cave, and went on his way.

Afterward, however, David got up and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, saying, "My lord the king!" And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.

"Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the LORD had handed you over to me today in the cave, and someone said to kill you, but I spared you; and I said, 'I will not reach out with my hand against my lord, because he is the LORD'S anointed.'

And he said to David, "You are more righteous than I; for you have dealt well with me, while I have dealt maliciously with you.

"Though if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away unharmed? May the LORD therefore reward you with good in return for what you have done to me this day.

'Now then, I have heard that you have shearers. Now, your shepherds have been with us; we have not harmed them, nor has anything of theirs gone missing all the days they were in Carmel.

When David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal in accordance with all these words in David's name; then they waited.

So David's young men made their way back and returned; and they came and informed him in accordance with all these words.

Then David said to his men, "Each of you strap on his sword." So each man strapped on his sword. And David also strapped on his sword, and about four hundred men went up behind David, while two hundred stayed with the baggage.

"Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, nor did anything go missing as long as we went with them, while we were in the fields.

"They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them tending the sheep.