CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub]. Common English Bible

CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub]

servant. The LORD will definitely make an enduring dynasty for my master because my master fights the LORD's battles, and nothing evil will be found in you throughout your lifetime. ²⁹If someone chases after you and tries to kill you, my master, then your life will be bound up securely in the bundle of lifeⁿ by the LORD your God, but he will fling away your enemies' lives as from the pouch of a sling. ³⁰When the LORD has done for my master all the good things he has promised you, and has installed you as Israel's leader,³¹don't let this be a blot or burden on my master's conscience, that you shed blood needlessly or that my master took vengeance into his own hands. When the LORD has done good things for my master, please remember your servant."

³²David said to Abigail, "Bless the LORD God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today!³³And bless you and your good judgment for preventing me from shedding blood and taking vengeance into my own hands today!³⁴Otherwise, as surely as the LORD God of Israel lives--the one who kept me from hurting you--if you hadn't come quickly and met up with me, there wouldn't be one single one who urinates on a wall left come morning."³⁵Then David accepted everything she had brought for him. "Return home in peace," he told her. "Be assured that I've heard your request and have agreed to it."

³⁶When Abigail got back home to Nabal, he was throwing a party fit for a king in his house. Nabal was in a great mood and very drunk, so Abigail didn't tell him anything until daybreak. ³⁷In the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him everything. Nabal's heart failed inside him, and he became like a stone. ³⁸About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.

³⁹When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Bless the LORD, who has rendered a verdict regarding Nabal's insult to me and who kept me, his servant, from doing something evil! The LORD has brought Nabal's evil down on his own head." Then David sent word to Abigail, saying that he would take her as his wife.

⁴⁰When David's servants reached Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, "David has sent us to you so you can become his wife."

⁴¹She bowed low to the ground and said, "I am your servant, ready to serve and wash the feet of my master's helpers."⁴²Then Abigail got up quickly and rode on her donkey, with five of her young women going with her. She followed David's messengers and became his wife.

⁴³David also married Ahinoam from Jezreel, so both of them were his wives. ⁴⁴But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Palti, Laish's son, from Gallim.

David spares Saul's life a second time

1Samuel 26The Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah. "David is hiding on Hachilah's hill, which faces Jeshimon," they said. ²So Saul got up and went down to the Ziph wilderness to look for David there. He had three thousand handpicked soldiers from Israel with him. ³Saul camped on Hachilah's hill opposite Jeshimon beside the road, but David stayed in the wilderness. When David learned that Saul had come after him into the wilderness, ⁴he sent spies and discovered that Saul had definitely arrived.

⁵So David got up and went to the place where Saul camped, and saw the place where Saul and Abner, Ner's son and Saul's general, were sleeping. Saul was sleeping inside the camp with the troops camped all around him. ⁶David asked Ahimelech the Hittite and Joab's brother Abishai, Zeruiah's son, "Who will go down into the camp with me to Saul?"

"I'll go down with you," Abishai answered.

⁷So David and Abishai approached the troops at night and found Saul lying there, asleep in the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. Abner and the army were sleeping all around him.

⁸Abishai said to David, "God has handed your enemy over to you today! Let me pin him to the ground with my spear. One stroke is all I need! I won't need a second."

⁹But David said to Abishai, "Don't kill him! No one can lift a hand against the LORD's anointed and go unpunished. ¹⁰As surely as the LORD lives," David continued, "it will be the LORD who will strike him down, or his day will come and he will die, or he'll fall in battle and be destroyed. ¹¹The LORD forbid that I lift my hand against the LORD's anointed! But go ahead and take the spear by Saul's head and the water jug and let's go!"¹²So David took the spear and the water jug that were by Saul's head, and he and Abishai left. No one saw them, no one knew they were there, and no one woke up. All of them remained asleep because a deep sleep from the LORD had come over them.

¹³David crossed over to the other side and stood on top of a hill with considerable distance between them. ¹⁴Then David shouted to the army and to Abner, Ner's son, "Abner! Aren't you going to answer me?"

"Who are you to shout to the king?" Abner asked.

¹⁵David answered Abner, "You are a man, aren't you? And you have no equal in Israel, right? Then why haven't you kept watch over your master the king? One of the soldiers came to kill your master the king. ¹⁶What you've done is terrible! As surely as the LORD lives, all of you are dead men because you didn't keep close watch over your master, the LORD's anointed. Have a look around! Where are the king's spear and the water jug that were by his head?"

¹⁷Saul recognized David's voice and said, "David, my son, is that your voice?"

David said, "Yes it is, my master the king. ¹⁸Why," David continued, "is my master chasing me, his servant? What have I done and what wrong am I guilty of?¹⁹My master the king, please listen to what your servant has to say. If it is the LORD who has incited you against me, then let him accept an offering! But if human beings have done it, then let them be cursed before the LORD because they have now driven me off, keeping me from sharing in the LORD's inheritance. 'Go!' they tell me. 'Worship other gods!'²⁰Don't let my blood spill on the ground apart from the LORD's presence, because the king of Israel has come out looking for a single flea^o like someone hunting a partridge^p in the mountains."

²¹Then Saul said, "I have sinned! David, my son, come back! Because you considered my life precious today, I won't harm you again. I have acted foolishly and have made a huge mistake."

²²"Here is the king's spear," David answered. "Allow one of your servants to come over and get it. ²³Remember: The LORD rewards every person for their righteousness and loyalty, and I wasn't willing to lift a hand against the LORD's anointed, even though the LORD handed you over to me today. ²⁴And just as I considered your life valuable today, may the LORD consider my life valuable, and may he deliver me from all trouble."

²⁵Then Saul said to David, "Bless you, David, my son! You will accomplish much and will certainly succeed." Then David went on his way, but Saul went back home.

David serves the Philistine Achish

1Samuel 27David thought, One day I will be destroyed by Saul's power. The best thing for me to do is to escape to Philistine territory. Then Saul will give up looking for me in Israelite territory, and I will escape his power. ²So David set out with his six hundred soldiers and went to Achish, Maoch's son and Gath's king. ³David and his soldiers stayed there at Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, Nabal's widow from Carmel. ⁴When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he didn't pursue him anymore.

⁵Then David said to Achish, "If you approve of me, please give me a place in one of the towns in the country so I can live there. Why should I, your servant, live in the capital city with you?"⁶So Achish gave the town of Ziklag to David at that time. That's why Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until now. ⁷David lived in the Philistine countryside for a total of one year and four months.

⁸David and his soldiers went out on raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. They were the people who lived in the land from Telam^q to Shur all the way to the land of Egypt. ⁹When David attacked

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