Outlaw

“The king sent me on business that no one must know about,” David said. “The young men have been sent on to a certain place. What do you have here? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever there is.”

“I have no ordinary bread,” the priest answered, “only holy bread, if the young men have kept away from women.”

“Yes, women have been kept away from us for the last three days, as usual,” said David. “When we set out, the young men’s things were holy, even though it was an ordinary journey. So surely they are holy today.”

So the priest gave him holy bread. The only bread there was the show bread, which had been taken from the Lord’s presence and replaced with hot bread.

One of Saul’s servants was there that day: Doeg the Edomite, the head of Saul’s herdsmen. He was being kept there, in the Lord’s presence.

“Isn’t there a spear or a sword here?” David asked. “The king’s business was urgent, and I didn’t bring my sword or any weapon.”

“The sword of Goliath is here,” said the priest, “the Philistine you killed in the valley of Elah. It’s wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you’d like to take it, take it. There’s no other sword here.”

“There’s none like it,” said David. “Give it to me.”

“Isn’t this David, the king of the land?” Achish’s servants said to him. “Didn’t they sing about him to each other as they danced, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”

David took these words to heart, and he was very afraid of Achish.

In front of them David changed the way he acted. While they held him, he pretended to be insane. He scribbled on the doors of the gate and let spit run down his beard.

“Look, the man is insane!” Achish said to his servants. “Why have you brought him to me? Am I short of madmen? Is that why you brought this fellow to act crazy in front of me? Is he supposed to come into my house?”

From there David went to Mizpeh in Moab. “Please let my father and mother live with you,” he said to the king of Moab, “until I know what God will do for me.” He brought them to the king, and they lived with him all the time David was in the stronghold.

The prophet Gad told David, “Don’t stay in the stronghold. Leave here, and go into the land of Judah.” Then David set off and came to the forest of Hereth.

Word reached Saul that David and his men had been found. Saul was sitting in Gibeah under the tamarisk tree in Ramah, spear in hand, with all his servants standing around him.

“Listen, you men of Benjamin!” he said. “Will Jesse’s son give every one of you fields and vineyards and make you all commanders? Is that why you have all plotted against me? No one told me when my son made an agreement with Jesse’s son. None of you is sorry for me. No one told me that my son turned my servant against me, to lie in wait for me, as he is doing today.”

Doeg the Edomite, standing among Saul’s servants, spoke up. “I saw the son of Jesse come to Nob, to Ahimelech son of Ahitub. Ahimelech asked the Lord’s guidance for him, gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

The king sent for Ahimelech and all his father’s family, the priests of Nob, and they all came. “Listen, son of Ahitub,” said Saul.

“Here I am, my lord,” he answered.

“Why have you and Jesse’s son plotted against me?” said Saul. “You gave him bread and a sword and asked God’s guidance for him, so he could rise against me and lie in wait for me, as he is doing today.”

“Which of all your servants is as faithful as David?” Ahimelech answered. “He is the king’s son-in-law, head of your bodyguard, honored in your household. Was today the first time I asked God’s guidance for him? Never! Don’t let the king blame me or my father’s family. I knew nothing at all about this.”

“You are going to die, Ahimelech,” said the king, “you and your father’s whole family.”

The king told the guards around him, “Turn and kill the Lord’s priests! They are on David’s side too. They knew he was running away and didn’t tell me.” But the king’s servants refused to lift a hand against the Lord’s priests.

So the king told Doeg, “You turn and attack the priests!” And Doeg the Edomite turned and attacked them. That day he killed eighty-five people who wore the linen ephod. He also attacked Nob, the town of the priests, with the sword, killing men and women, children and nursing babies, cattle, donkeys and sheep.

But one of Ahimelech’s sons, Abiathar, escaped and fled to David. He told David that Saul had killed the Lord’s priests.

“I knew that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul,” David told Abiathar. “I am responsible for the death of your father’s whole family. Stay with me and don’t be afraid. The man who wants to kill me wants to kill you too. You’ll be safe with me.”

“Go,” the Lord answered. “Attack the Philistines and save Keilah.”

But David’s men said, “We’re afraid here in Judah as it is. How much worse if we go to Keilah against the Philistine armies!”

David asked the Lord again, and the Lord answered, “Go down to Keilah. I am going to put the Philistines in your power.”

David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines. They carried off their livestock and killed a great many of them, and David saved the people of Keilah. Abiathar son of Ahimelech had fled to David there, bringing an ephod with him.

Saul was told that David was at Keilah. “God has handed him over to me,” he said. “He has shut himself into a town with gates and bars.” Saul called all the people out to war, to go down to Keilah and surround David and his men.

David knew Saul was plotting harm against him. “Bring the ephod,” he told Abiathar the priest. Then he prayed, “Lord, God of Israel, I have heard that Saul plans to come and destroy Keilah because of me. Will the men of Keilah give me up to him? Will Saul come down? Please tell me.”

“He will come down,” the Lord said.

“Will the men of Keilah give me and my men up to Saul?” David asked.

“They will,” said the Lord.

David and his six hundred or so men left Keilah and went wherever they could. Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, and he gave up going there. David stayed in the wilderness, in its strongholds and in the hill country of Ziph. Saul looked for him every day, but God didn’t hand him over to Saul.

They both made a covenant in the Lord’s presence. Then Jonathan went home, and David stayed in the woods.

Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah. “Isn’t David hiding among us,” they said, “in the strongholds in the woods on the hill of Hachilah, south of the desert? Come down whenever you like, my king, and we will hand him over to you.”

“May the Lord bless you for taking pity on me!” said Saul. “I’m told he is very cunning, so go and make even more sure where he is. Find out all his hiding places and who has seen him, and come back when you’re certain. Then I’ll go with you. If he is anywhere in the land, I’ll hunt him down among all the families of Judah.”

The Ziphites set off for Ziph ahead of Saul, but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah south of the desert. When David heard Saul was coming, he went down to the rock, and Saul chased him there. Saul was on one side of the mountain, with David and his men on the far side. David was hurrying to get away from Saul, because Saul and his men were surrounding David and his men to capture them.

Then a messenger came to Saul: “Come quickly! The Philistines have made a raid on the land!” Saul turned back from chasing David and went off to fight the Philistines. That is why they called that place Sela Hammahlekoth, which means “rock of parting.”

Along the way there was a cave by some sheep pens, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were deep inside that cave.

“This is the day the Lord spoke of,” David’s men said, “when he told you, ‘I will hand your enemy over to you, to do with as you think best.’” David got up and cut off the corner of Saul’s robe without Saul knowing.

Afterward David’s heart troubled him for cutting off the corner of Saul’s robe. “May the Lord keep me from raising my hand against my lord, the Lord’s anointed,” he told his men. With these words he held them back and would not let them attack Saul. Saul left the cave and went on his way.

David followed him out and called after him, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked back, David bowed with his face to the ground, showing him respect.

“Why do you listen when people say I want to harm you?” David asked. “Today the Lord put you in my power in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you, saying, ‘I won’t raise my hand against my lord, the Lord’s anointed.’ My father, look at what I have in my hand: the corner of your robe! I cut it off but didn’t kill you, so you can see I’m not out to harm you or rebel against you. I haven’t wronged you, yet you are hunting me to kill me.

“May the Lord judge between us, and may he punish you for the wrong you have done me, but I will not lay a hand on you. As the old proverb says, ‘Wicked deeds come from wicked people.’ Who is the king of Israel chasing? A dead dog? A flea? Let the Lord be judge between us. May he take up my case and rescue me from you.”

When David had finished, Saul said, “Is that your voice, my son David?” and he wept aloud. “You are more in the right than I am,” he said. “You have done me good, and I have done you harm. The Lord put me in your hands, and you didn’t kill me. Who lets his enemy go unharmed? May the Lord give you good in return for what you did for me today.

“Now I know that you will surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be secure in your hands. So swear to me by the Lord that you won’t wipe out my descendants or destroy my family name.” David swore it. Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

A very rich man of Maon had property at Carmel: three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep there. His name was Nabal, and he was from Caleb’s family line. He was harsh and did wicked things, but his wife Abigail was intelligent and beautiful.

In the wilderness David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep, and he sent ten young men to greet him with this message: “Long life and peace to you and all you have! Your shepherds were with us at Carmel, and we never harmed them or took a thing from them. Ask your young men. So be kind to my young men, since we have come on a good day, and give them and your son David whatever you can spare.”

The young men gave Nabal the message and waited. “Who is David?” Nabal answered. “Who is this son of Jesse? Plenty of servants are running away from their masters these days. Should I give away my bread and water, and the meat I killed for my shearers, to men who come from I don’t know where?”

The young men went back and told David everything. “Everyone, put on your sword!” David said, and they all did, David too. About four hundred men followed him, and two hundred stayed with the baggage.

One of Nabal’s young men went to Abigail. “David sent messengers to greet our master, and he insulted them,” he said. “Yet those men were very good to us. Out in the fields they never harmed us, and we never lost a thing. They protected us like a wall, by night and by day. Think about what you should do, because harm is planned against our master and all his household. He’s so worthless that no one can talk to him.”

Abigail hurried. She loaded donkeys with two hundred loaves of bread, two containers of wine, five sheep ready for cooking, five seahs of roasted grain (nearly ten gallons), a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred fig cakes. “Go on ahead,” she told her young men. “I’ll follow you.” She didn’t tell her husband Nabal.

As she rode down, hidden by the mountain, she met David and his men coming down toward her. David had been saying, “I guarded everything this fellow had out in the wilderness, so that nothing of his went missing, and it was all for nothing. He has paid me back with harm for the good I did. May God punish David’s enemies severely if by morning I leave a single male of his household alive.”

“Pay no attention to this worthless man Nabal. He is just what his name says. Nabal means ‘foolish’, and that is what he is. But I didn’t see the young men you sent. Now, as the Lord lives and as you live, the Lord has kept you from the guilt of bloodshed and from taking revenge yourself. May all who want to harm you be like Nabal.

“Please give this gift to the young men who follow you, and forgive my wrong. The Lord will surely give you a lasting family line, because you fight his battles, and no one will find any wrong in you as long as you live. If anyone hunts you to kill you, your life will be bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord your God. But he will throw away the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling. When he has made you leader over Israel, as he promised, you won’t have to grieve because you killed people for no reason or took revenge yourself. Then remember me.”

“Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, for sending you to meet me today!” David said. “God bless you for your good sense, and God bless you for keeping me from bloodshed and revenge today. The Lord held me back from harming you. As the Lord lives, if you hadn’t hurried to meet me, not one male in Nabal’s household would have been left alive by morning.”

He took what she had brought him. “Go home in peace,” he said. “I have listened to you, and I will do as you ask.”

When Abigail got home, Nabal was holding a feast like a king’s. He was merry and very drunk, so she said nothing until morning. Then, when the wine had worn off, she told him everything. His heart died within him, and he became like a stone. Ten days or so later, the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “May the Lord be praised! He has defended me against Nabal’s insult and kept me from doing wrong. The Lord has turned Nabal’s own wickedness back on him.” David sent a message to Abigail: he wanted to marry her.

David’s servants came to her at Carmel. “David has sent us,” they said. “He wants you to be his wife.”

She bowed with her face to the ground. “Here I am,” she said. “I am ready to be a servant and wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” Then she quickly got on a donkey. With her five maids behind her, she followed David’s messengers and became his wife.

David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel as a wife, and both of them became his wives. Now Saul had given Michal, his daughter and David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, from Gallim.

Then David came to Saul’s camp and saw the spot where Saul was lying. Abner son of Ner, the captain of Saul’s army, was there too. Saul lay among the wagons, with the troops camped around him.

David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai, the son of Zeruiah and brother of Joab, “Who will go down with me to Saul’s camp?”

“I’ll go down with you,” said Abishai.

So David and Abishai went into the camp by night. Saul was lying there asleep among the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the troops were lying around him. “God has handed your enemy over to you today,” Abishai said. “Let me drive the spear through him into the ground with one blow. I won’t need a second.”

“Don’t kill him!” David said. “Who can raise a hand against the Lord’s anointed and not be guilty? As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or he will die when his day comes, or be killed in battle. May the Lord keep me from raising my hand against his anointed! Take the spear and the water jug from beside his head, and let’s go.”

David took the spear and the water jug from beside Saul’s head, and they went away. No one saw, no one knew, no one woke. They were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.

Then David crossed over and stood on top of the mountain far away, with a great distance between them. He shouted to the army and to Abner son of Ner, “Won’t you answer, Abner?”

“Who are you, shouting to the king?” Abner answered.

“Aren’t you a man?” said David. “Who in Israel is like you? Then why haven’t you kept watch over your lord the king? Someone came in to kill him. You have done badly. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die for not guarding the Lord’s anointed. Where are the king’s spear and the water jug that was by his head?”

Saul recognized David’s voice. “Is that your voice, my son David?” he said.

“It is, my lord the king,” said David. “Why is my lord chasing me? What have I done? What wrong is on my hands? If the Lord has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if people have done it, they are cursed in the Lord’s presence. They have driven me out today from the Lord’s inheritance, telling me, ‘Go, serve other gods!’ Don’t let my blood be spilled on the ground far from the Lord. The king of Israel has come out hunting a flea, like someone hunting a partridge in the mountains.”

“I have sinned,” said Saul. “Come back, my son David. I won’t harm you again, because today you treated my life as precious. I have played the fool, and I have made a terrible mistake.”

“Here is the spear, my king!” David answered. “Let one of the young men come over and get it. The Lord repays everyone for doing right and being faithful. He put you in my power today, but I would not raise my hand against his anointed. Today I treated your life as precious. In the same way, may the Lord treat my life as precious and rescue me from all trouble.”

“You are blessed, my son David!” said Saul. “You will do mighty things, and you will surely win.” Then David went on his way, and Saul went home.

So David and his six hundred men crossed over to Achish son of Maoch, king of Gath, and settled there with him, each man with his household. His two wives were with him, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail from Carmel, who had been Nabal’s wife. Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, so he stopped looking for him.

“If you think well of me,” David said to Achish, “give me a place in one of the country towns. Why should I live in the royal city with you?” Achish gave him Ziklag that day. That is why Ziklag belongs to the kings of Judah to this day. David lived in Philistine country for a year and four months.

David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites, peoples who had lived since long ago in the land on the way to Shur, as far as Egypt. David attacked the land and left no man or woman alive. He took the sheep and cattle, donkeys, camels and clothing, then returned to Achish.

“Who did you raid today?” Achish asked.

“The South of Judah,” said David, “and the South of the Jerahmeelites, and the South of the Kenites.”

David left no man or woman alive to bring to Gath. “They might tell on us,” he said, “and say, ‘This is what David did, and this is how he has acted all the time he has lived in Philistine country.’”

Achish believed David. “He has made his own people Israel hate him completely,” he said. “So he will be my servant forever.”