David Spares Saul Twice

About this time David heard that the Philistines had made a raid into the country of Keilah and plundered it. So he offered to fight them, if God, when the prophet consulted him, would grant him the victory. When the prophet said that God gave a sign of victory, he made a sudden attack on the Philistines with his companions, shed a great deal of their blood and carried off their plunder; and he stayed with the people of Keilah until they had safely gathered in their grain and their fruit. But word reached King Saul that David was with the men of Keilah. For what had been done, and the great success that came with it, did not stay among the people where it happened: the fame of it spread everywhere and reached the ears of others, and both the deed and the man who did it were reported to the king. Saul was glad when he heard that David was in Keilah, and he said, “God has now put him into my hands, since he has made him come into a city that has walls and gates and bars.” So he ordered out the whole people at once, to besiege the city, take it and kill David. But when David saw this, and learned from God that if he stayed there the men of Keilah would hand him over to Saul, he took his four hundred men and withdrew into a wilderness opposite a city called En-gedi. And when the king heard that he had fled from the men of Keilah, he gave up his expedition against him.

Then David moved on from there and came to a place called the New Place, which belonged to Ziph. There Jonathan, Saul’s son, came to him and greeted him. He urged him to take courage and to hope well for what lay ahead, and not to lose heart over his present circumstances, for he would be king and have all the forces of the Hebrews under him; such happiness, he told him, usually comes with great labor and toil. They also swore oaths to continue all their lives long in goodwill and loyalty to one another, and Jonathan called God to witness the curses he had laid on himself if he broke their covenant and turned to the opposite course. So Jonathan left him there, having made his cares and fears somewhat lighter, and went home. [a]

Now the men of Ziph, to please Saul, told him that David was staying among them, and that if he would come to them they would hand him over; for if the king seized the Straits of Ziph, David could not escape to any other people. The king praised them and admitted that he had reason to thank them for informing him about his enemy, and he promised that it would not be long before he repaid their kindness. He also sent men to look for David and to search the wilderness where he was, and promised that he himself would follow them. So they went ahead of the king to hunt David down and catch him. They did their best not only to show their goodwill to Saul by telling him where his enemy was, but to prove it more plainly by delivering David into his power. But these men failed in their unjust and wicked desires. They would have run no risk by keeping silent, yet they were eager to reveal him to Saul; they falsely accused, and promised to hand over, a man beloved of God, who was being hunted unjustly to be put to death and who might otherwise have stayed hidden — and they did it out of flattery and the hope of gain from the king. For when David learned of the malicious intentions of the men of Ziph and of Saul’s approach, he left the Straits of that country and fled to the great rock in the wilderness of Maon.

Saul hurried to pursue him there. But as he was marching he learned that David had gone away from the Straits of Ziph, and Saul moved round to the other side of the rock. Then a report that the Philistines had again invaded the country of the Hebrews called Saul away from chasing David just when David was about to be caught. For he turned back to oppose the Philistines, who were their natural enemies, judging it more necessary to take vengeance on them than to take great pains to catch a personal enemy of his own while he let the land be ravaged. [e]

So David escaped the danger he was in, against all expectation, and came to the Straits of En-gedi. When Saul had driven the Philistines out of the land, messengers came and told him that David was staying within the borders of En-gedi. He took three thousand picked men under arms and hurried after him. When he was not far from those places, he saw a deep, hollow cave beside the road, open to a great length and breadth; and it was there that David and his four hundred men were hiding. Saul, needing to relieve himself, went into it alone. One of David’s companions saw him, and told David that by God’s providence he now had an opportunity to take vengeance on his adversary; he advised him to cut off Saul’s head and so free himself from that weary, wandering life and the distress he was in. David got up, but only cut off the hem of the garment Saul was wearing. Soon he regretted even that, and said that it was not right to kill the man who was his master, and whom God had thought worthy of the kingdom: “For although he is wickedly disposed toward us, it is not right for me to be so disposed toward him.” [f]

When Saul had left the cave, David came near and cried out loudly, asking Saul to hear him. The king turned his face back, and David, as the custom was, fell on his face before the king and bowed to him, and said, “O king, you ought not to listen to wicked men, or to those who forge slanders, nor oblige them so far as to believe what they say, nor harbor suspicions of your best friends. Judge the dispositions of all men by their actions. Slander deceives men, but men’s own actions are a clear proof of their kindness. Words by their very nature may be true or false, but actions lay men’s intentions bare to our view. By these, then, you will do well to believe me as to my regard for you and for your house, and not to side with those who accuse me of things that never entered my mind and could not be carried out, and so hunt my life, with no concern day or night except how to take my life and murder me — a thing I think you pursue unjustly. For how has it come about that you have taken up this false opinion of me, as if I wanted to kill you? Or how can you escape the guilt of impiety toward God, when you wish you could kill, and count as your adversary, a man who had it in his power this day to avenge himself and punish you, but would not do it, nor use such an opportunity — one that, had it fallen out for you against me, you would not have let slip? For when I cut off the hem of your garment, I could have done the same to your head.” So he showed him the piece of his garment, and in this way made him agree that what he said was true. And he added, “I, for certain, have held back from taking a just revenge on you, yet you are not ashamed to pursue me with unjust hatred. May God do justice, and decide between the dispositions of each of us.”

Saul was amazed at the strange escape he had had, and, deeply moved by the young man’s restraint and character, he groaned. When David had groaned too, the king answered that he had the better reason to groan, “for you have done me good, as I have done you harm. You have shown this day that you have the righteousness of the ancients, who held that men ought to spare their enemies even when they caught them in a lonely place. I am now persuaded that God is keeping the kingdom for you, and that you will gain the rule over all the Hebrews. So give me assurances on oath that you will not root out my family, nor, remembering the evil I have done you, destroy my descendants, but will spare and preserve my house.” So David swore as he asked, and sent Saul back to his own kingdom; but he and those who were with him went up to the Straits of Mastheroth.

About this time Samuel the prophet died. The Hebrews honored him to an extraordinary degree. The lament the people made for him, and kept up for a long time, showed his virtue and the affection the people had for him; so did the solemnity and care shown at his funeral, and the full observance of all his funeral rites. They buried him in his own city of Ramah, and wept for him a great many days, not as though they mourned another man’s death, but as a loss in which every one of them was personally concerned. He was a righteous man and gentle by nature, and for that reason he was very dear to God. He governed and presided over the people alone for twelve years after the death of Eli the high priest, and for eighteen years together with Saul the king. And so we have finished the history of Samuel. [h]

There was a man of Ziph, from the city of Maon, who was rich and owned a vast number of livestock: he kept a flock of three thousand sheep and another of a thousand goats. David had ordered his men to keep these flocks unharmed and undamaged and to do them no mischief — not out of greed, nor because they were in want, nor because they were in the wilderness and so could not easily be found out — but to value freedom from injustice above every other motive, and to regard touching what belonged to another man as a horrible crime, contrary to the will of God. He gave these instructions thinking that the favors he did this man were done to a good man, one who deserved to have such care taken of his property. This man was Nabal — that was his name — a harsh man of very wicked life, like a Cynic in his behavior; yet he had obtained a wife of good character, wise and beautiful. So at the time when Nabal was shearing his sheep, David sent ten of his attendants to him and greeted him through them. He wished him many more years of doing what he was now doing, but asked him to make David a present of whatever he was able to give; for Nabal had surely learned from his shepherds that David’s men had done them no injury, but had been their guardians a long time while they stayed in the wilderness; and he assured him that he would never regret giving anything to David. When the messengers delivered this message to Nabal, he received them in a brutal and rough way. He asked them who David was, and when he heard that he was the son of Jesse, he said, “Now is the time when runaways grow insolent and make a show of themselves and leave their masters.” When they told David this, he was furious. He ordered four hundred armed men to follow him and left two hundred to look after the baggage — for by now he had six hundred — and went against Nabal. He also swore that he would utterly destroy Nabal’s whole house and everything he had that very night; for he was aggrieved not only that Nabal had proved ungrateful to them, making no return for the kindness they had shown him, but that he had also insulted them and spoken abusively to them when they had given him no cause for offense. [i]

Then one of the men who kept Nabal’s flocks told his mistress, Nabal’s wife, that when David sent to her husband he had received no civil answer at all, and that her husband had added very insulting language besides, though David had taken extraordinary care to keep his flocks from harm; what had happened, he said, would prove disastrous for his master. When the servant had said this, Abigail — that was the wife’s name — saddled her donkeys and loaded them with all kinds of gifts, and without telling her husband anything of what she was doing (for he was senseless with drink) she went to David. David met her as she was coming down a hill; he was on his way against Nabal with four hundred men. When the woman saw David, she jumped down from her donkey, fell on her face and bowed to the ground, and begged him not to hold Nabal’s words in mind, since he knew the man was like his name. (Nabal in the Hebrew language means folly.) So she made her excuse, that she had not seen the messengers he had sent. “Forgive me, then,” she said, “and thank God, who has kept you from shedding human blood. For as long as you keep yourself innocent, he will avenge you on wicked men; and may the miseries that await Nabal fall on the heads of your enemies as well. Be gracious to me, and think me worthy enough to accept these gifts from me; and for my sake let go the wrath and anger you have against my husband and his house. Mildness and kindness become you, especially since you are to be our king.” David accepted her gifts and said, “No, woman — it was nothing other than God’s mercy that brought you to us today. Otherwise you would never have seen another day, for I have sworn to destroy Nabal’s house this very night and to leave not one of you alive who belonged to a man so wicked and ungrateful to me and my companions. But now you have forestalled me and softened my anger in good time, being yourself under the care of God’s providence. As for Nabal, though he escapes punishment now for your sake, he will not always escape justice; his evil conduct will be his ruin on some other occasion.” [k]

When David had said this, he sent the woman away. When she came home she found her husband feasting with a great company and heavy with wine, and she said nothing to him then about what had happened. But the next day, when he was sober, she told him everything, and by her words, and the grief they caused, she left him paralyzed, his whole body deadened. Nabal lived ten days more, and no longer, and then died. When David heard of his death, he said that God had justly avenged him on this man: Nabal had died by his own wickedness and had been punished on David’s account, while David had kept his own hands clean. At that time he understood that the wicked are pursued by God; that God overlooks no one, but gives the good what fits them and brings swift punishment on the wicked. So he sent to Nabal’s wife and invited her to come and live with him and be his wife. She replied to those who came that she was not worthy to touch his feet; nevertheless she came, with all her servants, and became his wife, having received that honor for her wise and righteous way of life — and partly also for her beauty. David already had a wife, whom he had married from the city of Abesar. As for Michal, King Saul’s daughter, who had been David’s wife, her father had given her in marriage to Palti son of Laish, who was from the city of Gallim. [n]

After this some of the Ziphites came and told Saul that David had come back into their country, and that if he would give them his help they could catch him. So he came to them with three thousand armed men, and as night came on he pitched camp at a place called Hachilah. When David heard that Saul was coming against him, he sent out spies and told them to let him know what part of the country Saul had already reached. When they told him he was at Hachilah, he slipped away without his companions knowing and came to Saul’s camp, taking with him Abishai, the son of his sister Zeruiah, and Ahimelech the Hittite. Saul was asleep, and the armed men, with Abner their commander, lay around him in a circle. David went into the king’s tent. But he did not kill Saul, though he knew where he lay by the spear stuck in the ground beside him; nor would he allow Abishai to do it, though Abishai wanted to kill him and was set on it. For he said it was a horrible crime to kill one whom God had appointed king, wicked man though he was, since the one who had given him the rule would punish him in time. So he held back Abishai’s eagerness. But so that it might be seen that he had had the power to kill Saul when he refrained, he took his spear and the jar of water that stood by Saul as he slept, without being noticed by anyone in the camp, for they were all asleep. And he went away safely, having done among the king’s attendants all that the opportunity allowed and his boldness urged him to do. [r]

When he had crossed a brook and climbed to the top of a hill, from which he could be heard well enough, he shouted to Saul’s soldiers and to Abner their commander and woke them from their sleep, calling out both to him and to the people. The commander heard him and asked who it was that was calling him. David replied, “It is I, the son of Jesse, whom you have made a wanderer. But what is the matter? Are you, a man of such high rank and the first in the king’s court, taking so little care of your master’s person? Is sleep of more importance to you than his safety and your care of him? This negligence of yours deserves death and punishment — you who never noticed when, a little while ago, some of us got into your camp. If you look for the king’s spear and his jar of water, you will learn what a great disaster was about to overtake you in your very camp without your knowing it.”

When Saul recognized David’s voice, and understood that David had had him in his power while he slept and his guards took no care of him, and yet had not killed him but spared him when he might justly have cut him off, he said that he owed him thanks for his life. He urged him to take courage and not be afraid of suffering any harm from him any more, and to return to his own home. For he was now persuaded, he said, that he did not love himself as much as David loved him: he had driven away the man who could guard him, and who had given many proofs of his goodwill; he had forced him to live so long in banishment, in great fear for his life, without his friends and his kindred, while he himself had often been saved by David, and had more than once received his life back when it was plainly in danger of being lost. So David told them to send for the spear and the jar of water and take them back, adding that God would be the judge of both their dispositions and of the actions that came from them, “for he knows that this day, when it was in my power to have killed you, I held back.”

So Saul, having escaped David’s hands twice, went off to his royal palace and his own city. But David was afraid that if he stayed there he would be caught by Saul, so he thought it better to go up into the land of the Philistines and live there. He came with the six hundred men who were with him to Achish, the king of Gath, which was one of their five cities. The king received him and his men and gave them a place to live. He also had his two wives with him, Ahinoam and Abigail, and he lived in Gath. When Saul heard this, he took no further trouble about sending after him or going after him, because twice, in a manner, he had been caught by David while he himself was trying to catch him. But David had no wish to remain in the city of Gath. He asked the king, since he had received him so kindly, to grant him one more favor and give him some place in that country to live, for he was ashamed to be a burden and a nuisance to him by living in the city. So Achish gave him a village called Ziklag, a place David and his sons were fond of when he was king, and which they counted their own particular inheritance. But we will give the reader more information about those matters elsewhere. The time David lived in Ziklag, in the land of the Philistines, was four months and twenty days. Now he secretly attacked the Geshurites and the Amalekites, who were neighbors of the Philistines, laid waste their country, took much plunder of their cattle and camels, and returned home. But David kept his hands off the men, for fear they would report him to King Achish; yet he sent part of the plunder to him as a free gift. When the king asked whom they had attacked to bring back this plunder, he said, those who lived to the south of the Jews, in the plain. In this way he persuaded Achish to approve of what he had done; for Achish hoped that David had come to hate his own nation, and that now he would have him as his servant all his life, staying in his country. [u]