Dual Panel1THE Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah with the news that David was in hiding on the hill of Hachilah overlooking Jeshimon.
2Saul went down at once to the wilderness of Ziph, taking with him three thousand picked men, to search for David there.
3He encamped beside the road on the hill of Hachilah overlooking Jeshimon, while David was still in the wilderness. As soon as David learnt that Saul had come to the wilderness in pursuit of him,
4he sent out scouts and found that Saul had reached such and such a place.
5He went at once to the place where Saul had pitched his camp, and observed where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the commander-in-chief, were lying. Saul lay within the lines with his troops encamped in a circle round him.
6David turned to Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and said, “Who will venture with me into the camp to Saul?” Abishai answered, “I will.”
7David and Abishai entered the camp at night, and there was Saul lying asleep within the lines with his spear thrust into the ground beside his head. Abner and the army were asleep all around him.
8Abishai said to David, “God has put your enemy into your power today. Let me strike him and pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear. I shall not have to strike twice.”
9David said to him, “Do him no harm. Who has ever lifted his hand against the LORD's anointed and gone unpunished?
10As the LORD lives,” David went on, “the LORD will strike him down; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go down to battle and meet his end.
11God forbid that I should lift my hand against the LORD's anointed! But now let us take the spear which is by his head, and the water-jar, and go.”
12So David took the spear and the water-jar from beside Saul's head, and they left. The whole camp was asleep; no one saw him, no one knew anything, no one woke. A deep sleep sent by the LORD had fallen on them.
13Then David crossed over to the other side and stood on the top of a hill at some distance; there was a wide stretch between them.
14David shouted across to the army and hailed Abner son of Ner, “Answer me, Abner!” He answered, “Who are you to shout to the king?”
15David said to Abner, “Do you call yourself a man? Is there anyone like you in Israel? Why, then, did you not keep watch over your lord the king, when someone came to harm your lord the king?
16This was not well done. As the LORD lives, you deserve to die, all of you, because you have not kept watch over your master the LORD's anointed. Look! Where are the king's spear and the water-jar that were by his head?”
17Saul recognized David's voice and said, “Is that you, David my son?” “Yes, your majesty, it is,” said David.
18“Why must my lord pursue me? What have I done? What mischief am I plotting?
19Listen, my lord king, to what I have to say. If it is the LORD who has set you against me, may an offering be acceptable to him; but if it is mortals, a curse on them in the LORD's name! For they have ousted me today from my share in the LORD's possession and have banished me to serve other gods!
20Do not let my blood be shed on foreign soil, far from the presence of the LORD, just because the king of Israel came out to look for a flea, as one might hunt a partridge over the hills.”
21Saul said, “I have done wrong; come back, David my son. You have held my life precious this day, and I will never harm you again. I have been a fool, I have been sadly in the wrong.”
22David answered, “Here is the king's spear; let one of your men come across and fetch it.
23The LORD who rewards uprightness and loyalty will reward the man into whose power he put you today, for I refused to lift my hand against the LORD's anointed.
24As I held your life precious today, so may the LORD hold mine precious and deliver me from every distress.”
25Saul said to David, “A blessing on you, David my son! You will do great things and be triumphant.” With that David went on his way and Saul returned home.