1 Samuel 27:3

Read in context

1 Samuel 27:1–5 · Berean Standard Bible

1 David, however, said to himself, “One of these days now I will be swept away by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop searching for me all over Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”

2 So David set out with his six hundred men and went to Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath.

3 David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal.

4 And when Saul learned that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.

5 Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let me be assigned a place in one of the outlying towns, so I can live there. For why should your servant live in the royal city with you?”

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Study 1 Samuel 27:3

Read the commentary on 1 Samuel 27

Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

1 Samuel 25:3

His name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was harsh and evil in his dealings.

1 Samuel 25:18

Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five butchered sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. She loaded them on donkeys

1 Samuel 25:19

and said to her young men, “Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

1 Samuel 25:20

As Abigail came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them.

1 Samuel 25:21

Now David had just finished saying, “In vain I have protected all that belonged to this man in the wilderness. Nothing that belongs to him has gone missing, yet he has paid me back evil for good.

1 Samuel 25:22

May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one of Nabal’s men survive until morning.”

1 Samuel 25:23

When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey, fell facedown, and bowed before him.

1 Samuel 25:24

She fell at his feet and said, “My lord, may the blame be on me alone, but please let your servant speak to you; hear the words of your servant.

1 Samuel 25:25

My lord should pay no attention to this scoundrel Nabal, for he lives up to his name: His name means Fool, and folly accompanies him. I, your servant, did not see my lord’s young men whom you sent.

1 Samuel 25:26

Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, the LORD has held you back from coming to bloodshed and avenging yourself with your own hand. May your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be like Nabal.

1 Samuel 25:27

Now let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow you.

1 Samuel 25:28

Please forgive your servant’s offense, for the LORD will surely make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because he fights the LORD’s battles. May no evil be found in you as long as you live.

1 Samuel 25:29

And should someone pursue you and seek your life, then the life of my lord will be bound securely by the LORD your God in the bundle of the living. But He shall fling away the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling.

1 Samuel 25:30

When the LORD has done for my lord all the good He promised, and when He has appointed you ruler over Israel,

1 Samuel 25:31

then my lord will have no remorse or guilt of conscience over needless bloodshed and revenge. And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, may you remember your maidservant.”

1 Samuel 25:32

Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me this day!

1 Samuel 25:33

Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.

1 Samuel 25:34

Otherwise, as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, then surely no male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by morning light.”

1 Samuel 25:35

Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, “Go home in peace. See, I have heeded your voice and granted your request.”

1 Samuel 25:42

So Abigail hurried and got on a donkey, and attended by five of her maidens, she followed David’s messengers and became his wife.

1 Samuel 25:43

David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel. So she and Abigail were both his wives.

1 Samuel 30:5

David’s two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel, had been taken captive.