the Fourth Week of Advent
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Hebrew Names Version
1 Samuel 23
1 They told David, saying, Behold, the Pelishtim are fighting against Ke`ilah, and are robbing the threshing floors. 2 Therefore David inquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and strike these Pelishtim? the LORD said to David, Go, and strike the Pelishtim, and save Ke`ilah. 3 David's men said to him, Behold, we are afraid here in Yehudah: how much more then if we go to Ke`ilah against the armies of the Pelishtim? 4 Then David inquired of the LORD yet again. The LORD answered him, and said, Arise, go down to Ke`ilah; for I will deliver the Pelishtim into your hand. 5 David and his men went to Ke`ilah, and fought with the Pelishtim, and brought away their cattle, and killed them with a great slaughter. So David save the inhabitants of Ke`ilah. 6 It happened, when Avyatar the son of Achimelekh fled to David to Ke`ilah, that he came down with an efod in his hand.
7 It was told Sha'ul that David was come to Ke`ilah. Sha'ul said, God has delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that has gates and bars. 8 Sha'ul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Ke`ilah, to besiege David and his men. 9 David knew that Sha'ul was devising mischief against him; and he said to Avyatar the Kohen, Bring here the efod. 10 Then said David, O LORD, the God of Yisra'el, your servant has surely heard that Sha'ul seeks to come to Ke`ilah, to destroy the city for my sake. 11 Will the men of Ke`ilah deliver me up into his hand? will Sha'ul come down, as your servant has heard? LORD, the God of Yisra'el, I beg you, tell your servant. The LORD said, He will come down. 12 Then said David, Will the men of Ke`ilah deliver up to me and my men into the hand of Sha'ul? the LORD said, They will deliver you up. 13 Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Ke`ilah, and went wherever they could go. It was told Sha'ul that David was escaped from Ke`ilah; and he gave up going there.
14 David abode in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill-country in the wilderness of Zif. Sha'ul sought him every day, but God didn't deliver him into his hand. 15 David saw that Sha'ul had come out to seek his life: and David was in the wilderness of Zif in the wood. 16 Yonatan, Sha'ul's son, arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God. 17 He said to him, Don't be afraid; for the hand of Sha'ul my father shall not find you; and you shall be king over Yisra'el, and I shall be next to you; and that also Sha'ul my father knows. 18 They two made a covenant before the LORD: and David abode in the wood, and Yonatan went to his house.
19 Then came up the Zifim to Sha'ul to Gevah, saying, Doesn't David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hakhilah, which is on the south of the desert? 20 Now therefore, O king, come down, according to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him up into the king's hand. 21 Sha'ul said, Blessed be you of the LORD; for you have had compassion on me. 22 Plesease go make yet more sure, and know and see his place where his haunt is, [and] who has seen him there; for it is told me that he deals very subtly. 23 See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking-places where he hides himself, and come you again to me of a certainty, and I will go with you: and it shall happen, if he be in the land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of Yehudah. 24 They arose, and went to Zif before Sha'ul: but David and his men were in the wilderness of Ma`on, in the `Aravah on the south of the desert. 25 Sha'ul and his men went to seek him. They told David: why he came down to the rock, and abode in the wilderness of Ma`on. When Sha'ul heard [that], he pursued after David in the wilderness of Ma`on. 26 Sha'ul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for fear of Sha'ul; for Sha'ul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them. 27 But there came a messenger to Sha'ul, saying, Haste you, and come; for the Pelishtim have made a raid on the land. 28 So Sha'ul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Pelishtim: therefore they called that place Sela-Hammachlekot. 29 David went up from there, and lived in the strongholds of `En-Gedi.
