hand; now go and slay him.  And David said:  God forbid that I should lay any hand on him, he is anointed.  I shall never hurt ne grieve him, let God do his pleasure.  And he went to Saul and cut off a gobet [a small piece] of his mantle and kept it.  And when Saul was gone out, soon after issued David out and cried to Saul saying:  Lo!  Saul, God hath brought thee into my hands.  I might have slain thee if I had would, but God forbade that I should lay hand on thee, my lord anointed of God.  And what have I offended that thou seekest to slay me?  Who art thou? said Saul.  Art thou not David my son?  Yes, said David, I am thy servant, and kneeled down and worshipped him.  Then said Saul:  I have sinned, and wept and also said:  Thou art rightfuller than I am, thou hast done to me good, and I have done to thee evil.  And thou hast well showed to me this day that God had brought me into thine hand, and thou hast not slain me.  God reward thee for this, that thou hast done to me; now know I well that thou shalt reign in Israel.  I pray thee to be friendly to my seed, and destroy not my house, and swear and promise me that thou take not away my name from the house of my father; and David sware and promised to Saul.  And then Saul departed and went home, and David and his people went in to surer places.

Anon after this Samuel died, and was buried in his house in Rama.  And all Israel bewailed him greatly.  Then there was a rich man in the mount of Carmel that hight Nabal, and on a time he sheared and clipped his sheep, to whom David sent certain men, and bade them say that David greeted him well, and whereas aforetimes his shepherds kept his sheep in desert, he never was grevious to them, ne they lost not much as a sheep as long as they were with us, and that he might ask his servants for they could tell, and that he would now in their need send them what it pleased him.  Nabal answered to the children of David:  Who is that David?  Trow ye that I shall send the meat that I have made ready for them that shear my sheep and send it to men that I know not?  The men returned and told to David all that he had said.  Then said David to his men:  Let every man take his sword and gird him withal, and David took his sword and girt him.  And David went and four hundred men followed him, and he left two hundred behind him.  One of the servants of Nabal told to Abigail, Nabal’s wife, how that David had sent messengers from the desert unto his lord, and how wroth and wayward he was, and also he said that those men were good enough to them when they were in desert, ne never perished beast of yours as long as they were there.  They were a wall and a shield for us both day and night all the time that we kept our flocks there, wherefore consider what is to be done.  They purpose to do harm to him and to his house, for he is the son of Belial in such wise that no man may speak with him.  Then Abigail hied her and took two hundred loaves of bread, one hundred bottles of wine, five wethers sodden, and five measures of pottage, and one hundred bonds of grapes dried, and two hundred masses of caricares, and laid all this upon asses, and said to her servants:  Go ye tofore, and I shall follow after.  She told hereof nothing to her husband Nabal.