7. So David and Abishai came to the army by night, and there was Saul lying asleep in the encampment with his spear thrust into the ground near his head, and Abner and the army were lying all around him.
8. Then Abishai said to David, “God has handed over your enemy into your hand today! So then, please let me pin him to the ground with the spear one time, and I will not strike him twice.”
9. But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him! For who has stretched out his hand against Yahweh’s anointed one and remained blameless?”
10. And David said, “As Yahweh lives, certainly Yahweh will strike him, or his day will come and he will die, or he will go down in the battle and perish.
11. Yahweh forbid me from stretching out my hand against Yahweh’s anointed one! So then, please take the spear that is near his head and the jar of water, and let us go.”
12. So David took the spear and the jar of water from near Saul’s head, and they went away. No one saw, no one knew, and no one awakened, for all of them were sleeping because a deep sleep of Yahweh had fallen upon them.
13. Then David went to the other side and stood on the top of the hill at a distance; the distance was great between them.
14. David called out to the army and to Abner the son of Ner, “Will you not answer, Abner?” And Abner answered and said, “Who are you that you call to the king?”
15. So David said to Abner, “Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why did you not keep watch over your lord the king? For one of the people came to destroy your lord the king.
16. This thing that you have done is not good. As Yahweh lives, surely you people deserve to die since you have not kept watch over your lord, over Yahweh’s anointed one! So then, see where the king’s spear is and the jar of water that was near his head!”
17. Then Saul recognized David’s voice and said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And David said, “It is my voice, my lord the king.”
18. Then he said, “Why is my lord pursuing after his servant? For what have I done? And what evil is in my hand?
19. And so then, please let my lord the king listen to the words of his servant: If Yahweh has incited you against me, may he delight in an offering; but if it is mortals, may they be accursed before Yahweh, for they have driven me away today from sharing in the inheritance of Yahweh, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods!’