7. And Dawiḏ and Aḇishai came to the people by night and saw Sha’ul lying asleep within the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head, and Aḇnĕr and the people lay all around him.
8. And Aḇishai said to Dawiḏ, “Elohim has surrendered your enemy into your hand this day. And now, please, let me smite him at once with the spear, right into the earth, and not a second time!”
9. But Dawiḏ said to Aḇishai, “Do not destroy him, for who shall stretch out his hand against the anointed of יהוה, and be guiltless?”
10. Dawiḏ also said, “As יהוה lives, except יהוה does smite him, or his day come that he shall die, or he shall go out to battle and perish,
11. far be it from me, by יהוה, that I stretch out my hand against the anointed of יהוה. And now, please take the spear and the jug of water that are by his head, and let us go.”
12. So Dawiḏ took the spear and the jug of water by Sha’ul’s head, and they went away. And no man saw it or knew it or awoke, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from יהוה had fallen on them.
13. And Dawiḏ passed over to the other side, and stood on the top of a hill far away, a great distance being between them.
14. And Dawiḏ called out to the people and to Aḇnĕr son of Nĕr, saying, “Do you not answer, Aḇnĕr?” And Aḇnĕr answered and said, “Who are you, calling out to the sovereign?”
15. And Dawiḏ said to Aḇnĕr, “Are you not a man? And who is like you in Yisra’ĕl? Why then have you not guarded your master the sovereign? For one of the people came in to destroy your master the sovereign.
16. “What you have done is not good. As יהוה lives, you are worthy to die, because you have not guarded your master, the anointed of יהוה. And now see where the sovereign’s spear is, and the jug of water that was by his head.”
17. And Sha’ul recognised Dawiḏ’s voice, and said, “Is that your voice, my son Dawiḏ?” And Dawiḏ said, “It is my voice, my master, O sovereign.”
18. And he said, “Why is this that my master is pursuing his servant? For what have I done, or what evil is in my hand?
19. “And now, please, let my master the sovereign hear the words of his servant: If יהוה has moved you against me, let Him accept an offering. But if it is the children of men, then they are cursed before יהוה, for they have driven me out today that I should not join myself to the inheritance of יהוה, saying, ‘Go, serve other mighty ones.’