1. And the Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah, saying: "Behold, David is hidden on the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite the wilderness."
2. And Saul rose up, and he descended into the desert of Ziph, and with him three thousand elect men of Israel, so that he might seek David in the desert of Ziph.
3. And Saul encamped at Gibeah on Hachilah, which was opposite the wilderness on the way. But David was living in the desert. Then, seeing that Saul had arrived after him in the wilderness,
4. he sent explorers, and he learned that he certainly had arrived in that place.
5. And David rose up secretly, and he went to the place where Saul was. And when he had seen the place where Saul was sleeping, and Abner, the son of Ner, the leader of his military, and Saul sleeping in a tent, and the remainder of the common people all around him,
6. David spoke to Ahimelech, the Hittite, and to Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, the brother of Joab, saying, "Who will descend with me to Saul in the camp?" And Abishai said, "I will descend with you."
7. Therefore, David and Abishai went to the people by night, and they found Saul lying down and sleeping in the tent, with his spear fixed in the ground at his head. And Abner and the people were sleeping all around him.
8. And Abishai said to David: "God has enclosed your enemy this day in your hands. Now therefore, I will pierce him with my lance, through to the ground, once, and there will not need to be a second."
9. And David said to Abishai: "You shall not kill him. For who may extend his hand against the Christ of the Lord, and yet be innocent?"
10. And David said: "As the Lord lives, unless the Lord himself will strike him, or unless his day to die will have arrived, or unless, descending into battle, he will perish,