1. Even as Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was informed that David was in the En-gedi wilderness.
2. So Saul took three thousand men selected from all Israel and went to look for David and his soldiers near the rocks of the wild goats.
3. He came to the sheep pens beside the road where there was a cave. Saul went into the cave to use the restroom. Meanwhile, David and his soldiers were sitting in the very back of the cave.
4. David’s soldiers said to him, "This is the day the Lord spoke of when he promised you, ‘I will hand your enemy over to you, and you can do to him whatever you think best.’" So David snuck up and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
5. But immediately David felt horrible that he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
6. "The Lord forbid," he told his men, "that I should do something like that to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lift my hand against him, because he’s the Lord’s anointed!"
7. So David held his soldiers in check by what he said, and he wouldn’t allow them to attack Saul. Saul then left the cave and went on his way.
8. Then David also went out of the cave and yelled after Saul, "My master the king!" Saul looked back, and David bowed low out of respect, nose to the ground.
9. David said to Saul, "Why do you listen when people say, ‘David wants to ruin you’?
10. Look! Today your own eyes have seen that the Lord handed you over to me in the cave. But I refused to kill you. I spared you, saying, ‘I won’t lift a hand against my master because he is the Lord’s anointed.’
11. Look here, my protector! See the corner of your robe in my hand? I cut off the corner of your robe but didn’t kill you. So know now that I am not guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I haven’t wronged you, but you are hunting me down, trying to kill me.
12. May the Lord judge between me and you! May the Lord take vengeance on you for me, but I won’t lift a hand against you.