David said to the priest, &#8220;Certainly women have been kept away from us, just as on previous occasions when I have set out. The soldiers&#8217;<n id="1" /> equipment is holy, even on an ordinary journey. How much more so will they be holy today, along with their equipment!&#8221;p>

Neither man nor woman would David leave alive so as to bring them back to Gath. He was thinking, &#8220;This way they can&#8217;t tell on us, saying, &#8216;This is what David did.&#8217;&#8221; Such was his practice the entire time<n id="1" /> that he lived in the country of the Philistines.

<p class="bodytext">So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothing and left, accompanied by two of his men. They came to the woman at night and said, &#8220;Use your ritual pit to conjure up for me the one I tell you.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="bodytext">But the woman said to him, &#8220;Look, you are aware of what Saul has done; he has removed<n id="1" /> the mediums and magicians<n id="2" /> from the land! Why are you trapping me<n id="3" /> so you can put me to death?&#8221;

When the woman came to Saul and saw how terrified he was, she said to him, &#8220;Your servant has done what you asked.<n id="1" /> I took my life into my own hands and did what you told me.<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">When David heard that Nabal had died, he said, &#8220;Praised be the <sc>Lordsc> who has vindicated me and avenged the insult that I suffered from Nabal!<n id="1" /> The <sc>Lordsc> has kept his servant from doing evil, and he has repaid Nabal for his evil deeds.&#8221;<n id="2" /> Then David sent word to Abigail and asked her to become his wife.p>

But all the evil and worthless men among those who had gone with David said, &#8220;Since they didn&#8217;t go with us,<n id="1" /> we won&#8217;t give them any of the loot we retrieved! They may take only their wives and children. Let them lead them away and be gone!&#8221;p>