The First Book of Samuel, starting at chapter 19
{19:1} Saul spoke to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that
they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in
David. {19:2} Jonathan told David, saying, "Saul my father seeks to
kill you. Now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning,
and live in a secret place, and hide yourself. {19:3} I will go out
and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will talk
with my father about you; and if I see anything, I will tell you."
{19:4} Jonathan spoke good of David to Saul his father, and said to
him, "Don't let the king sin against his servant, against David;
because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been
very good toward you; {19:5} for he put his life in his hand, and
struck the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great victory for all
Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against
innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?"
{19:6} Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan: and Saul swore, "As
the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death."
{19:7} Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those
things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as
before. {19:8} There was war again. David went out, and fought with
the Philistines, and killed them with a great slaughter; and they fled
before him.
{19:9} An evil spirit from the LORD was on Saul, as he sat in his
house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing with his hand.
{19:10} Saul sought to pin David even to the wall with the spear; but
he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he stuck the spear into
the wall. David fled, and escaped that night. {19:11} Saul sent
messengers to David's house, to watch him, and to kill him in the
morning. Michal, David's wife, told him, saying, "If you don't save
your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed." {19:12} So Michal let
David down through the window. He went, fled, and escaped. {19:13}
Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of
goats' [hair] at its head, and covered it with the clothes. {19:14}
When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, "He is sick."
{19:15} Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, "Bring him up
to me in the bed, that I may kill him." {19:16} When the messengers
came in, behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of
goats' hair at its head.
{19:17} Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me thus, and let
my enemy go, so that he is escaped?"
Michal answered Saul, "He said to me, 'Let me go! Why should I kill
you?'"
{19:18} Now David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah,
and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and
lived in Naioth. {19:19} It was told Saul, saying, "Behold, David is
at Naioth in Ramah."
{19:20} Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the
company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over
them, the Spirit of God came on the messengers of Saul, and they also
prophesied. {19:21} When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers,
and they also prophesied. Saul sent messengers again the third time,
and they also prophesied. {19:22} Then went he also to Ramah, and came
to the great well that is in Secu: and he asked, "Where are Samuel and
David?"
One said, "Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah."
{19:23} He went there to Naioth in Ramah. Then the Spirit of God
came on him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to
Naioth in Ramah. {19:24} He also stripped off his clothes, and he also
prophesied before Samuel, and lay down naked all that day and all that
night. Therefore they say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"
{20:1} David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before
Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my iniquity? What is my sin
before your father, that he seeks my life?"
{20:2} He said to him, "Far from it; you shall not die. Behold, my
father does nothing either great or small, but that he discloses it to
me; and why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so."
{20:3} David swore moreover, and said, "Your father knows well that
I have found favor in your eyes; and he says, 'Don't let Jonathan know
this, lest he be grieved:' but truly as the LORD lives, and as your
soul lives, there is but a step between me and death."
{20:4} Then Jonathan said to David, "Whatever your soul desires, I
will even do it for you."
{20:5} David said to Jonathan, "Behold, tomorrow is the new moon,
and I should not fail to dine with the king; but let me go, that I may
hide myself in the field to the third day at evening. {20:6} If your
father miss me at all, then say, 'David earnestly asked leave of me
that he might run to Bethlehem his city; for it is the yearly
sacrifice there for all the family.' {20:7} If he says, 'It is well;'
your servant shall have peace: but if he be angry, then know that evil
is determined by him. {20:8} Therefore deal kindly with your servant;
for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD with
you: but if there be in me iniquity, kill me yourself; for why should
you bring me to your father?"
{20:9} Jonathan said, "Far be it from you; for if I should at all
know that evil were determined by my father to come on you, then
wouldn't I tell you that?"
{20:10} Then David said to Jonathan, "Who shall tell me if perchance
your father answers you roughly?"
{20:11} Jonathan said to David, "Come, and let us go out into the
field." They both went out into the field. {20:12} Jonathan said to
David, "The LORD, the God of Israel, [be witness]: when I have sounded
my father about this time tomorrow, [or] the third day, behold, if
there be good toward David, shall I not then send to you, and disclose
it to you? {20:13} The LORD do so to Jonathan, and more also, should
it please my father to do you evil, if I don't disclose it to you, and
send you away, that you may go in peace: and the LORD be with you, as
he has been with my father. {20:14} You shall not only while yet I
live show me the loving kindness of the LORD, that I not die; {20:15}
but also you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever;
no, not when the LORD has cut off the enemies of David everyone from
the surface of the earth." {20:16} So Jonathan made a covenant with
the house of David, saying, "The LORD will require it at the hand of
David's enemies." {20:17} Jonathan caused David to swear again, for
the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own
soul. {20:18} Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon:
and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. {20:19} When
you have stayed three days, you shall go down quickly, and come to the
place where you did hide yourself when the business was in hand, and
shall remain by the stone Ezel. {20:20} I will shoot three arrows on
its side, as though I shot at a mark. {20:21} Behold, I will send the
boy, saying, 'Go, find the arrows!' If I tell the boy, 'Behold, the
arrows are on this side of you. Take them;' then come; for there is
peace to you and no hurt, as the LORD lives. {20:22} But if I say this
to the boy, 'Behold, the arrows are beyond you;' then go your way; for
the LORD has sent you away. {20:23} Concerning the matter which you
and I have spoken of, behold, the LORD is between you and me forever."
{20:24} So David hid himself in the field: and when the new moon was
come, the king sat him down to eat food. {20:25} The king sat on his
seat, as at other times, even on the seat by the wall; and Jonathan
stood up, and Abner sat by Saul's side: but David's place was empty.
{20:26} Nevertheless Saul didn't say anything that day: for he
thought, "Something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is
not clean."
{20:27} It happened on the next day after the new moon, the second
day, that David's place was empty. Saul said to Jonathan his son, "Why
doesn't the son of Jesse come to eat, neither yesterday, nor today?"
{20:28} Jonathan answered Saul, "David earnestly asked leave of me
to go to Bethlehem. {20:29} He said, 'Please let me go, for our family
has a sacrifice in the city. My brother has commanded me to be there.
Now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me go away and see
my brothers.' Therefore he has not come to the king's table."
{20:30} Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said
to him, "You son of a perverse rebellious woman, don't I know that you
have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of
your mother's nakedness? {20:31} For as long as the son of Jesse lives
on the earth, you shall not be established, nor your kingdom.
Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die!"
{20:32} Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, "Why
should he be put to death? What has he done?"
{20:33} Saul cast his spear at him to strike him. By this Jonathan
knew that his father was determined to put David to death. {20:34} So
Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the
second day of the month; for he was grieved for David, because his
father had done him shame. {20:35} It happened in the morning, that
Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and
a little boy with him. {20:36} He said to his boy, "Run, find now the
arrows which I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
{20:37} When the boy was come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan
had shot, Jonathan cried after the boy, and said, "Isn't the arrow
beyond you?" {20:38} Jonathan cried after the boy, "Go fast! Hurry!
Don't delay!" Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows, and came to his
master. {20:39} But the boy didn't know anything. Only Jonathan and
David knew the matter. {20:40} Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy,
and said to him, "Go, carry them to the city."
{20:41} As soon as the boy was gone, David arose out of [a place]
toward the South, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed
himself three times. They kissed one another, and wept one with
another, and David wept the most. {20:42} Jonathan said to David, "Go
in peace, because we have both sworn in the name of the LORD, saying,
'The LORD shall be between me and you, and between my seed and your
seed, forever.'" He arose and departed; and Jonathan went into the
city.
{21:1} Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech
came to meet David trembling, and said to him, "Why are you alone, and
no man with you?" {21:2} David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king
has commanded me a business, and has said to me, 'Let no man know
anything of the business about which I send you, and what I have
commanded you; and I have appointed the young men to such and such a
place.' {21:3} Now therefore what is under your hand? Give me five
loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present."
{21:4} The priest answered David, and said, "There is no common
bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men
have kept themselves from women."
{21:5} David answered the priest, and said to him, "Truly, women
have been kept from us about these three days. When I came out, the
vessels of the young men were holy, though it was but a common
journey. How much more then today shall their vessels be holy?" {21:6}
So the priest gave him holy [bread]; for there was no bread there but
the show bread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread
in the day when it was taken away.
{21:7} Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day,
detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best
of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. {21:8} David said to Ahimelech,
"Isn't there here under your hand spear or sword? For I have neither
brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business
required haste."
{21:9} The priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom
you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a
cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it; for there is
no other except that here."
David said, "There is none like that. Give it to me."
{21:10} David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to
Achish the king of Gath. {21:11} The servants of Achish said to him,
"Isn't this David the king of the land? Didn't they sing one to
another about him in dances, saying, 'Saul has slain his thousands,
David his ten thousands?'" {21:12} David laid up these words in his
heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath. {21:13} He
changed his behavior before them, and pretended to be mad in their
hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle
fall down on his beard. {21:14} Then Achish said to his servants,
"Look, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me?
{21:15} Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play
the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?"
________________________________________________________________________
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