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The First Book of Samuel, starting at chapter 22
{22:1} David therefore departed there, and escaped to the cave of
Adullam. When his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they
went down there to him. {22:2} Everyone who was in distress, and
everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered
themselves to him; and he became captain over them: and there were
with him about four hundred men. {22:3} David went there to Mizpeh of
Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my
mother come out with you, until I know what God will do for me."
{22:4} He brought them before the king of Moab; and they lived with
him all the while that David was in the stronghold. {22:5} The prophet
Gad said to David, "Don't stay in the stronghold. Depart, and go into
the land of Judah."
Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth. {22:6} Saul
heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him. Now
Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his
spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him.
{22:7} Saul said to his servants who stood about him, "Hear now, you
Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and
vineyards, will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of
hundreds, {22:8} that all of you have conspired against me, and there
is none who discloses to me when my son makes a treaty with the son of
Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me, or discloses to
me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait,
as at this day?"
{22:9} Then Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul,
answered and said, "I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech
the son of Ahitub. {22:10} He inquired of the LORD for him, gave him
food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
{22:11} Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of
Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were in Nob: and
they came all of them to the king. {22:12} Saul said, "Hear now, you
son of Ahitub."
He answered, "Here I am, my lord."
{22:13} Saul said to him, "Why have you conspired against me, you
and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword,
and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to
lie in wait, as at this day?"
{22:14} Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, "Who among all
your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law,
and is taken into your council, and is honorable in your house?
{22:15} Have I today begun to inquire of God for him? Be it far from
me! Don't let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the
house of my father; for your servant knows nothing of all this, less
or more."
{22:16} The king said, "You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and
all your father's house." {22:17} The king said to the guard who stood
about him, "Turn, and kill the priests of the LORD; because their hand
also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and didn't
disclose it to me." But the servants of the king wouldn't put forth
their hand to fall on the priests of the LORD. {22:18} The king said
to Doeg, "Turn and attack the priests!"
Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed
on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod. {22:19} He
struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword, both
men and women, children and nursing babies, and cattle and donkeys and
sheep, with the edge of the sword. {22:20} One of the sons of
Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after
David. {22:21} Abiathar told David that Saul had slain the LORD's
priests. {22:22} David said to Abiathar, "I knew on that day, when
Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I am
responsible for the death of all the persons of your father's house.
{22:23} Stay with me, don't be afraid; for he who seeks my life seeks
your life. For with me you shall be in safeguard."
{23:1} David was told, "Behold, the Philistines are fighting against
Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors."
{23:2} Therefore David inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I go and
strike these Philistines?"
The LORD said to David, "Go strike the Philistines, and save Keilah."
{23:3} David's men said to him, "Behold, we are afraid here in
Judah: how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the
Philistines?"
{23:4} Then David inquired of the LORD yet again. The LORD answered
him, and said, "Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the
Philistines into your hand."
{23:5} David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the
Philistines, and brought away their livestock, and killed them with a
great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. {23:6} It
happened, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah,
that he came down with an ephod in his hand.
{23:7} It was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. Saul said,
"God has delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by entering
into a town that has gates and bars." {23:8} Saul summoned all the
people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.
{23:9} David knew that Saul was devising mischief against him; and he
said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod here." {23:10} Then
David said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard
that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake.
{23:11} Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul
come down, as your servant has heard? LORD, the God of Israel, I beg
you, tell your servant."
The LORD said, "He will come down."
{23:12} Then David said, "Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my
men into the hand of Saul?"
The LORD said, "They will deliver you up."
{23:13} Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose
and departed out of Keilah, and went wherever they could go. It was
told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he gave up going
there. {23:14} David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and
remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought
him every day, but God didn't deliver him into his hand. {23:15} David
saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the
wilderness of Ziph in the wood.
{23:16} Jonathan, Saul's son, arose, and went to David into the
woods, and strengthened his hand in God. {23:17} He said to him,
"Don't be afraid; for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you;
and you shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you; and
that also Saul my father knows." {23:18} They both made a covenant
before the LORD: and David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to
his house. {23:19} Then the Ziphites came up to Saul to Gibeah,
saying, "Doesn't David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the
wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desert?
{23:20} Now therefore, O king, come down, according to all the desire
of your soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him up
into the king's hand."
{23:21} Saul said, "You are blessed by the LORD; for you have had
compassion on me. {23:22} Please go make yet more sure, and know and
see his place where his haunt is, and who has seen him there; for it
is told me that he deals very subtly. {23:23} See therefore, and take
knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides himself, and come
again to me with certainty, and I will go with you: and it shall
happen, if he is in the land, that I will search him out among all the
thousands of Judah."
{23:24} They arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his
men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of the
desert. {23:25} Saul and his men went to seek him. When David was
told, he went down to the rock, and stayed in the wilderness of Maon.
When Saul heard that, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon.
{23:26} Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men
on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for
fear of Saul; for Saul and his men surrounded David and his men to
take them. {23:27} But a messenger came to Saul, saying, "Hurry and
come; for the Philistines have made a raid on the land!" {23:28} So
Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the
Philistines: therefore they called that place Sela Hammahlekoth.
{23:29} David went up from there, and lived in the strongholds of En
Gedi.
{24:1} It happened, when Saul was returned from following the
Philistines, that it was told him, saying, "Behold, David is in the
wilderness of En Gedi." {24:2} Then Saul took three thousand chosen
men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the rocks
of the wild goats. {24:3} He came to the sheep pens by the way, where
there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and
his men were abiding in the innermost parts of the cave. {24:4} The
men of David said to him, "Behold, the day of which the LORD said to
you, 'Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, and you shall
do to him as it shall seem good to you.'" Then David arose, and cut
off the skirt of Saul's robe secretly. {24:5} It happened afterward,
that David's heart struck him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt.
{24:6} He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do this
thing to my lord, the LORD's anointed, to put forth my hand against
him, since he is the LORD's anointed." {24:7} So David checked his men
with these words, and didn't allow them to rise against Saul. Saul
rose up out of the cave, and went on his way. {24:8} David also arose
afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, "My
lord the king!"
When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth,
and showed respect. {24:9} David said to Saul, "Why do you listen to
men's words, saying, 'Behold, David seeks your hurt?' {24:10} Behold,
this day your eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered you today
into my hand in the cave. Some urged me to kill you; but I spared you;
and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is
the LORD's anointed. {24:11} Moreover, my father, behold, yes, see the
skirt of your robe in my hand; for in that I cut off the skirt of your
robe, and didn't kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor
disobedience in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, though you
hunt for my life to take it. {24:12} May the LORD judge between me and
you, and may the LORD avenge me of you; but my hand shall not be on
you. {24:13} As the proverb of the ancients says, 'Out of the wicked
comes forth wickedness;' but my hand shall not be on you. {24:14}
Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A
dead dog? A flea? {24:15} May the LORD therefore be judge, and give
sentence between me and you, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver
me out of your hand."
{24:16} It came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking
these words to Saul, that Saul said, "Is this your voice, my son
David?" Saul lifted up his voice, and wept. {24:17} He said to David,
"You are more righteous than I; for you have done good to me, whereas
I have done evil to you. {24:18} You have declared this day how you
have dealt well with me, because when the LORD had delivered me up
into your hand, you didn't kill me. {24:19} For if a man finds his
enemy, will he let him go away unharmed? Therefore may the LORD reward
you good for that which you have done to me this day. {24:20} Now,
behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of
Israel shall be established in your hand. {24:21} Swear now therefore
to me by the LORD, that you will not cut off my seed after me, and
that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house."
{24:22} David swore to Saul. Saul went home; but David and his men
went up to the stronghold.
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