The First Book of Shemu'el, starting at chapter 19
{19:1} Sha'ul spoke to Yonatan his son, and to all his servants,
that they should kill David. But Yonatan, Sha'ul's son, delighted much
in David. {19:2} Yonatan told David, saying, Sha'ul 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} and I will go
out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will
commune with my father of you; and if I see anything, I will tell you.
{19:4} Yonatan spoke good of David to Sha'ul 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 Pelishti, and the LORD worked a great victory for all
Yisra'el: you saw it, and did rejoice; why then will you sin against
innocent blood, to kill David without a cause? {19:6} Sha'ul listened
to the voice of Yonatan: and Sha'ul swore, As the LORD lives, he shall
not be put to death. {19:7} Yonatan called David, and Yonatan shown
him all those things. Yonatan brought David to Sha'ul, and he was in
his presence, as before. {19:8} There was war again: and David went
out, and fought with the Pelishtim, and killed them with a great
slaughter; and they fled before him. {19:9} An evil spirit from the
LORD was on Sha'ul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand;
and David was playing with his hand. {19:10} Sha'ul sought to strike
David even to the wall with the spear; but he slipped away out of
Sha'ul's presence, and he struck the spear into the wall: and David
fled, and escaped that night. {19:11} Sha'ul sent messengers to
David's house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning: and
Mikhal, David's wife, told him, saying, If you don't save your life
tonight, tomorrow you will be slain. {19:12} So Mikhal let David down
through the window: and he went, and fled, and escaped. {19:13} Mikhal
took the terafim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats'
[hair] at the head of it, and covered it with the clothes. {19:14}
When Sha'ul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.
{19:15} Sha'ul 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 terafim was in the bed, with the pillow of goats'
[hair] at the head of it. {19:17} Sha'ul said to Mikhal, Why have you
deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he is escaped? Mikhal
answered Sha'ul, He said to me, Let me go; why should I kill you?
{19:18} Now David fled, and escaped, and came to Shemu'el to Ramah,
and told him all that Sha'ul had done to him. He and Shemu'el went and
lived in Nayot. {19:19} It was told Sha'ul, saying, Behold, David is
at Nayot in Ramah. {19:20} Sha'ul sent messengers to take David: and
when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Shemu'el
standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came on the messengers
of Sha'ul, and they also prophesied. {19:21} When it was told Sha'ul,
he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Sha'ul 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
Sekhu: and he asked and said, Where are Shemu'el and David? One said,
Behold, they are at Nayot in Ramah. {19:23} He went there to Nayot in
Ramah: and the Spirit of God came on him also, and he went on, and
prophesied, until he came to Nayot in Ramah. {19:24} He also stripped
off his clothes, and he also prophesied before Shemu'el, and lay down
naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, "Is Sha'ul
also among the prophets?"
{20:1} David fled from Nayot in Ramah, and came and said before
Yonatan, What have I done? what is my iniquity? and 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 Yonatan 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 said Yonatan to David,
Whatever your soul desires, I will even do it for you. {20:5} David
said to Yonatan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not
fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide
myself in the field to the third day at even. {20:6} If your father
miss me at all, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he
might run to Beit-Lechem his city; for it is the yearly sacrifice
there for all the family. {20:7} If he say thus, It is well; your
servant shall have shalom: 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} Yonatan 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 said David to
Yonatan, Who shall tell me if perchance your father answer you
roughly? {20:11} Yonatan said to David, Come, and let us go out into
the field. They went out both of them into the field. {20:12} Yonatan
said to David, the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, [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 Yonatan, 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 shalom: 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 lovingkindness 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 [1>]eretz[<1]. {20:16} So Yonatan
made a covenant with the house of David, [saying], the LORD will
require it at the hand of David's enemies. {20:17} Yonatan 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 Yonatan 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 the side of it, 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, and come; for there is shalom to you and no hurt, as the
LORD lives. {20:22} But if I say thus to the boy, Behold, the arrows
are beyond you; go your way; for the LORD has sent you away. {20:23}
As touching 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 Yonatan stood up, and Aviner sat by Sha'ul's
side: but David's place was empty. {20:26} Nevertheless Sha'ul didn't
say anything that day: for he thought, Something has befallen him, he
is not clean; surely he is not clean. {20:27} It happened on the next
day after the new moon, [which was] the second [day], that David's
place was empty: and Sha'ul said to Yonatan his son, Why doesn't the
son of Yishai come to meat, neither yesterday, nor today? {20:28}
Yonatan answered Sha'ul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to
Beit-Lechem: {20:29} and he said, Please let me go, for our family has
a sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he has commanded me [to be
there]: and now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away,
I pray you, and see my brothers. Therefore he is not come to the
king's table. {20:30} Then Sha'ul's anger was kindled against Yonatan,
and he said to him, You son of a perverse rebellious woman, don't I
know that you have chosen the son of Yishai to your own shame, and to
the shame of your mother's nakedness? {20:31} For as long as the son
of Yishai lives on the [2>]eretz[<2], you shall not be established,
nor your kingdom. Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall
surely die. {20:32} Yonatan answered Sha'ul his father, and said to
him, Why should he be put to death? what has he done? {20:33} Sha'ul
cast his spear at him to strike him; whereby Yonatan knew that is was
determined of his father to put David to death. {20:34} So Yonatan
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 Yonatan 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 Yonatan had shot, Yonatan
cried after the boy, and said, Isn't the arrow beyond you? {20:38}
Yonatan cried after the boy, Go fast! Hurry! Don't delay! Yonatan's
boy gathered up the arrows, and came to his master. {20:39} But the
boy didn't know anything: only Yonatan and David knew the matter.
{20:40} Yonatan 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: and they kissed one another,
and wept one with another, until David exceeded. {20:42} Yonatan said
to David, Go in shalom, because we have sworn both of us 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 Yonatan
went into the city.
{21:1} Then came David to Nov to Achimelekh the [1>]Kohen[<1]: and
Achimelekh came to meet David trembling, and said to him, Why are you
alone, and no man with you? {21:2} David said to Achimelekh the
[2>]Kohen[<2], 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 [3>]Kohen[<3] 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
[4>]Kohen[<4], and said to him, Of a truth 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 [5>]Kohen[<5] 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 Sha'ul
was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Do'eg
the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Sha'ul. {21:8}
David said to Achimelekh, 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 [6>]Kohen[<6]
said, The sword of Golyat the Pelishti, whom you killed in the valley
of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the efod: if you
will take that, take it; for there is no other except that here. David
said, There is none like that; give it me. {21:10} David arose, and
fled that day for fear of Sha'ul, and went to Akhish the king of Gat.
{21:11} The servants of Akhish said to him, "Isn't this David the king
of the land? Didn't they sing one to another about him in dances,
saying, 'Sha'ul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?'"
{21:12} David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of
Akhish the king of Gat. {21:13} He changed his behavior before them,
and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of
the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. {21:14} Then
said Akhish 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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Footnotes:
[1] {20:15} earth
[2] {20:31} earth
[1] {21:1} priest
[2] {21:2} priest
[3] {21:4} priest
[4] {21:5} priest
[5] {21:6} priest
[6] {21:9} priest
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