1 Samuel 19-22

1Then Saul ordered his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Jonathan delighted greatly in David,

2so he warned David, saying, “My father Saul intends to kill you. Be on your guard in the morning; find a secret place and hide there.

3I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, so I can ask about you. And if I find out anything, I will tell you.”

4Then Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David; he has not sinned against you. In fact, his actions have been highly beneficial to you.

5He took his life in his hands when he struck down the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, so why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?”

6Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan and swore an oath: “As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death.”

7So Jonathan summoned David and told him all these things. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.

8When war broke out again, David went out and fought the Philistines and struck them with such a mighty blow that they fled before him.

9But as Saul was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, a spirit of distress from the LORD came upon him. While David was playing the harp,

10Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear. But David eluded him and the spear struck the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.

11Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you do not run for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”

12So Michal lowered David from the window, and he ran away and escaped.

13Then Michal took a household idol and laid it in the bed, placed some goat hair on its head, and covered it with a garment.

14When Saul sent the messengers to seize David, Michal said, “He is ill.”

15But Saul sent the messengers back to see David and told them, “Bring him up to me in his bed so I can kill him.”

16And when the messengers entered, there was the idol in the bed with the goat hair on its head.

17And Saul said to Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this? You sent my enemy away, and he has escaped!” Michal replied, “He said to me, ‘Help me get away, or I will kill you!’”

18So David ran away and escaped. And he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there.

19When Saul was told that David was at Naioth in Ramah,

20he sent messengers to seize him. But when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel leading them, the Spirit of God came upon them, and Saul’s messengers also began to prophesy.

21When this was reported to Saul, he sent more messengers, but they began to prophesy as well. So Saul tried again and sent messengers a third time, and even they began to prophesy.

22Finally, Saul himself left for Ramah and came to the large cistern at Secu, where he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” “At Naioth in Ramah,” he was told.

23So Saul went to Naioth in Ramah. But the Spirit of God came upon even Saul, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

24Then Saul stripped off his robes and also prophesied before Samuel. And he collapsed and lay naked all that day and night. That is why it is said, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

1Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my iniquity? How have I sinned against your father, that he wants to take my life?”

2“Far from it!” Jonathan replied. “You will not die. Indeed, my father does nothing, great or small, without telling me. So why would he hide this matter from me? This cannot be true!”

3But David again vowed, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or he will be grieved.’ As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”

4Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you desire, I will do for you.”

5So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I am supposed to dine with the king. Instead, let me go and hide in the field until the third evening from now.

6If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David urgently requested my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because there is an annual sacrifice for his whole clan.’

7If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he is enraged, you will know he has evil intentions.

8Therefore show kindness to your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the LORD. If there is iniquity in me, then kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”

9“Never!” Jonathan replied. “If I ever found out that my father had evil intentions against you, would I not tell you?”

10Then David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”

11“Come,” he replied, “let us go out to the field.” So the two of them went out into the field,

12and Jonathan said, “By the LORD, the God of Israel, I will sound out my father by this time tomorrow or the next day. If he is favorable toward you, will I not send for you and tell you?

13But if my father intends to bring evil on you, then may the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if I do not tell you and send you on your way in safety. May the LORD be with you, just as He has been with my father.

14And as long as I live, treat me with the LORD’s loving devotion, that I may not die,

15and do not ever cut off your loving devotion from my household—not even when the LORD cuts off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”

16So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD hold David’s enemies accountable.”

17And Jonathan had David reaffirm his vow out of love for him, for Jonathan loved David as he loved himself.

18Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty.

19When you have stayed three days, hurry down to the place you hid on the day this trouble began, and remain beside the stone Ezel.

20I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as if I were aiming at a target.

21Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ Now, if I expressly say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them,’ then come, because as surely as the LORD lives, it is safe for you, and there is no danger.

22But if I say to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, for the LORD has sent you away.

23And as for the matter you and I have discussed, the LORD is a witness between you and me forever.”

24So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon had come, the king sat down to eat.

25He sat in his usual place by the wall, opposite Jonathan and beside Abner, but David’s place was empty.

26Saul said nothing that day because he thought, “Something has happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.”

27But on the day after the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today?”

28Jonathan answered, “David urgently requested my permission to go to Bethlehem,

29saying, ‘Please let me go, because our clan is holding a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has told me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me go and see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”

30Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you?

31For as long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Now send for him and bring him to me, for he must surely die!”

32“Why must he be put to death?” Jonathan replied. “What has he done?”

33Then Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan to kill him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to kill David.

34Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger and did not eat any food that second day of the month, for he was grieved by his father’s shameful treatment of David.

35In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for the appointment with David, and a small boy was with him.

36He said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” And as the boy ran, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him.

37When the boy reached the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called to him, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?”

38Then Jonathan cried out, “Hurry! Make haste! Do not delay!” So the boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master.

39But the boy did not know anything; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement.

40Then Jonathan gave his equipment to the boy and said, “Go, take it back to the city.”

41When the young man had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone, fell facedown, and bowed three times. Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and wept together—though David wept more.

42And Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for the two of us have sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘May the LORD be a witness between you and me, and between your descendants and mine forever.’” Then David got up and departed, and Jonathan went back into the city.

1Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And when Ahimelech met David, he trembled and asked him, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?”

2“The king has given me a mission,” David replied. “He told me no one is to know about the mission on which I am sending you. And I have directed my young men to meet me at a certain place.

3Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.”

4“There is no common bread on hand,” the priest replied, “but there is some consecrated bread—provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.”

5David answered, “Women have indeed been kept from us, as is usual when I set out. And the bodies of the young men are holy even on common missions. How much more so today!”

6So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there but the Bread of the Presence, which had been removed from before the LORD and replaced with hot bread on the day it was taken away.

7Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the LORD. And his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief shepherd for Saul.

8Then David asked Ahimelech, “Is there not a spear or sword on hand here? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s mission was urgent.”

9The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want, you may take it. For there is no other but this one here.” And David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”

10That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath.

11But the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing about him in their dances, saying: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?”

12Now David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

13So he changed his behavior before them and feigned madness in their hands; he scratched on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down his beard.

14Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you can see that the man is insane! Why have you brought him to me?

15Am I in need of madmen, that you have brought this man to rave in my presence? Must this man come into my house?”

1So David left Gath and took refuge in the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there.

2And all who were distressed or indebted or discontented rallied around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.

3From there David went to Mizpeh of Moab, where he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother stay with you until I learn what God will do for me.”

4So he left them in the care of the king of Moab, and they stayed with him the whole time David was in the stronghold.

5Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold. Depart and go into the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

6Soon Saul learned that David and his men had been discovered. At that time Saul was sitting under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, with his spear in hand and all his servants standing around him.

7Then Saul said to his servants, “Listen, men of Benjamin! Is the son of Jesse giving all of you fields and vineyards and making you commanders of thousands or hundreds?

8Is that why all of you have conspired against me? Not one of you told me that my own son had made a covenant with the son of Jesse. Not one of you has shown concern for me or revealed to me that my son has stirred up my own servant to lie in wait against me, as is the case today.”

9But Doeg the Edomite, who had stationed himself with Saul’s servants, answered: “I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob.

10Ahimelech inquired of the LORD for him and gave him provisions. He also gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

11Then the king sent messengers to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and his father’s whole family, who were priests at Nob. And all of them came to the king.

12“Listen now, son of Ahitub,” said Saul. “Here I am, my lord,” he replied.

13And Saul asked him, “Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me? You gave him bread and a sword and inquired of God for him so that he could rise up against me to lie in wait, as he is doing today.”

14Ahimelech answered the king, “Who among all your servants is as faithful as David, the king’s son-in-law, the captain of your bodyguard and honored in your house?

15Was that day the first time I inquired of God for him? Far be it from me! Let not the king accuse your servant or any of my father’s household, for your servant knew nothing of this whole affair—not in part or in whole.”

16But the king replied, “You will surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house!”

17Then the king ordered the guards at his side, “Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because they too sided with David. For they knew he was fleeing, but they did not tell me.” But the king’s servants would not lift a hand to strike the priests of the LORD.

18So the king ordered Doeg, “You turn and strike down the priests!” And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests himself. On that day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.

19He also put to the sword Nob, the city of the priests, with its men and women, children and infants, oxen, donkeys, and sheep.

20But one of the sons of Ahimelech son of Ahitub escaped. His name was Abiathar, and he fled to David.

21And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the LORD.

22Then David said to Abiathar, “I knew that Doeg the Edomite was there that day, and that he was sure to tell Saul. I myself am responsible for the lives of everyone in your father’s house.

23Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks your life is seeking mine as well. You will be safe with me.”