you harshly?" Jonathan answered, "Jehovah the God of Israel be witness
that about this time to-morrow I will find out how my father feels. If
he feels kindly toward you, then I will send and tell you. Should my
father wish to do you harm, God do to Jonathan whatever he will and more
too if I do not tell you and send you away that you may go in peace. May
Jehovah be with you, as he has been with my father. And if I am yet
alive, O may you show me kindness like that of Jehovah himself! But if I
should die, you must never cease to be kind to my family. And if, when
Jehovah destroys all the enemies of David from the face of the earth,
the family of Jonathan should be destroyed by the family of David, may
Jehovah punish the crime by the hand of David's enemies." So Jonathan
renewed his solemn promise to David, because he loved him; for he loved
him as much as he loved his own life.
Then Jonathan said to him, "To-morrow is the festival of the New Moon
and you will be missed, for your seat will be empty. On the third day,
when you will be greatly missed, go to the place where you hid yourself
when my father attacked you, and sit down beside the heap of stones. I
will shoot three arrows on one side of it, as though I shot at a mark.
Then I will send the boy, saying, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I call to
the boy, 'See, the arrows are on this side of you; pick them up!'--then
come; for all goes well with you, and as surely as Jehovah lives, there
is nothing to fear. But if I call to the boy, 'See, the arrows are
beyond you,' then go, for Jehovah sends you away. And as for the
promises which you and I have made, Jehovah is witness between you and
me forever."
So David hid himself in the field; and when the festival of the New Moon
came, Saul sat down at the table to eat. He sat on his seat, as usual,
by the wall, and Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat beside Saul; but
David's seat was empty. Saul, however, did not say anything that day,
for he thought, "It is an accident."
But on the next day when David's place was again empty, Saul said to
Jonathan, "Why has not the son of Jesse come to the table, either
yesterday or to-day?" Jonathan answered, "David asked permission to go
to Bethlehem, for he said, 'Let me go, for we have a family sacrifice in
the town, and my brother has commanded me to be there. Now if you
approve, let me go away that I may see my family.' Therefore, he has not
come to your table."
Then Saul's anger was aroused against Jonathan, and he said to him, "Son
of a rebellious slave girl! Do I not know that you are making the son of
Jesse your friend to your own shame and to your mother's shame? For as
long as the son of Jesse lives, neither you nor your rule will be safe.
Therefore, send now and bring him to me, for he is doomed to die."
Then Jonathan answered Saul his father and said, "Why should he be put
to death? What has he done?" But Saul flung his spear at him to strike
him. So Jonathan knew that his father had made up his mind to put David
to death. And Jonathan rose from the table in hot anger and ate no food
on the second day of the month, for he felt hurt because his father had
insulted David.
The next morning Jonathan went out into the field to the place agreed
upon with David, and a small boy was with him. He said to his boy, "Run,
find now the arrows which I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow
beyond him. When the boy came to the place where the arrow which
Jonathan had shot lay, Jonathan called to him, "Is not the arrow beyond
you? Hurry, be quick, do not stop!" So Jonathan's lad gathered up the
arrows, and brought them to his master. But the boy knew nothing about
the signal. Only Jonathan and David understood.
THE COST OF A LIE
Then David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest who came trembling to
meet David and said to him, "Why are you alone, and no one with you?"
David answered Ahimelech the priest, "Saul has given me orders about
some business and has said to me, 'Let no one know anything about the
business on which I am sending you and about which I have given you
orders.' I have also directed the young men to meet me at a certain
place. Therefore, if you have at hand five loaves of bread, give them to
me or whatever can be found." The priest answered David, "There is no
plain bread at hand, but only holy bread." So the priest gave him holy
bread, for there was no other bread there except that which had been
removed from the temple to be replaced at once by hot bread.
Now Doeg, the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen, was there that day.
And David said to Ahimelech, "Have you not here at hand a spear or
sword? For I did not bring my sword or my weapons with me, since the
king's business required haste." The priest said, "The sword of Goliath
the Philistine whom you slew in the valley of Elah is there, wrapped in
a cloth. If you wish to take that, do so, for there is no other except
that here." David answered, "There is none like that; give it to me."
Then David went from there and escaped to the stronghold of Adullam.
When his brothers and all his father's clan heard of it, they went down
there to him. Every one who was in trouble and every one who was in
debt, and every one who was discontented gathered about him, and he
became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.
When Saul heard that David and the men with him had been found, he was
sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk-tree at the high place, with his
spear in his hand. And all his servants were standing about him. Saul
said to his servants who stood about him, "Hear, O Benjamites! Will the
son of Jesse give all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make all of
you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? Is it not true
that all of you have plotted against me so that no one tells me that my
son has made an agreement with the son of Jesse, and that none of you
has pity upon me or tells me that my son has made my servant David my
enemy as he now is?" Then Doeg the Edomite, who was standing by the
servants of Saul, spoke up and said, "I saw the son of Jesse go to Nob,
to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub. And the priest inquired of God for him
and gave him food and the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
Then Saul sent for Ahimelech the priest, and all his family and the
priests who were in Nob; and all of them came to him. Then Saul said,
"Listen, son of Ahitub!" He answered, "Here I am, my lord!" Saul said to
him, "Is it not true that you and the son of Jesse have plotted against
me and that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of
God for him, that he might rebel against me?" Ahimelech answered Saul,
"Who among all your servants is trusted like David, your son-in-law,
chief over your subjects, and honored in your household? Is this the
first time I have inquired of God for him? Far be it from me to be
disloyal! Do not think that I or any of my clan have any evil intention,
for your servant does not know the slightest thing about all this." But
Saul said, "Ahimelech, you shall surely die, you and all your family."
Then Saul said to the guards who were standing about him, "Turn and kill
the priests of Jehovah, for they have plotted with David; and although
they knew that he was fleeing, they did not tell me." But Saul's
servants would not raise their hands to kill the priests of Jehovah.
Then Saul said to Doeg, "Turn and kill the priests." So Doeg, the
Edomite, turned and killed them. On that day he killed eighty-five men
who wore the priestly robes.
But Abiathar, one of the sons of Ahimelech, escaped and fled to David.
When Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of Jehovah,
David said to him, "I knew that day, because Doeg the Edomite was there,
that he would surely tell Saul. I myself am responsible for the death of
all your family. Stay with me, have no fear, for whoever seeks your life
must first take mine, for you are placed in my charge."
A SOLDIER WHO SPARED HIS ENEMY
Now when David was told, "The Philistines are fighting against Keilah
and are robbing the threshing-floors," he inquired of Jehovah, "Shall I
go and attack these Philistines?" Jehovah said to David, "Go, attack
the Philistines and save Keilah." But David's men said to him, "See, we
are afraid here in Judah; how much more will we be if we go to Keilah
against the armies of the Philistines?" When David again inquired of
Jehovah, Jehovah answered him, "Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will
give the Philistines into your hand." So David and his men went to
Keilah and fought with the Philistines and drove away their cattle and
killed a great many of them. In this way David delivered the people of
Keilah.
Now when Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, fled to David in Keilah, he
came down with the priestly robe used in consulting Jehovah in his hand.
And when Saul was told that David had come to Keilah, Saul said, "God
has given him into my power, for by entering a town that has doors and
bars he has let himself be trapped."
So Saul called all the people to arms to go down to Keilah to besiege
David and his men. But when David knew that Saul was plotting evil
against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring here the priestly
robe." Then David said, "O Jehovah, the God of Israel, thy servant has
surely heard that Saul is planning to come to Keilah, to destroy the
town because of me. Will Saul come down, as thy servant has heard? O
Jehovah, God of Israel, tell thy servant." Jehovah said, "He will come
down." Then David said, "Will the men of Keilah turn me and my men over
to Saul?" Jehovah said, "They will." Then David and his men, who were
about six hundred, left Keilah, and wandered from one place to another.
When it was reported to Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, he no
longer followed him. So David lived in the Wilderness of Ziph and stayed
in the mountain strongholds.
Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, "Is not David hiding
in the hill country of Hachilah?" So Saul went down to the Wilderness of
Ziph with three thousand men of Israel to hunt for David. And Saul
camped in the hill country of Hachilah; but David stayed in the
wilderness. When David saw that Saul was following him into the
wilderness, he sent out scouts and learned that Saul had come to the
place just in front of him. David then arose and went to the place where
Saul had camped. And he saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner the son
of Ner, the commander of his army; and Saul was within the barricade,
and the people were camped about him.
Then David turned to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai the son of
Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and said, "Who will go down with me to Saul's
camp?" Abishai said, "I will go with you." So David and Abishai came to
the people by night, and Saul was lying asleep inside the barricade,
with his spear stuck into the earth at his head and with Abner and the
soldiers lying about him.
Then Abishai said to David, "God has given your enemy to you to-day. Now
let me pin him to the earth with his spear at one stroke, for I will not
need to strike him twice!" David replied, "As surely as Jehovah lives,
either Jehovah will smite him, or his day will come to die, or he will
go down into battle and meet his end. Jehovah forbid that I should harm
him whom Jehovah has called to rule! But now take the spear that is at
his head and the jug of water, and let us go." So David took the spear
and the jug of water from Saul's head, and they departed. But no man saw
it or knew it, for they were all asleep, and no one awoke, for a deep
sleep from Jehovah had fallen upon them.
Then David went across and stood on the top of a hill at a distance with
a great space between them. And David called to the soldiers and to
Abner, the son of Ner, and said, "Do you make no answer, Abner?" Abner
answered, "Who are you that calls?" David said to Abner, "Are you not a
man, and who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept guard
over your lord the ruler of Israel? For one of the people came to
destroy your lord. You have not done what is right. As surely as Jehovah
lives you ought to be put to death, for you have not kept watch over
your master whom Jehovah has called to rule. Now see where his spear is
and his jug of water that was at his head."
Saul knew David's voice and said, "Is this your voice, my son David?"
David replied, "It is my voice, my lord." And he added, "Why is it that
my lord is following his servant? For what have I done? Or of what am I
guilty? Now therefore let my lord listen to me. If Jehovah has stirred
you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if men have stirred
you up against me, let them be cursed before Jehovah, for they have
driven me out to-day, saying, 'Go serve other gods,' so that I have no
share in the land which Jehovah has given to his people. May I not meet
my end far away from the presence of Jehovah, for the ruler of Israel
has come out to seek my life, as one hunts a partridge on the
mountains."
Then Saul said, "I have done wrong. Come back, my son David, for I will
do you no more harm, for you have spared my life to-day. I have acted
foolishly and have made a great mistake." David answered, "Here is
Saul's spear! Let one of the young men come over and take it. May
Jehovah reward each one who does right and is faithful; for Jehovah gave
you to me to-day, but I would not harm one whom Jehovah had called to
rule. Just as your life was of great value in my sight so may my life be
of great value in Jehovah's sight, and may he deliver me from all
trouble."
Then Saul said to David, "May you be blessed, my son David! You shall do
great deeds and shall surely succeed!" So David went his way, but Saul
returned home.
ABIGAIL'S SENSIBLE ADVICE
Then David went away into the Wilderness of Maon. Now there was a man in
Maon, whose property was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three
thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep at
Carmel. His name was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail. The woman
was sensible and beautiful, but the man was rough and ill-mannered; and
he was a Calebite.
When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, he
sent ten young men with the command, "Go up to Carmel and enter Nabal's
house and greet him in my name. You shall say to him and to his family,
'Peace and prosperity be to you and your family and to all that you
have. Now I have heard that you have sheep-shearers. Your shepherds were
with us, and we did not insult them, and nothing of theirs was missing
all the while they were in Carmel. Ask your young men and they will tell
you. Therefore receive my young men favorably, for we have come on a
feast-day. Give also whatever you have at hand to your servants and to
your son David.'"
When David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal for David as they were
told, and then waited. But Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is
David? And who is the son of Jesse? Many are the slaves these days who
break away from their masters! Should I then take my bread and my water
and my meat that I have prepared for my shearers and give it to men of
whom I know nothing?" So when David's young men returned and told him,
he said to them, "Let every man put on his sword." So they all put on
their swords. David also put on his sword; and about four hundred men
followed David, and two hundred stayed with the baggage.
But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, "David has just
sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he insulted
them. The men have been very good to us and we have not been harmed nor
have we missed anything, as long as we were with them in the open
country. They were as a wall about us both night and day all the time we
were near them guarding the sheep. Now therefore decide what you will
do, for evil is planned against our master and against all his
household, for he is such an ill-tempered man that no one can say a word
to him."
Then Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of
wine, five roasted sheep, five baskets of parched grain, a hundred
bunches of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on
asses. She said to her young men, "Go on ahead of me; see, I am coming
after you." But she said nothing about it to her husband Nabal. As she
was riding on the ass and coming down under cover of a hill, David and
his men were coming down toward her, so that she met them. David had
just said, "It was in vain that I guarded all that belongs to this
fellow in the wilderness, so that nothing of his was missing, for he has
returned me evil for good. May God bring a similar judgment upon David
and more too, if by daybreak I leave a single man of all those who
belong to him."
When Abigail saw David, she dismounted quickly from her ass and bowed
down before him with her face to the ground. As she fell at his feet she
said, "Upon me, my lord, upon me be the blame. Only let your servant
speak to you, and listen to her words. Let not my lord pay any attention
to that mean man Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. 'Fool' is his name
and folly rules him. But your servant did not see the young men of my
lord, whom you sent. Now, my lord, as surely as Jehovah lives and as you
live, since Jehovah has kept you from murder and from avenging yourself
by your own hand, may your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord be
like Nabal. Let this present which your servant has brought to my lord
be given to the young men who follow him. I beg of you, forgive the
wrong done by your servant, for Jehovah will certainly make my lord's
family strong, for my lord is fighting for Jehovah, and you shall not be
guilty of any evil deed as long as you live. Should a man rise up to
pursue you and seek your life, Jehovah your God will care for you, but
he will cast away the lives of your enemies as from a sling. When
Jehovah has done for you all the good that he has promised and has made
you ruler over Israel, you will not have to be sorry that you shed blood
without cause or that you were revenged by your own hand. When Jehovah
gives prosperity to my lord, then too remember your servant."
David said to Abigail, "Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who sent
you this day to meet me, and blessed be your good sense. A blessing on
you, who have kept me this day from murder and from avenging myself by
my own hand. For as surely as Jehovah the God of Israel lives, who has
kept me from doing you harm, unless you had quickly come to meet me,
truly by daybreak not one man would have been left to Nabal."
So David received from her all which she had brought him. And he said to
her, "Go back in peace to your house. See, I have listened to your
advice and granted your request."
When Abigail returned to Nabal, he was holding a feast in his house like
a king. He was feeling merry, for he was very drunk; so she told him
nothing whatever until daybreak. But in the morning, when the effects of
the wine were gone, his wife told him what she had done. Then his heart
stopped beating and he became like a stone. About ten days later he had
a stroke from which he died.
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Thanks be to Jehovah who
has punished Nabal's insult to me and has kept me from doing wrong, for
Jehovah has visited Nabal's crime upon his own head."
Then David sent to ask Abigail to become his wife. When his servants
came to her at Carmel and said, "David has sent us to you to take you to
him to be his wife," she rose and bowed her face to the earth and said,
"See, your slave is willing to be even a servant to wash the feet of my
lord's servants." Then Abigail quickly rose and mounted an ass; and five
of her maids followed as servants. So she went with the messengers of
David, and became his wife.
MAKING THE BEST OF TROUBLE
Then David said to himself, "I shall be killed some day by the hand of
Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the
Philistines. Then Saul will give up hope and search no more for me in
all the land of Israel; and so I will escape from him." David,
therefore, with the six hundred men who were with him went over to
Achish, king of Gath. And David and his men lived with Achish at Gath,
each with his family. When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he
gave up looking for him.
David said to Achish, "If now you will grant me the favor, give me a
place in one of the towns in the open country, that I may live there;
for why should your servant live in the royal city with you?" So Achish
gave him Ziklag, and David lived in the open country of the Philistines
a year and four months.
And David and his men went up and made a raid upon the Geshurites, the
Girzites, and the Amalekites; for these tribes live in the land which
extends from Telem to the land of Egypt. As often as David made a raid
on the land, he did not leave alive man or woman, but taking the sheep,
the oxen, the asses, the camels, and the clothing, he returned and went
to Achish. Then when Achish said, "Where have you made a raid to-day?"
David answered, "Against the South Country of Judah, or against the
South Country of the Jerahmeelites, or against the South Country of the
Kenites." And Achish trusted David, thinking, "He has made his people
Israel hate him; therefore he will be my servant forever."
Now in those days the Philistines gathered their forces to make war
against Israel. And Achish said to David, "You and your men shall surely
go with me in the army." David replied, "You shall then know what your
servant can do." Achish said to David, "In that case I will make you the
captain of my body-guard from this time on."
Then the Philistines gathered all their forces at Aphek, and the
Israelites camped at the fountain in Jezreel. When the rulers of the
Philistines were marching past, by hundreds and by thousands, and David
and his men were marching in the rear with Achish, the commanders of the
Philistines said, "What are those Hebrews doing here?" Achish said to
them, "Is this not David, the servant of Saul the ruler of Israel, who
has been with me these two years, and I have found no fault in him from
the time that he came to me to the present?"
But the commanders of the Philistines were displeased and said to him,
"Send the man back to the place where you had stationed him. Do not let
him go down with us into battle, lest we have a foe in the camp; for how
could this fellow better win back the favor of his master than with the
heads of these men? Is not this the David of whom they sang to one
another in the dances:
"'Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands?'"
Then Achish called David and said to him, "As surely as Jehovah lives,
you are upright, and your conduct toward me both in and out of the camp
has been satisfactory, for I have found nothing wrong in you from the
time that you came to me to the present; but you are not trusted by the
other rulers. Go back home, therefore, in peace, that you may do nothing
to displease the rulers of the Philistines." David said to Achish, "But
what have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day that
I entered your service, that I may not go out and fight the enemies of
my lord the king?" Achish answered, "I know that you are as faithful to
me as an angel of God, but the commanders of the Philistines have said,
'He shall not go with us into battle.' Therefore, you and those who came
with you are to rise early in the morning, and go to the place where I
have stationed you. Do not plan any evil, for I trust you, but rise
early in the morning and, as soon as it is light, depart."
So David and his men arose early in the morning to return to the
Philistine land, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
On the third day, when David and his men returned to Ziklag, the
Amalekites had made a raid on the South Country and on Ziklag, and had
attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, and had also carried away
captive all who were in it, including the women and children. They had
not killed any but had carried them away with them. Then David and the
people who were with him wept aloud until they were no longer able to
weep.
David was in great trouble, for the people spoke of stoning him, because
they all felt bitter, having lost their sons and daughters: but David
took courage, for he trusted in Jehovah his God. So David with his six
hundred followers went on to the Brook Besor, where those who were too
tired to cross the brook stayed behind.
They found there an Egyptian in the open field and brought him to David
and gave him food to eat and water to drink. Then David said to him, "To
whom do you belong, and where do you come from?" He replied, "I am an
Egyptian lad, an Amalekite's servant, and my master left me behind
because three days ago I fell sick. We marched into the South Country of
the Cherethites and into that which belongs to Judah and into the South
Country of Caleb, and Ziklag we destroyed by fire." David said to him,
"Will you guide me to this robber band?" He replied, "Swear to me by
your God, that you will neither kill me nor turn me over to my master,
and I will guide you to this band."