Therefore deal kindly with your servant; for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you: but if there is iniquity in me, kill me yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?"

Jonathan said to David, "Come, and let us go out into the field." They both went out into the field.

Jonathan said to David, "By the LORD, the God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there is good toward David, shall I not then send to you, and disclose it to you?

The LORD do so to Jonathan, and more also, should it please my father to do you evil, if I do not 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.

Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon: and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty.

When you have stayed three days, you shall go down quickly, and come to the place where you hid yourself when this started, and shall remain by the stone Ezel.

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.

Concerning the matter which you and I have spoken of, behold, the LORD is between you and me forever."

So David hid himself in the field: and when the new moon had come, the king sat him down to eat food.

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.

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."

Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, "You son of a perverse rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?

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."

Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?"

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.

It happened in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy with him.

When the boy had come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the boy, and said, "Isn't the arrow beyond you?"

Jonathan cried after the boy, "Go fast. Hurry. Do not delay." Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows, and came to his master.

But the boy did not know anything. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter.

Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to him, "Go, carry them to the city."

As soon as the boy was gone, David arose from beside the mound, 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.

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.

Then David came 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?"

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.'

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."

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?"

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.

David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

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.

Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?"

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.

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.

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."

He brought them before the king of Moab; and they lived with him all the while that David was in the stronghold.

The prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold. Depart, and go into the land of Judah." Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.

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.

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,

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?"

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.

He inquired of the LORD for him, gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine."

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.

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?"

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?

The king said, "You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father's house."

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 did not disclose it to me." But the servants of the king wouldn't put forth their hand to fall on the priests of the LORD.

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.

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.

One of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David.

David was told, "Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors."

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."

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."

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.

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."

Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.

David knew that Saul was devising mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod here."

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."

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."

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.

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 did not deliver him into his hand.

Jonathan, Saul's son, arose, and went to David into the woods, and strengthened his hand in God.

He said to him, "Do not 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."

They both made a covenant before the LORD: and David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his house.

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."

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

But a messenger came to Saul, saying, "Hurry and come; for the Philistines have made a raid on the land."

So Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Sela Hammahlekoth.

David went up from there, and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.

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.

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.

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.

So David checked his men with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way.

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.

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.

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 did not 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.

May the LORD judge between me and you, and may the LORD avenge me of you; but my hand shall not be on you.

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."

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.

You have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, because when the LORD had delivered me up into your hand, you did not kill me.

Now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.

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."

David swore to Saul. Saul went home; but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

There was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail; and the woman was of good understanding, and of a beautiful face: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.

David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men, "Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name.

You shall tell him, 'Long life to you. Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.

Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds have now been with us, and we did not hurt them, neither was there anything missing from them, all the while they were in Carmel.

Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let the young men find favor in your eyes; for we come in a good day. Please give whatever comes to your hand, to your servants, and to your son David.'"

When David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.

Nabal answered David's servants, and said, "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants who break away from their masters these days.

Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men who I do not know where they come from?"

So David's young men turned on their way, and went back, and came and told him according to all these words.

David said to his men, "Every man put on his sword." Every man put on his sword. David also put on his sword. About four hundred men followed David; and two hundred stayed by the baggage.

But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, "Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to Greet our master; and he railed at them.

But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields.