And Saul thought, "I will give her to him, so that she may be a snare for him and the hand of [the] Philistines may be against him." So Saul said to David, "For a second [time] you can become my son-in-law today."

Then Saul commanded his servants, "Speak to David in secret, saying, 'Look, the king [is] pleased with you, and all his servants love you. So then, become a son-in-law of the king.'"

And Saul's servants spoke these words {to David privately}. But David said, "[Is] it insignificant {in your sight} to become the son-in-law of the king, [as] I am a poor and lightly esteemed man?"

So his servants told David these words, and the matter {pleased David} to become the son-in-law of the king [as] {the specified time had not expired}.

And David got up, and he and his men went and struck down two hundred men [of the] Philistines. Then David brought their foreskins, and {they presented the full number} to become the king's son-in-law. Then Saul gave him Michal his daughter as [his] wife.

When Saul {realized} that Yahweh [was] with David and {his own daughter Michal} loved him,

Then the commanders of [the] Philistines went out [for battle], and as often as they went out, David succeeded more than all the servants of Saul, and his name became very esteemed.

Now Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants about killing David, but Saul's son Jonathan {liked David very much}.

So Jonathan informed David, saying, "My father Saul [is] trying to kill you; now please take care! In the morning you should stay in the hiding place and conceal yourself.

I will go out and stand {at my father's side} in the field where you are, and I will speak about you to my father; {if I find out anything} I will tell [it] to you."

So Jonathan spoke well about David to his father Saul and said to him, "The king should not sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his service for you [has been] very good.

He put his life in his hand and attacked the Philistine, and Yahweh brought about a great victory for all of Israel, and you saw [it] and rejoiced! Now why should you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?"

And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan and swore, "{As Yahweh lives}, he will not be put to death!"

Jonathan called to David and told him all of these words. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul and he was before him as {formerly}.

War came again, so David went out and fought against [the] Philistines and {defeated them thoroughly} so that they fled before him.

Then the evil spirit from Yahweh came upon Saul while he was sitting in his house [with] his spear in his hand. And David [was] playing a stringed instrument in [his] hand.

So Saul tried {to pin David to the wall with the spear}, but {he eluded Saul}, so that he struck the spear into the wall, and David fled and escaped that [same] night.

Then Saul sent messengers to David's house to guard him and to kill him in the morning, but Michal his wife told David, saying, "If {you do not save your life} tonight, [then] tomorrow you [will be] killed!"

So Michal lowered David through the window, and he went and fled and escaped.

Then Michal took the household god and put it on the bed and put a quilt of goat's hair at its head and covered [it] with the clothes.

And Saul sent messengers to arrest David, but she said, "He [is] ill."

Then Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me like this and sent away my enemy, so that he escaped?" Michal said to Saul, "He said to me, 'Let me go, why should I kill you?'"

So David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth.

And it was told to Saul, "David [is] in Naioth in Ramah."

So Saul sent messengers to capture David. When they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel standing [as] chief over them, then the Spirit of God came upon Saul's messengers, and they also prophesied.

So they told Saul, and he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Again Saul sent messengers a third [time], and they also prophesied.

Then he also went to Ramah. When he came to the great cistern which [was] in Secu, he asked and said, "Where [are] Samuel and David?" Someone said, "Look [they are] in Naioth in Ramah."

So he went there to Naioth in Ramah and the Spirit of God came upon him also, and {he walked along prophesying} until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

He also stripped [off] his clothes and prophesied before Samuel. He lay naked all that day and all night. Therefore they say, "[Is] Saul also among the prophets?"

Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, "What have I done? What [is] my guilt and what [is] my sin before your father that [he is] {trying to kill me}?

And he said to him, "Far from it! You will not die! Look, my father does not do {anything large or small unless he reveals it to me}. Why should my father hide this thing or anything from me?"

Then David {took an oath} again and said, "Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he thought, 'Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he worry.' But {as Yahweh lives} and {as your soul lives}, surely [there is] merely a step between me and death!"

David said to Jonathan, "Look, tomorrow [is] the new moon, and I should certainly sit with the king to eat. You must send me away so that I can hide myself in the field until the third evening.

So you must show loyal love to your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of Yahweh with you. But if there [is] guilt in me, [then] kill me yourself! But why should you bring me to your father?"

And Jonathan said to David, "Come, let us go out to the field." So the two of them went out to the field.

Then Jonathan said to David, "Yahweh the God of Israel [is my witness] that I will question my father {by this time the day after tomorrow}. And look, {if he is well disposed toward you}, will I not send [word] to you and {disclose it to you}?

{So may Yahweh punish Jonathan and more} if {my father decides to do you harm} and if {I fail to disclose it to you} and send word to you that you can go safely. And may Yahweh be with you, as he has been with my father.

And not while I am still alive, will you not show the loyal love of Yahweh with me, that I may not die?

And do not cut off your loyal love from {my family} forever, not [even] when Yahweh {exterminates} each of the enemies of David from the face of the earth."

And Jonathan again made David swear an oath, because he loved him; for with the love of his soul he loved him.

Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow [is] the new moon, and you will be missed, for your seat will stay empty.

On the third day you must go down quickly and go to the place where you hid yourself {on the day all this started} and remain beside the stone Ezel.

{Then} I will send [word to] my servant, 'Go, find the arrows!' If I clearly say to the boy, 'Look, the arrows [are] {on this side of you}; {bring} it,' then come, for [it means] peace for you. And there is no problem, {as Yahweh lives}.

And [as for] the matter about which you and I spoke, look, Yahweh [is] between you and me forever."

The king sat at his seat {as before}, the seat by the wall, and Jonathan got up, and Abner sat beside Saul, but David's place was empty.

{And then} on the next day, the second day of the new moon, that David's place was empty. So Saul asked Jonathan his son, "Why did the son of Jesse not come either yesterday or today to the feast?"

He said, 'Send me away, please, for our clan sacrifice [is] in the city, and my brother commanded me [to be present]. So then, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me slip away and see my brothers.' Therefore he has not come to the table of the king."

Then {Saul became angry} at Jonathan and said to him, "[You] son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?

For {as long as} the son of Jesse [is] alive on the earth, you and your kingdom will not be established! So then, send and bring him to me, for {he will surely die}!"

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

Jonathan got up from the table {enraged}, and did not eat on the second day of the new moon because he was upset about David, because his father had disgraced him.

{And then} in the morning Jonathan went out to the field for the appointment with David, and a young boy [was] with him.

He said to his servant, "Run, please find the arrows that I am shooting!" The boy ran, and he shot the arrow to pass [over] him.

When the boy came up to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called out after the boy and said, "[Is] not the arrow {beyond you}?"

Then Jonathan called out after the boy, "Quick, hurry, do not linger!" And Jonathan's servant collected the arrows and came to his master.

But the boy did not know anything [about this]; only Jonathan and David knew the matter.

Jonathan gave his weapons to his servant and said to him, "Go, bring [them] to the city."

The boy left, and then David got up from the south side, and he fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed {each other} and wept {together}, but David [wept] the most.

Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, because we have sworn, the two of us, [an oath] in the name of Yahweh, saying, "Yahweh will be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring forever." Then he got up and left, and Jonathan went into the city.

Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and he said to him, "Why are you alone and there are no men with you?"

So David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king charged me [with] a matter and said to me, 'No one must know anything about this matter [on] which I am sending you, [with] which I have charged you and the servants.'" So {I have arranged to meet with my servants at a certain place}.

The priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread {here at hand}; there is only holy bread, [but] only if the young men have kept themselves from women."

David answered the priest and said to him, "Indeed, women [were] held back from us {as it has been when I've gone out before}. And the things of the young men are holy when it [is] an ordinary journey. {How much more} {today} will the things be holy?"

So the priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you killed in the valley of Elah [is] here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, [then] take it, for there is no other except it here." And David said, "There is none like it; give it to me."

So David got up and fled on that day from the presence of Saul, and he came to Achish the king of Gath.

{David took these words seriously} and {felt severely threatened by} Achish the king of Gath.

So he changed his behavior {before them} and pretended to be mad {in their presence}. He made scratches on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard.

David went from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his father's household heard, they came down to him there.

Every man in distress and every man who had a creditor and every embittered man gathered to him, and he became {their commander}. Now there [were] about four hundred men with him.

And David went up from there to Mizpah of Moab. He said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother {stay} with you until I know what God will do for me."

So {he brought them before the king of Moab}, and they stayed with him all the days David was in the stronghold.

Then Gad the prophet said to David, "You should not stay in the stronghold; leave and go into the land of Judah." So David left and came [to] the forest of Hereth.

Now Saul heard that David and the men who [were] with him had been located. Saul [was] sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk [tree] at Ramah. Now his spear [was] in his hand and all his servants [were] stationed around him.

Then Saul said to the servants who [were] standing around him, "Please listen, {Benjaminites}! Will the son of Jesse give you all fields and vineyards? Will he make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds?

For all of you have conspired against me, and {no one discloses to me} the {making} [of an agreement] between my son and the son of Jesse! None of you have had sympathy for me or {disclosed to me} [that] {my son commissioned my servant against me to ambush me} as [has been done] this day!"

But Doeg the Edomite, who [was] stationed among the servants of Saul, answered and said, "I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.

And he inquired of Yahweh for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine."

So the king sent to summon Ahimelech the son of Ahitub the priest, and all his father's household, the priests who [were] at Nob. So all of them came to the king.

Then Saul said to him, "Why did you conspire against me, you and the son of Jesse, when you gave to him bread and a sword, and by inquiring of God for him so that he might arise against me to ambush [me] as [has been done] this day?"

But Ahimelech answered the king and said, "And who among all your servants [is] as faithful as David? He [is] the son-in-law of the king who moves [quickly] to safeguard you and is honored in your house.

Then the king said, "You must certainly die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's household!"

So the king said to the runners [who were] stationed around him, "Turn and kill the priests of Yahweh, because {they also support David} and because they knew that he was fleeing and {did not disclose it to me}." But the servants of the king [were] not willing to raise their hand to attack the priests of Yahweh.

Then the king said to Doeg, "You turn and attack the priests!" So Doeg the Edomite turned and attacked the priests himself, and on that day he killed eighty-five men who wore [the] linen ephod.

And {he put to the sword} Nob, the city of the priests, from man to woman, from child to infant, and ox and donkey and sheep; [all] {to the sword}.

But, one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, whose name was Abiathar, escaped and fled after David.

Now they told David, "Look, [the] Philistines [are] fighting in Keilah and they [are] raiding the threshing floors."

So David inquired of Yahweh, saying, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?" And Yahweh said to David, "Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah."

So David again inquired of Yahweh, and Yahweh answered him and said, "Get up, go down [to] Keilah, for I [am] giving [the] Philistines into your hand.

So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with [the] Philistines. They drove off their livestock and {dealt them a heavy blow}. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

{Now when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled} to David [at] Keilah, he went down [with] an ephod in his hand.

When it was told to Saul that David had gone to Keilah, Saul said, "God {has given him} into my hand, because he has shut himself in by going into a city [with] {two barred gates}.

Saul then summoned all of the army for the battle, to go down [to] Keilah to lay a siege against David and his men.

And David said, "O Yahweh, God of Israel, your servant has clearly heard that Saul [is] seeking to come to Keilah to destroy the city because of me.

Will the rulers of Keilah deliver me into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? O Yahweh, God of Israel, please tell your servant!" And Yahweh said, "He will come down."

Then David said, "Will the rulers of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?" And Yahweh said, "They will deliver [you]."

So David and his men got up, about six hundred men, and went out from Keilah and wandered wherever they could go. When it was told to Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, {he stopped his pursuit}.

David remained in the wilderness, in the strongholds, and in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him {continually}, but God did not give him into his hand

So Jonathan the son of Saul got up and went to David [at] Horesh, and {encouraged him} through God.

He said to him, "Do not be afraid, for the hand of my father Saul will not find you. You will be king over Israel, and {I will be second to you}. My father Saul knows [this] also."

Then the two of them {made} a covenant before Yahweh. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went to his house.