NAS - 1 Samuel Chapter 20 to 22

20 David and Jonathan Covenant

¹Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said to Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my iniquity? And what is my sin before your father, that he is seeking my life?" ²He said to him, "Far from it, you shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me. So why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so!" ³Yet David vowed again, saying, "Your father knows well that I have found favor in your sight, and he has said, `Do not let Jonathan know this, or he will be grieved.' But truly as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is hardly a step between me and death." ⁴Then Jonathan said to David, "Whatever you say, I will do for you." ⁵So David said to Jonathan, "Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I ought to sit down to eat with the king. But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field until the third evening. ⁶"If your father misses me at all, then say, `David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city, because it is the yearly sacrifice there for the whole family.' ⁷"If he says, `It is good,' your servant will be safe; but if he is very angry, know that he has decided on evil. ⁸"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, put me to death yourself; for why then should you bring me to your father?" ⁹Jonathan said, "Far be it from you! For if I should indeed learn that evil has been decided by my father to come upon you, then would I not tell you about it?" ¹⁰Then David said to Jonathan, "Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?" ¹¹Jonathan said to David, "Come, and let us go out into the field." So both of them went out to the field.

¹²Then Jonathan said to David, "The LORD, the God of Israel, be witness! When I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there is good feeling toward David, shall I not then send to you and make it known to you? ¹³"If it please my father to do you harm, may the LORD do so to Jonathan and more also, if I do not make it known to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. And may the LORD be with you as He has been with my father. ¹⁴"If I am still alive, will you not show me the lovingkindness of the LORD, that I may not die? ¹⁵"You shall not cut off your lovingkindness from my house forever, not even when the LORD cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth." ¹⁶So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the LORD require it at the hands of David's enemies." ¹⁷Jonathan made David vow again because of his love for him, because he loved him as he loved his own life.

¹⁸Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty. ¹⁹"When you have stayed for three days, you shall go down quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself on that eventful day, and you shall remain by the stone Ezel. ²⁰"I will shoot three arrows to the side, as though I shot at a target. ²¹"And behold, I will send the lad, saying, `Go, find the arrows.' If I specifically say to the lad, `Behold, the arrows are on this side of you, get them,' then come; for there is safety for you and no harm, as the LORD lives. ²²"But if I say to the youth, `Behold, the arrows are beyond you,' go, for the LORD has sent you away. ²³"As for the agreement of which you and I have spoken, behold, the LORD is between you and me forever."

²⁴So David hid in the field; and when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. ²⁵The king sat on his seat as usual, the seat by the wall; then Jonathan rose up and Abner sat down by Saul's side, but David's place was empty. ²⁶Nevertheless Saul did not speak anything that day, for he thought, "It is an accident, he is not clean, surely he is not clean." ²⁷It came about the next day, the second day of the new moon, that David's place was empty; so Saul said to Jonathan his son, "Why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today?" ²⁸Jonathan then answered Saul, "David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem, ²⁹for he said, `Please let me go, since our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to attend. And now, if I have found favor in your sight, please let me get away that I may see my brothers.' For this reason he has not come to the king's table."

Saul Is Angry with Jonathan

³⁰Then Saul's anger burned against Jonathan and he said to him, "You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness? ³¹"For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Therefore now, send and bring him to me, for he must surely die." ³²But Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?" ³³Then Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him down; so Jonathan knew that his father had decided to put David to death. ³⁴Then Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and did not eat food on the second day of the new moon, for he was grieved over David because his father had dishonored him.

³⁵Now it came about in the morning that Jonathan went out into the field for the appointment with David, and a little lad was with him. ³⁶He said to his lad, "Run, find now the arrows which I am about to shoot." As the lad was running, he shot an arrow past him. ³⁷When the lad reached the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the lad and said, "Is not the arrow beyond you?" ³⁸And Jonathan called after the lad, "Hurry, be quick, do not stay!" And Jonathan's lad picked up the arrow and came to his master. ³⁹But the lad was not aware of anything; only Jonathan and David knew about the matter. ⁴⁰Then Jonathan gave his weapons to his lad and said to him, "Go, bring them to the city." ⁴¹When the lad was gone, David rose from the south side and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed three times. And they kissed each other and wept together, but David wept the more. ⁴²Jonathan said to David, "Go in safety, inasmuch as we have sworn to each other in the name of the LORD, saying, `The LORD will be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.'" Then he rose and departed, while Jonathan went into the city.

21 David Takes Consecrated Bread

¹Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, "Why are you alone and no one with you?" ²David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, `Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.' ³"Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found." ⁴The priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women." ⁵David answered the priest and said to him, "Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their vessels be holy?" ⁶So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before the LORD, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away.

⁷Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's shepherds.

⁸David said to Ahimelech, "Now is there not a spear or a sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's matter was urgent." ⁹Then the priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take it. For there is no other except it here." And David said, "There is none like it; give it to me."

¹⁰Then David arose and fled that day 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 of this one as they danced, saying, `Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands'?" ¹²David took these words to heart and greatly feared Achish king of Gath. ¹³So he disguised his sanity before them, and acted insanely in their hands, and scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva run down into his beard. ¹⁴Then Achish said to his servants, "Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me? ¹⁵"Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this one to act the madman in my presence? Shall this one come into my house?"

22 The Priests Slain at Nob

¹So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father's household heard of it, they went down there to him. ²Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.

³And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me." ⁴Then he left them with the king of Moab; and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. ⁵The prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah." So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.

⁶Then Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered. Now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him. ⁷Saul said to his servants who stood around him, "Hear now, O Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse also give to all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? ⁸"For all of you have conspired against me so that there is no one who discloses to me when my son makes a covenant 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 ambush, as it is this day." ⁹Then Doeg the Edomite, who was standing by the servants of Saul, said, "I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. ¹⁰"He inquired of the LORD for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine."

¹¹Then the king sent someone to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's household, the priests who were in Nob; and all of them came to the king. ¹²Saul said, "Listen now, son of Ahitub." And he answered, "Here I am, my lord." ¹³Saul then said to him, "Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he would rise up against me by lying in ambush as it is this day?"

¹⁴Then Ahimelech answered the king and said, "And who among all your servants is as faithful as David, even the king's son-in-law, who is captain over your guard, and is honored in your house? ¹⁵"Did I just begin to inquire of God for him today? Far be it from me! Do not let the king impute anything to his servant or to any of the household of my father, for your servant knows nothing at all of this whole affair." ¹⁶But the king said, "You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's household!" ¹⁷And the king said to the guards who were attending him, "Turn around and put the priests of the LORD to death, because their hand also is with David and because they knew that he was fleeing and did not reveal it to me." But the servants of the king were not willing to put forth their hands to attack the priests of the LORD. ¹⁸Then the king said to Doeg, "You turn around and attack the priests." And Doeg the Edomite turned around and attacked the priests, and he killed that day eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod. ¹⁹And he struck Nob the city of the priests with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and infants; also oxen, donkeys, and sheep he struck with the edge of the sword.

²⁰But one son of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. ²¹Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the LORD. ²²Then David said to Abiathar, "I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have brought about the death of every person in your father's household. ²³"Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life, for you are safe with me."