¹ David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my iniquity? What is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?"

² He said to him, "Far from it; you shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small, but that he discloses it to me; and why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so."

³ David swore moreover, and said, "Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he says, 'Don't let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved:' but truly as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death."

⁴ Then Jonathan said to David, "Whatever your soul desires, I will even do it for you."

⁵ David said to Jonathan, "Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to dine with the king; but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field to the third day at evening.

⁶ If your father miss me at all, then say, 'David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city; for it is the yearly sacrifice there for all the family.'

⁷ If he says, 'It is well;' your servant shall have peace: but if he be angry, then know that evil is determined by him.

⁸ Therefore deal kindly with your servant; for you have brought your servant into a covenant of Yahweh with you: but if there be in me iniquity, kill me yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?"

⁹ Jonathan said, "Far be it from you; for if I should at all know that evil were determined by my father to come on you, then wouldn't I tell you that?"

¹⁰ Then David said to Jonathan, "Who shall tell me if perchance your father answers you roughly?"

¹¹ Jonathan said to David, "Come, and let us go out into the field." They both went out into the field.

¹² Jonathan said to David, "Yahweh, the God of Israel, [be witness]: when I have sounded my father about this time tomorrow, [or] the third day, behold, if there be good toward David, shall I not then send to you, and disclose it to you?

¹³ Yahweh do so to Jonathan, and more also, should it please my father to do you evil, if I don't disclose it to you, and send you away, that you may go in peace: and Yahweh be with you, as he has been with my father.

¹⁴ You shall not only while yet I live show me the loving kindness of Yahweh, that I not die;

¹⁵ but also you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever; no, not when Yahweh has cut off the enemies of David everyone from the surface of the earth."

¹⁶ So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "Yahweh will require it at the hand of David's enemies."

¹⁷ Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

¹⁸ Then 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 three days, you shall go down quickly, and come to the place where you did hide yourself when the business was in hand, and shall remain by the stone Ezel.

²⁰ I will shoot three arrows on its side, as though I shot at a mark.

²¹ 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 Yahweh lives.

²² But if I say this to the boy, 'Behold, the arrows are beyond you;' then go your way; for Yahweh has sent you away.

²³ Concerning the matter which you and I have spoken of, behold, Yahweh is between you and me forever."

²⁴ So David hid himself in the field: and when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat food.

²⁵ 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.

²⁶ Nevertheless Saul didn't say anything that day: for he thought, "Something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is not clean."

²⁷ It happened on the next day after the new moon, the second day, that David's place was empty. Saul said to Jonathan his son, "Why doesn't the son of Jesse come to eat, neither yesterday, nor today?"

²⁸ Jonathan answered Saul, "David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem.

²⁹ 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."

³⁰ Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, "You son of a perverse rebellious woman, don't I know that you have chosen 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, you shall not be established, nor your kingdom. Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die!"

³² Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?"

³³ Saul cast his spear at him to strike him. By this Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death.

³⁴ 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.

³⁵ It happened in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy with him.

³⁶ He said to his boy, "Run, find now the arrows which I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.

³⁷ When the boy was come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the boy, and said, "Isn't the arrow beyond you?"

³⁸ Jonathan cried after the boy, "Go fast! Hurry! Don't delay!" Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows, and came to his master.

³⁹ But the boy didn't know anything. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter.

⁴⁰ Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to him, "Go, carry them to the city."

⁴¹ As soon as the boy was gone, David arose out of [a place] toward the South, 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.

⁴² Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, because we have both sworn in the name of Yahweh, saying, 'Yahweh shall be between me and you, and between my seed and your seed, forever.'" He arose and departed; and Jonathan went into the city.

¹ Then came David 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?"

² 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.'

³ Now therefore what is under your hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present."

⁴ 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."

⁵ 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?"

⁶ So the priest gave him holy [bread]; for there was no bread there but the show bread, that was taken from before Yahweh, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

⁷ Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.

⁸ David said to Ahimelech, "Isn't there here under your hand spear or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste."

⁹ The priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it; for there is no other except that here." David said, "There is none like that. Give it to me."

¹⁰ David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

¹¹ The servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David the king of the land? Didn't they sing one to another about him in dances, saying, 'Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?'"

¹² David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

¹³ 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.

¹⁴ Then Achish said to his servants, "Look, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me?

¹⁵ Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?"

¹ 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.

² 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.

³ 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."

⁴ He brought them before the king of Moab; and they lived with him all the while that David was in the stronghold.

⁵ The prophet Gad said to David, "Don't stay in the stronghold. Depart, and go into the land of Judah." Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.

⁶ 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.

⁷ 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,

⁸ 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?"

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ He inquired of Yahweh for him, gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine."

¹¹ 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.

¹² Saul said, "Hear now, you son of Ahitub." He answered, "Here I am, my lord."

¹³ 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?"

¹⁴ 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?

¹⁵ Have I today begun to inquire of God for him? Be it far from me! Don't let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for your servant knows nothing of all this, less or more."

¹⁶ The king said, "You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father's house."

¹⁷ The king said to the guard who stood about him, "Turn, and kill the priests of Yahweh; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and didn't disclose it to me." But the servants of the king wouldn't put forth their hand to fall on the priests of Yahweh.

¹⁸ 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.

¹⁹ 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.

²⁰ One of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David.

²¹ Abiathar told David that Saul had slain Yahweh's priests.

²² David said to Abiathar, "I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of all the persons of your father's house.

²³ Stay with me, don't be afraid; for he who seeks my life seeks your life. For with me you shall be in safeguard."