41 After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together-but David wept the most.
42 Jonathan said to David, 'Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord , saying, 'The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.' ' Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.
21 David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he met him, and asked, 'Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?'
2 David answered Ahimelech the priest, 'The king charged me with a certain matter and said to me, 'No one is to know anything about your mission and your instructions.' As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place.
3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.'
4 But the priest answered David, 'I don't have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here-provided the men have kept themselves from women.'
5 David replied, 'Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men's things are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!'
6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.
7 Now one of Saul's servants was there that day, detained before the Lord ; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul's head shepherd.
8 David asked Ahimelech, 'Don't you have a spear or a sword here? I haven't brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king's business was urgent.'
9 The priest replied, 'The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one.' David said, 'There is none like it; give it to me.'
10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath.
11 But the servants of Achish said to him, 'Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances: ' 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?'
12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath.
13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.
14 Achish said to his servants, 'Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me?
15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?'
22 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there.
2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.
3 From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab, 'Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?'
4 So he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold.
5 But the prophet Gad said to David, 'Do not stay in the stronghold. Go into the land of Judah.' So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.
6 Now Saul heard that David and his men had been discovered. And Saul, spear in hand, was seated under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, with all his officials standing around him.
7 Saul said to them, 'Listen, men of Benjamin! 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?
8 Is that why you have all conspired against me? No one tells me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is concerned about me or tells me that my son has incited my servant to lie in wait for me, as he does today.'
9 But Doeg the Edomite, who was standing with Saul's officials, said, 'I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob.
10 Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for him; he also gave him provisions and the sword of Goliath the Philistine.'
11 Then the king sent for the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub and his father's whole family, who were the priests at Nob, and they all came to the king.
12 Saul said, 'Listen now, son of Ahitub.' 'Yes, my lord,' he answered.
13 Saul said to him, 'Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, giving him bread and a sword and inquiring of God for him, so that he has rebelled against me and lies in wait for me, as he does today?'
14 Ahimelech answered the king, 'Who of all your servants is as loyal as David, the king's son-in-law, captain of your bodyguard and highly respected in your household?
