²⁶ To Abiathar^(A) the priest the king said, “Go back to your fields in Anathoth.^(B) You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death now, because you carried the ark^(C) of the Sovereign Lord before my father David and shared all my father’s hardships.”^(D)

⁴ Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?^(A)”

⁷ When the sun goes down, he will be clean, and after that he may eat the sacred offerings, for they are his food.^(A)

¹¹ But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset^(A) he may return to the camp.^(B)

² The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield.