1 Samuel 21:10-22:2

New American Standard Bible

¹⁰ Then David set out and fled that day from Saul, and went to ^(A)Achish king of Gath. ¹¹ But the ^(B)servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David, the king of the land? ^(C)Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying,

¹² David ^(D)took these words ^[a]to heart and greatly feared Achish king of Gath. ¹³ So he ^(E)disguised his sanity while in their sight and acted insanely in their ^[b]custody, and he scribbled on the doors of the gate, and drooled on his beard. ¹⁴ Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is behaving like an insane person. Why do you bring him to me? ¹⁵ Do I lack insane people, that you have brought this one to behave like an insane person in my presence? Shall this one come into my house?”

Priests Killed at Nob

22 So David departed from there and ^(F)escaped to ^(G)the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s household heard about it, they went down there to him. ² Then everyone who was in distress, and everyone who ^[c]was in debt, and everyone who was ^[d]discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were ^(H)about four hundred men with him.