1 Samuel 20-22

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

The Friendship of David and Jonathan

20 Then David fled from Nai′oth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?” ² And he said to him, “Far from it! You shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me; and why should my father hide this from me? It is not so.” ³ But David replied,^[a] “Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he thinks, ‘Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.’ But truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.” ⁴ Then said Jonathan to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.” ⁵ David said to Jonathan, “Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit at table with the king; but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field till the third day at evening. ⁶ If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city; for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’ ⁷ If he says, ‘Good!’ it will be well with your servant; but if he is angry, then know that evil is determined by him. ⁸ Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a sacred covenant^[b] with you. But if there is guilt in me, slay me yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?” ⁹ And Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! If I knew that it was determined by my father that evil should come upon you, would I not tell you?” ¹⁰ Then said David to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?” ¹¹ And Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So they both went out into the field.

¹² And Jonathan said to David, “The Lord, the God of Israel, be witness!^[c] When I have sounded my father, about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you? ¹³ But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan and more also, if I do not disclose it to you, and send you away, that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father. ¹⁴ If I am still alive, show me the loyal love of the Lord, that I may not die;^{[d] 15} and do not cut off your loyalty from my house for ever. When the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth, ¹⁶ let not the name of Jonathan be cut off from the house of David.^[e] And may the Lord take vengeance on David’s enemies.” ¹⁷ And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for 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 And on the third day you will be greatly missed;^[f] then go to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand, and remain beside yonder stone heap.^{[g] 20} And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark. ²¹ And behold, I will send the lad, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to the lad, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them,’ then you are to come, for, as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. ²² But if I say to the youth, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go; for the Lord has sent you away. ²³ And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me for ever.”

²⁴ So David hid himself in the field; and when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. ²⁵ The king sat upon his seat, as at other times, upon the seat by the wall; Jonathan sat opposite,^[h] and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty.

²⁶ Yet Saul did not say anything that day; for he thought, “Something has befallen him; he is not clean, surely he is not clean.” ²⁷ But on the second day, the morrow after the new moon, David’s place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?” ²⁸ Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem; ²⁹ he said, ‘Let me go; for our family holds a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away, and see my brothers.’ For this reason 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, do I not 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 upon the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and fetch him to me, for he shall surely die.” ³² Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” ³³ But Saul cast his spear at him to smite him; so Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. ³⁴ And Jonathan rose 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 disgraced him.

³⁵ In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him a little lad. ³⁶ And he said to his lad, “Run and find the arrows which I shoot.” As the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. ³⁷ And when the lad came to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the lad and said, “Is not the arrow beyond you?” ³⁸ And Jonathan called after the lad, “Hurry, make haste, stay not.” So Jonathan’s lad gathered up the arrows, and came to his master. ³⁹ But the lad knew nothing; only Jonathan and David knew the matter. ⁴⁰ And Jonathan gave his weapons to his lad, and said to him, “Go and carry them to the city.” ⁴¹ And as soon as the lad had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap^[i] and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed three times; and they kissed one another, and wept with one another, until David recovered himself.^{[j] 42} Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord shall be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants, for ever.’” And he rose and departed; and Jonathan went into the city.^[k]

David and the Holy Bread

21 ^[l] Then came David to Nob to Ahim′elech the priest; and Ahim′elech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” ² And David said to Ahim′elech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter, and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. ³ Now then, what have you at hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” ⁴ And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread at hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” ⁵ And David answered the priest, “Of a truth women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition; the vessels of the young men are holy, even when it is a common journey; how much more today will their vessels be holy?” ⁶ So the priest gave him the holy bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

⁷ Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; his name was Do′eg the E′domite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.

⁸ And David said to Ahim′elech, “And have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” ⁹ And 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 none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”

David Flees to Gath

¹⁰ And David rose and fled that day from Saul, and went to A′chish the king of Gath. ¹¹ And the servants of A′chish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,

¹² And David took these words to heart, and was much afraid of A′chish the king of Gath. ¹³ So he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and made marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard. ¹⁴ Then said A′chish to his servants, “Lo, 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?”

David and His Followers at Adul′lam

22 David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. ² And every one who was in distress, and every one who was in debt, and every one who was discontented, gathered to him; and he became captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.

³ And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, “Pray let my father and my mother stay^[m] with you, till I know what God will do for me.” ⁴ And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. ⁵ Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah.” So David departed, and went into the forest of Hereth.

Saul Slaughters the Priests at Nob

⁶ Now Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him. Saul was sitting at Gib′e-ah, under the tamarisk tree on the height, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. ⁷ And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, “Hear now, you Benjaminites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, ⁸ that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Jesse, none of you 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 answered Do′eg the E′domite, who stood by the servants of Saul, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahim′elech the son of Ahi′tub, ¹⁰ and he inquired of the Lord for him, and gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.” ¹¹ Then the king sent to summon Ahim′elech the priest, the son of Ahi′tub, and all his father’s house, the priests who were at Nob; and all of them came to the king. ¹² And Saul said, “Hear now, son of Ahi′tub.” And he answered, “Here I am, my lord.” ¹³ And 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, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?” ¹⁴ Then Ahim′elech answered the king, “And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, and captain over^[n] your bodyguard, and honored in your house? ¹⁵ Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father; for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.” ¹⁶ And the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahim′elech, you and all your father’s house.” ¹⁷ And the king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord; because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled, and did not disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord. ¹⁸ Then the king said to Do′eg, “You turn and fall upon the priests.” And Do′eg the E′domite turned and fell upon the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod. ¹⁹ And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both men and women, children and sucklings, oxen, asses and sheep, he put to the sword.

²⁰ But one of the sons of Ahim′elech the son of Ahi′tub, named Abi′athar, escaped and fled after David. ²¹ And Abi′athar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord. ²² And David said to Abi′athar, “I knew on that day, when Do′eg the E′domite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father’s house. ²³ Stay with me, fear not; for he that seeks my life seeks your life; with me you shall be in safekeeping.”