Old/New Testament

Saul Tries to Kill David

19 Now Saul told his son Jonathan and all his courtiers to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan delighted much in David. ² So Jonathan informed David saying, “My father Saul is seeking to kill you. So now, please be on guard in the morning, and stay in a secret place and hide yourself. ³ I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you will be, and I will speak with my father about you. If I notice anything, I will tell you.” ⁴ So Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said to him, “May the king not sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial for you; ⁵ For he put his life in his hand and killed the Philistine, and Adonai won a great victory for all Israel—you saw it and rejoiced. So why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David without a cause?”

⁶ Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, “As Adonai lives, he will not be put to death.” ⁷ So Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul and in his presence as before.

⁸ Once again war broke out, and David marched out and fought the Philistines, and inflicted a great slaughter on them and they fled before him. ⁹ Yet once again an evil spirit from Adonai came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, as David was playing music with his hand. ¹⁰ Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s face, so that he drove the spear into the wall. That night David fled and got away.

¹¹ Then Saul sent agents to David’s house to watch him, in order to kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him saying, “If you don’t escape for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!” ¹² So Michal lowered David down through the window, and thus he went, fled and escaped. ¹³ Then Michal took a household idol, laid it in the bed, put a quilt of goats’ hair at the head and covered it with a cloth. ¹⁴ When Saul sent messengers to arrest David, she said, “He’s sick.”

¹⁵ So Saul sent the agents back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed so I may put him to death.” ¹⁶ When the messengers came in, behold, the household idol was in the bed with the quilt of goats’ hair at its head. ¹⁷ Saul then said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy get away, so that he escaped?”

Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go or I’ll kill you!’”

¹⁸ So David fled and escaped, went to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth. ¹⁹ Saul was told, “Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.” ²⁰ So Saul sent agents to seize David, but they saw a band of prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing and presiding over them. Then the Ruach of God came upon Saul’s agents and they too prophesied. ²¹ When Saul was told, he sent other agents and they too prophesied. Then Saul sent a third group of messengers, and they too prophesied. ²² Then he himself went to Ramah, and when he arrived at the great cistern in Secu, he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?”

Someone answered, “Look, they are at Naioth at Ramah.” ²³ So he proceeded there, to Naioth at Ramah, and the Ruach of God came upon him as well, and he prophesied as he kept walking until he arrived to Naioth at Ramah. ²⁴ Then he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. That is why people were saying, “Is Saul too among the prophets?”

Reaffirming Covenant Loyalty

20 Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah, came before Jonathan and said, “What have I done? What is my crime? What is my sin against your father that he should be seeking my life?”

² “Never!” he said to him. “You will not die! Behold, my father does nothing great or small without disclosing it to me. So why should my father hide this matter from me? It cannot be.”

³ Then David swore again saying, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes. So he must have thought, ‘Let’s not let Jonathan know about this, else he will be grieved.’ But truly as Adonai lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.”

⁴ Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you!”

⁵ So David said to Jonathan, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, when I am supposed to sit down with the king to eat. Instead, let me go hide myself in the countryside until the third evening. ⁶ If your father misses me at all, then say: ‘David earnestly asked my permission to run to Beth-lehem, his town, for it is the annual sacrifice there for the whole family.’ ⁷ If he says thus, ‘Very well,’ then your servant is safe; but if he becomes very angry, then know that he is determined to harm me. ⁸ Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of Adonai with you. But if there is any iniquity in me, then kill me yourself! Why should you bring me to your father?”

⁹ Jonathan replied, “Far be it from you! For if I know for sure that my father has determined evil to come on you, then wouldn’t I tell you about it?”

¹⁰ Then David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”

¹¹ Jonathan said to David, “Come, let’s go out to the field.” So they both went out to the field. ¹² Then Jonathan said to David, “By Adonai, God of Israel, I will sound out my father about this time tomorrow or the day after. Look, if it is good toward David, wouldn’t I then send word to you and disclose it to you? ¹³ May Adonai do so to Jonathan and even worse, should my father intend to do you evil, if I don’t disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in shalom. So may Adonai be with you as He has been with my father.

¹⁴ “Now if I am still alive, wouldn’t you show me the loyal love of Adonai so I wouldn’t die? ¹⁵ Yet also, don’t cut off your loyal love from my household ever—not even when Adonai cuts off all of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.” ¹⁶ So Jonathan cut a covenant with the house of David, “So may Adonai requite David’s enemies.” ¹⁷ Jonathan made David swear again because of the love he had for him, for he loved him as he loved himself.

¹⁸ Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the New Moon. You’ll be missed because your seat will be empty. ¹⁹ On the third day, you must go down quickly and come to the place where you hid as you did on that day, and remain close to the stone Ezel. ²⁰ I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. ²¹ Now look, I will send a lad saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I specifically say to the lad, ‘See, the arrows are on this side of you—get them,’ then come; for it is safe for you and no danger, as Adonai lives. ²² But if I say to the boy: ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go your way, for Adonai has released you. ²³ But as for the matter which I and you have spoken about, behold, Adonai is between me and you forever.”

²⁴ So David hid himself in the field, and when the New Moon came, the king sat down to eat a meal. ²⁵ So the king sat on his seat—as usual, the seat by the wall—Jonathan stood up and Abner sat down by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. ²⁶ Nevertheless, Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, “It must be an accident; he must be ceremonially unclean—yes, that’s it, he’s unclean.”

²⁷ Yet it came to pass on the day following the New Moon, the second day, that David’s place was still empty. So Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why didn’t Jesse’s son come to the meal yesterday or today?”

²⁸ Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Beth-lehem, ²⁹ as he said, ‘Please let me go, for we are going to have a family feast in the town, and my brother has commanded me. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me go, please, to see my brothers. That’s why he hasn’t come to the king’s table.”

³⁰ Then Saul’s rage blazed 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 earth, neither you nor your kingship will be secure. Now, send word and bring him to me, for he is a son of death!”

³² But Jonathan answered his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”

³³ Then Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him down. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. ³⁴ So Jonathan rose up from the table in fierce anger, and did not eat food the second day of the new month, for he was grieved over David, because his father had dishonored him.

³⁵ It came to pass in the morning that Jonathan went out to the field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad was with him. ³⁶ He said to his lad, “Run, find now the arrows that I am about to shoot.” Now as the lad was running, he shot an arrow past him. ³⁷ When the lad reached the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried out after the lad and said, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” ³⁸ Then Jonathan called out after the lad, “Quick, hurry! Don’t stand there!” So Jonathan’s lad picked up the arrow and came to his master. ³⁹ But the lad knew nothing; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement. ⁴⁰ Then Jonathan gave his weapons to his lad and said to him, “Go, take them back to the town.”

⁴¹ As soon as the lad was gone, David emerged from the south side and fell on his face to the ground and bowed down three times. Then they kissed each other and wept together, though David wept more. ⁴² Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in the shalom that we both have sworn to each other in the Name of Adonai saying: ‘May Adonai be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’”

Eating Consecrated Bread

21 Then David got up and left, while Jonathan returned to the town. ² David went to Nob to Ahimelech the kohen. Ahimelech was afraid to meet David, so he said to him, “Why are you alone and no one with you?”

³ David said to Ahimelech the kohen, “The king has commissioned me with a matter, and told me: ‘Let no one know anything about the mission on which I am sending you, or with what I have commissioned you.’ So, I have directed the young men to such and such a place. ⁴ So now, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.”

⁵ The kohen answered David saying, “There is no common bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread^[a]—so long as the young men have kept themselves from women.”

⁶ “Of course women have been kept from us, as on previous campaigns,” David answered the kohen. “So the young men’s vessels were holy, though it was an ordinary mission—how much more so will their vessels be holy today!” ⁷ So the kohen gave him consecrated bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which was taken out from the presence of Adonai in order to replace it with hot bread on the day it was taken away.^[b]

⁸ Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before Adonai. His name was Doeg the Edomite, chief of Saul’s shepherds.

⁹ Then David said to Ahimelech, “Isn’t there a spear or sword on hand? For I did not take my sword or my weapons with me, because the king’s mission was urgent.”

¹⁰ The kohen said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you killed in the valley of Elah—it’s here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, take it. For there’s nothing else here.”

“There’s nothing like it!” David said. “Give it to me.”

David Pretends Insanity

¹¹ Then David got up and fled that day from Saul, and went to Achish, king of Gath. ¹² But Achish’s courtiers said to him, “Isn’t this David king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?’”

¹³ David took these words to heart, and he became so afraid of King Achish of Gath ¹⁴ that he changed his demeanor before them and acted like a mad man while in their hands—scribbling on the doors of the gate and letting his saliva run down his beard. ¹⁵ Then Achish said to his courtiers, “Look, you can see the man is insane. Why did you bring him to me? ¹⁶ Do I have a shortage of crazy people that you’ve brought this fellow to go crazy on me? Is this one going to come into my house?”

²⁹ With the crowds increasing, Yeshua began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation. It demands a sign, yet no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,^[a] so also the Son of Man will be to this generation. ³¹ The Queen of the South will rise up at the Judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.^[b] And behold, something greater than Solomon is here. ³² The men of Nineveh will rise at the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s proclamation. And indeed, one greater than Jonah is here.

³³ “No one lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on the lampstand so that those entering may see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But when it is sick, your body is full of darkness. ³⁵ Therefore, watch out that the light in you is not darkness. ³⁶ If then your body is full of light, with no part of it dark, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its gleam.”

Dinner with a Pharisee

³⁷ As He spoke, a Pharisee asked Yeshua to eat with him, so He entered and sat down. ³⁸ But the Pharisee was surprised when he saw that Yeshua did not do the ritual handwashing before the meal. ³⁹ But the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰ Fools! Didn’t He who created the outside also create the inside? ⁴¹ But give as tzedakah those things that are within, and indeed everything is pure to you.

⁴² “But woe to you Pharisees, for you tithe mint, rue, and every garden herb,^[c] yet bypass justice and the love of God. It is necessary to do these things without neglecting the others. ⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees, for you love the best seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴ Woe to you, for you are like unmarked tombs, and people walk over them without knowing.”

⁴⁵ But answering, one of the Torah lawyers says to Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too.”

⁴⁶ Then Yeshua said, “Woe to you Torah lawyers as well, for you weigh the people down with burdens hard to carry, yet you yourselves will not touch the burdens with even a finger.

⁴⁷ “Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your own fathers killed! ⁴⁸ So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers, for indeed they killed them and you are building their tombs.

⁴⁹ “For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and emissaries, and some of them they will kill and persecute, ⁵⁰ so that the blood of the prophets shed since the foundation of the world might be required from this generation— ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the one who perished between the altar and the house of God.^[d] Yes, I tell you, it will be required from this generation.’

⁵² “Woe to you, Torah lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter, and you stood in the way of those entering.”

⁵³ When Yeshua left there, the Torah scholars and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to interrogate Him on many issues, ⁵⁴ plotting against Him to catch Him in His words.