The First Book of Shemu'el, starting at chapter 22
{22:1} David therefore departed 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. {22:2} Everyone who was in distress, and
everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered
themselves to him; and he became captain over them: and there were
with him about four hundred men. {22:3} David went there to Mitzpeh of
Mo'av: and he said to the king of Mo'av, Please let my father and my
mother come forth, [and be] with you, until I know what God will do
for me. {22:4} He brought them before the king of Mo'av: and they
lived with him all the while that David was in the stronghold. {22:5}
The prophet Gad said to David, Don't stay in the stronghold; depart,
and get you into the land of Yehudah. Then David departed, and came
into the forest of Heret. {22:6} Sha'ul heard that David was
discovered, and the men who were with him: now Sha'ul was sitting in
Gevah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand,
and all his servants were standing about him. {22:7} Sha'ul said to
his servants who stood about him, Hear now, you Binyamini; will the
son of Yishai give everyone of you fields and vineyards, will he make
you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, {22:8} that
all of you have conspired against me, and there is none who discloses
to me when my son makes a league with the son of Yishai, and there is
none of you who 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?
{22:9} Then answered Do'eg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of
Sha'ul, and said, I saw the son of Yishai coming to Nov, to Achimelekh
the son of Achituv. {22:10} He inquired of the LORD for him, and gave
him food, and gave him the sword of Golyat the Pelishti. {22:11} Then
the king sent to call Achimelekh the [1>]Kohen[<1], the son of
Achituv, and all his father's house, the [2>]Kohanim[<2] who were in
Nov: and they came all of them to the king. {22:12} Sha'ul said, Hear
now, you son of Achituv. He answered, Here I am, my lord. {22:13}
Sha'ul said to him, Why have you conspired against me, you and the son
of Yishai, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have
inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in
wait, as at this day? {22:14} Then Achimelekh answered the king, and
said, Who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the
king's son-in-law, and is taken into your council, and is honorable in
your house? {22:15} Have I today begun to inquire of God for him? be
it far from me: don't let the king impute anything to his servant, nor
to all the house of my father; for your servant knows nothing of all
this, less or more. {22:16} The king said, You shall surely die,
Achimelekh, you, and all your father's house. {22:17} The king said to
the guard who stood about him, Turn, and kill the [3>]Kohanim[<3] of
the LORD; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew
that he fled, and didn't disclose it to me. But the servants of the
king wouldn't put forth their hand to fall on the [4>]Kohanim[<4] of
the LORD. {22:18} The king said to Do'eg, Turn you, and fall on the
[5>]Kohanim[<5]. Do'eg the Edomite turned, and he fell on the
[6>]Kohanim[<6], and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who
wore a linen efod. {22:19} Nov, the city of the [7>]Kohanim[<7],
struck he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and
nursing babies, and oxen and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the
sword. {22:20} One of the sons of Achimelekh, the son of Achituv,
named Avyatar, escaped, and fled after David. {22:21} Avyatar told
David that Sha'ul had slain the LORD's [8>]Kohanim[<8]. {22:22} David
said to Avyatar, I knew on that day, when Do'eg the Edomite was there,
that he would surely tell Sha'ul: I have occasioned [the death] of all
the persons of your father's house. {22:23} Abide you with me, don't
be afraid; for he who seeks my life seeks your life: for with me you
shall be in safeguard.
{23:1} They told David, saying, Behold, the Pelishtim are fighting
against Ke`ilah, and are robbing the threshing floors. {23:2}
Therefore David inquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and strike
these Pelishtim? the LORD said to David, Go, and strike the Pelishtim,
and save Ke`ilah. {23:3} David's men said to him, Behold, we are
afraid here in Yehudah: how much more then if we go to Ke`ilah against
the armies of the Pelishtim? {23:4} Then David inquired of the LORD
yet again. The LORD answered him, and said, Arise, go down to Ke`ilah;
for I will deliver the Pelishtim into your hand. {23:5} David and his
men went to Ke`ilah, and fought with the Pelishtim, and brought away
their cattle, and killed them with a great slaughter. So David saved
the inhabitants of Ke`ilah. {23:6} It happened, when Avyatar the son
of Achimelekh fled to David to Ke`ilah, that he came down with an efod
in his hand. {23:7} It was told Sha'ul that David was come to Ke`ilah.
Sha'ul said, God has delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by
entering into a town that has gates and bars. {23:8} Sha'ul summoned
all the people to war, to go down to Ke`ilah, to besiege David and his
men. {23:9} David knew that Sha'ul was devising mischief against him;
and he said to Avyatar the [1>]Kohen[<1], Bring here the efod. {23:10}
Then said David, O LORD, the God of Yisra'el, your servant has surely
heard that Sha'ul seeks to come to Ke`ilah, to destroy the city for my
sake. {23:11} Will the men of Ke`ilah deliver me up into his hand?
will Sha'ul come down, as your servant has heard? LORD, the God of
Yisra'el, I beg you, tell your servant. The LORD said, He will come
down. {23:12} Then said David, Will the men of Ke`ilah deliver up to
me and my men into the hand of Sha'ul? the LORD said, They will
deliver you up. {23:13} Then David and his men, who were about six
hundred, arose and departed out of Ke`ilah, and went wherever they
could go. It was told Sha'ul that David was escaped from Ke`ilah; and
he gave up going there. {23:14} David abode in the wilderness in the
strongholds, and remained in the hill-country in the wilderness of
Zif. Sha'ul sought him every day, but God didn't deliver him into his
hand. {23:15} David saw that Sha'ul had come out to seek his life: and
David was in the wilderness of Zif in the wood. {23:16} Yonatan,
Sha'ul's son, arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened
his hand in God. {23:17} He said to him, Don't be afraid; for the hand
of Sha'ul my father shall not find you; and you shall be king over
Yisra'el, and I shall be next to you; and that also Sha'ul my father
knows. {23:18} They two made a covenant before the LORD: and David
abode in the wood, and Yonatan went to his house. {23:19} Then came up
the Zifim to Sha'ul to Gevah, saying, Doesn't David hide himself with
us in the strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hakhilah, which is
on the south of the desert? {23:20} Now therefore, O king, come down,
according to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part
shall be to deliver him up into the king's hand. {23:21} Sha'ul said,
Blessed be you of the LORD; for you have had compassion on me. {23:22}
Please go make yet more sure, and know and see his place where his
haunt is, [and] who has seen him there; for it is told me that he
deals very subtly. {23:23} See therefore, and take knowledge of all
the lurking-places where he hides himself, and come you again to me of
a certainty, and I will go with you: and it shall happen, if he be in
the land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of
Yehudah. {23:24} They arose, and went to Zif before Sha'ul: but David
and his men were in the wilderness of Ma`on, in the `Aravah on the
south of the desert. {23:25} Sha'ul and his men went to seek him. They
told David: why he came down to the rock, and abode in the wilderness
of Ma`on. When Sha'ul heard [that], he pursued after David in the
wilderness of Ma`on. {23:26} Sha'ul went on this side of the mountain,
and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made
haste to get away for fear of Sha'ul; for Sha'ul and his men compassed
David and his men round about to take them. {23:27} But there came a
messenger to Sha'ul, saying, Haste you, and come; for the Pelishtim
have made a raid on the land. {23:28} So Sha'ul returned from pursuing
after David, and went against the Pelishtim: therefore they called
that place Sela-Hammachlekot. {23:29} David went up from there, and
lived in the strongholds of `En-Gedi.
{24:1} It happened, when Sha'ul was returned from following the
Pelishtim, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the
wilderness of `En-Gedi. {24:2} Then Sha'ul took three thousand chosen
men out of all Yisra'el, and went to seek David and his men on the
rocks of the wild goats. {24:3} He came to the sheep pens by the way,
where was a cave; and Sha'ul went in to cover his feet. Now David and
his men were abiding in the innermost parts of the cave. {24:4} The
men of David said to him, Behold, the day of which the LORD said to
you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, and you shall
do to him as it shall seem good to you. Then David arose, and cut off
the skirt of Sha'ul's robe secretly. {24:5} It happened afterward,
that David's heart struck him, because he had cut off Sha'ul's skirt.
{24:6} He said to his men, the LORD forbid that I should do this thing
to my lord, the LORD's anointed, to put forth my hand against him,
seeing he is the LORD's anointed. {24:7} So David checked his men with
these words, and didn't allow them to rise against Sha'ul. Sha'ul rose
up out of the cave, and went on his way. {24:8} David also arose
afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Sha'ul, saying,
My lord the king. When Sha'ul looked behind him, David bowed with his
face to the [1>]eretz[<1], and did obeisance. {24:9} David said to
Sha'ul, Why listen you to men's words, saying, Behold, David seeks
your hurt? {24:10} Behold, this day your eyes have seen how that the
LORD had delivered you today into my hand in the cave: and some bade
me kill you; but [my eye] spared you; and I said, I will not put forth
my hand against my lord; for he is the LORD's anointed. {24:11}
Moreover, my father, behold, yes, see the skirt of your robe in my
hand; for in that I cut off the skirt of your robe, and didn't kill
you, know you and see that there is neither evil nor disobedience in
my hand, and I have not sinned against you, though you hunt after my
life to take it. {24:12} The LORD judge between me and you, and the
LORD avenge me of you; but my hand shall not be on you. {24:13} As
says the proverb of the ancients, Out of the wicked comes forth
wickedness; but my hand shall not be on you. {24:14} After whom is the
king of Yisra'el come out? after whom do you pursue? after a dead dog,
after a flea. {24:15} The LORD therefore be judge, and give sentence
between me and you, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of
your hand. {24:16} It came to pass, when David had made an end of
speaking these words to Sha'ul, that Sha'ul said, Is this your voice,
my son David? Sha'ul lifted up his voice, and wept. {24:17} He said to
David, You are more righteous than I; for you have rendered to me
good, whereas I have rendered to you evil. {24:18} You have declared
this day how that you have dealt well with me, because when the LORD
had delivered me up into your hand, you didn't kill me. {24:19} For if
a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away unharmed? Therefore may
the LORD reward you good for that which you have done to me this day.
{24:20} Now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that
the kingdom of Yisra'el shall be established in your hand. {24:21}
Swear now therefore to me by the LORD, that you will not cut off my
seed after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my
father's house. {24:22} David swore to Sha'ul. Sha'ul went home; but
David and his men got them up to the stronghold.
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Footnotes:
[1] {22:11} priest
[2] {22:11} priests
[3] {22:17} priests
[4] {22:17} priests
[5] {22:18} priests
[6] {22:18} priests
[7] {22:19} priests
[8] {22:21} priests
[1] {23:9} priest
[1] {24:8} earth
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