The priest answered David, and said, “There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.”

David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was but a common journey. How much more then today shall their vessels be holy?” So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread, that was taken from before Yahweh, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. David said to Ahimelech, “Isn’t there here under your hand spear or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.”

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 no other except that here.”

David said, “There is none like that. Give it to me.”

David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. The servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David the king of the land? Didn’t they sing one to another about him in dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?’” David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath. He changed his behavior before them, and pretended to be mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”

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Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth. Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him. Now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. Saul said to his servants who stood about him, “Hear now, you Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none who discloses to me when my son makes a treaty with the son of Jesse, 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?”

Then Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, answered and said, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. He inquired of Yahweh for him, gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the priests who were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king. Saul said, “Hear now, you son of Ahitub.”

He answered, “Here I am, my lord.”

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, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?”

Then Ahimelech 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? 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.”

The king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father’s house.” The king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn, and kill the priests of Yahweh; 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 priests of Yahweh. The king said to Doeg, “Turn and attack the priests!”

Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod. He struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and cattle and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword. One of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David. Abiathar told David that Saul had slain Yahweh’s priests. David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of all the persons of your father’s house. Stay with me, don’t be afraid; for he who seeks my life seeks your life. For with me you shall be in safeguard.”

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David was told, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors.”

Therefore David inquired of Yahweh, saying, “Shall I go and strike these Philistines?”

Yahweh said to David, “Go strike the Philistines, and save Keilah.”

David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”

Then David inquired of Yahweh yet again. Yahweh answered him, and said, “Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.”

David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their livestock, and killed them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. It happened, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.

It was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. Saul said, “God has delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that has gates and bars.” Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. David knew that Saul was devising mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” Then David said, “O Yahweh, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? Yahweh, the God of Israel, I beg you, tell your servant.”

Yahweh said, “He will come down.”

Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?”

Yahweh said, “They will deliver you up.”

Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went wherever they could go. It was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he gave up going there. David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God didn’t deliver him into his hand. David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph in the wood.

Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose, and went to David into the woods, and strengthened his hand in God. He said to him, “Don’t be afraid; for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you; and you shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you; and that also Saul my father knows.” They both made a covenant before Yahweh: and David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his house. Then the Ziphites came up to Saul to Gibeah, saying, “Doesn’t David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desert? 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.”

Saul said, “You are blessed by Yahweh; for you have had compassion on me. 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. See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides himself, and come again to me with certainty, and I will go with you: and it shall happen, if he is in the land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.”

They arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of the desert. Saul and his men went to seek him. When David was told, he went down to the rock, and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. Saul 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 Saul; for Saul and his men surrounded David and his men to take them. But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come; for the Philistines have made a raid on the land!” So Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Sela Hammahlekoth. David went up from there, and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.

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When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and did obeisance. David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to men’s words, saying, ‘Behold, David seeks your hurt?’ Behold, this day your eyes have seen how that Yahweh had delivered you today into my hand in the cave. Some urged me to kill you; but I spared you; and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is Yahweh’s anointed. 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 and see that there is neither evil nor disobedience in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, though you hunt for my life to take it. May Yahweh judge between me and you, and may Yahweh avenge me of you; but my hand shall not be on you. As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness;’ but my hand shall not be on you. Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea? May Yahweh therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hand.”

It came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” Saul lifted up his voice, and wept. He said to David, “You are more righteous than I; for you have done good to me, whereas I have done evil to you. You have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, because when Yahweh had delivered me up into your hand, you didn’t kill me. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away unharmed? Therefore may Yahweh reward you good for that which you have done to me this day. Now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Swear now therefore to me by Yahweh, that you will not cut off my seed after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father’s house.”

David swore to Saul. Saul went home; but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

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When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.

Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants who break away from their masters these days. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men who I don’t know where they come from?”

So David’s young men turned on their way, and went back, and came and told him according to all these words. David said to his men, “Every man put on his sword!”

Every man put on his sword. David also put on his sword. About four hundred men followed David; and two hundred stayed by the baggage. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to Greet our master; and he railed at them. But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields. They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know and consider what you will do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his house; for he is such a worthless fellow that one can’t speak to him.”

Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two bottles of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. She said to her young men, “Go on before me. Behold, I come after you.” But she didn’t tell her husband, Nabal. It was so, as she rode on her donkey, and came down by the covert of the mountain, that behold, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them.

Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained to him. He has returned me evil for good. God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that belongs to him by the morning light so much as one male.”

When Abigail saw David, she hurried, and alighted from her donkey, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground. She fell at his feet, and said, “On me, my lord, on me be the iniquity; and please let your handmaid speak in your ears. Hear the words of your handmaid. Please don’t let my lord regard this worthless fellow, even Nabal; for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; but I, your handmaid, didn’t see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. Now therefore, my lord, as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, since Yahweh has withheld you from blood guiltiness, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies, and those who seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. Now this present which your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. Please forgive the trespass of your handmaid. For Yahweh will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of Yahweh; and evil shall not be found in you all your days. Though men may rise up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh your God. He will sling out the souls of your enemies, as from the hollow of a sling. It shall come to pass, when Yahweh has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and shall have appointed you prince over Israel, that this shall be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. When Yahweh has dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid.”

David said to Abigail, “Blessed is Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! Blessed is your discretion, and blessed are you, that have kept me this day from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand. For indeed, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, who has withheld me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there wouldn’t have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as one male.”

So David received of her hand that which she had brought him: and he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. Behold, I have listened to your voice, and have granted your request.”

Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken. Therefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. It happened in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. It happened about ten days after, that Yahweh struck Nabal, so that he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed is Yahweh, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. Yahweh has returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to him as wife. When the servants of David had come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, “David has sent us to you, to take you to him as wife.”

She arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” Abigail hurried, and arose, and rode on a donkey, with five ladies of hers who followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife. David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they both became his wives. Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

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