Study Desk

He said to him, "Far from it, you shall not die! Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without informing me. So why would my father hide this thing from me? It is not so!"

Yet David vowed again, saying, "Your father is well aware that I have found favor in your sight, and he has said, 'Jonathan is not to know this, otherwise he will be worried.' But indeed as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is just a step between me and death."

So David said to Jonathan, "Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I am obligated to sit down to eat with the king. But let me go so that I may hide myself in the field until the third evening.

"If your father misses me at all, then say, 'David earnestly requested leave of me to run to Bethlehem, his city, because it is the yearly sacrifice there for the whole family.'

"So deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you. But if I am guilty of wrongdoing, kill me yourself; for why then should you bring me to your father?"

Then David said to Jonathan, "Who will inform me if your father answers you harshly?"

"If it pleases my father to do you harm, may the LORD do so to me and more so, if I fail to inform you and send you away, so that you may go in safety. And may the LORD be with you as He has been with my father.

"And if I am still alive, will you not show me the faithfulness of the LORD, so that I do not die?

"As for the agreement of which you and I have spoken, behold, the LORD is between you and me forever."

And Jonathan answered Saul, "David earnestly requested leave of me to go to Bethlehem.

"He said, 'Please let me go, because our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has ordered me to attend. So now, if I have found favor in your sight, please let me slip away so that I may see my brothers.' For this reason he has not come to the king's table."

"For, as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now then, send men and bring him to me, for he is doomed to die!"

Then Jonathan said to David, "Go in safety, since we have sworn to each other in the name of the LORD, saying, 'The LORD will be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.'" So David set out and went on his way, while Jonathan went into the city.

David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, 'No one is to know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.'

"Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found."

David said to Ahimelech, "Now is there no spear or sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's matter was urgent."

Then the priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take it. For there is no other except it here." And David said, "There is none like it; give it to me."

Then Achish said to his servants, "Look, you see the man is behaving like an insane person. Why do you bring him to me?

And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me."

"For all of you have conspired against me so that there is no one who informs me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who cares about me or informs me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in ambush, as it is this day."