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Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan, trying to kill him. So Jonathan knew that his father really wanted to kill David.

Jonathan was very angry and left the table. That second day of the month he refused to eat. He was ashamed of his father and upset over David.

Then he shouted, "Hurry! Go quickly! Don't stop!" The boy picked up the arrow and brought it back to his master.

Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and told him, "Go back to town."

But the servants of Achish said to him, "This is David, the king of the Israelites. He's the man they dance and sing about, saying: ‘Saul has killed thousands of his enemies, but David has killed tens of thousands.'"

So he pretended to be crazy in front of Achish and his servants. While he was with them, he acted like a madman and clawed on the doors of the gate and let spit run down his beard.

Achish said to his servants, "Look at the man! He's crazy! Why do you bring him to me?

David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and other relatives heard that he was there, they went to see him.

Saul heard that David and his men had been seen. Saul was sitting under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, and all his officers were standing around him. He had a spear in his hand.

Then he told the guards at his side, "Go and kill the priests of the Lord , because they are on David's side. They knew he was running away, but they didn't tell me." But the king's officers refused to kill the priests of the Lord .

So David and his men went to Keilah and fought the Philistines and took their cattle. David killed many Philistines and saved the people of Keilah.

Saul called all his army together for battle, and they prepared to go down to Keilah to attack David and his men.

So David and his six hundred men left Keilah and kept moving from place to place. When Saul found out that David had escaped from Keilah, he did not go there.

But Saul's son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and strengthened his faith in God.

So they went back to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the Desert of Maon in the desert area south of Jeshimon.

Saul and his men went to look for David, but David heard about it and went down to a rock and stayed in the Desert of Maon. When Saul heard that, he followed David into the Desert of Maon.

Saul was going along one side of the mountain, and David and his men were on the other side. They were hurrying to get away from Saul, because Saul and his men were closing in on them.

So he took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and began looking for David and his men near the Rocks of the Wild Goats.

Saul came to the sheep pens beside the road. A cave was there, and he went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were hiding far back in the cave.

He said to his men, "May the Lord keep me from doing such a thing to my master! Saul is the Lord 's appointed king. I should not do anything against him, because he is the Lord 's appointed king!"