Study Desk

Y'honatan got up from the table in a fury, and he ate no food the second day of the month, both because he was upset over David and because his father had put him to shame.

Y'honatan continued shouting after the boy, "Quick! Hurry! Don't just stand there!" Y'honatan's boy gathered the arrows and returned to his master,

Y'honatan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, "Go, carry them to the city."

One of the servants of Sha'ul happened to be there that day, detained before Adonai . His name was Do'eg the Edomi, the head of Sha'ul's shepherds.

The servants of Akhish said to him, "Isn't this David, king of the land? Weren't they dancing and singing to each other, ‘Sha'ul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands'?"

So, as they were watching, he changed his behavior and acted like a madman when they had hold of him, scratching marks on the doors of the city gate and drooling down his beard.

Akhish said to his servants, "Here, you see that the man is meshugga; why bring him to me? Am I short of meshugga‘im? Is that why you've brought this one to go crazy on me? Must I have this one in my house?"

David left there and took refuge in the Cave of ‘Adulam. When his brothers and the rest of his father's family heard of it, they went down to see him there.

He presented them to the king of Mo'av, and they lived with him as long as David remained in his stronghold.

Sha'ul heard that David and the men with him had been located. Sha'ul was sitting in Giv‘ah, under the tamarisk tree on the hill, with his spear in his hand and all his servants standing around him.

Sha'ul said to his servants standing around him, "Listen, you men of Binyamin! Is Yishai's son going to give any of you fields and vineyards? Is he going to make you all commanders of thousands and hundreds?

The king sent to summon Achimelekh the cohen the son of Achituv, along with all his father's family, the cohanim in Nov; and all of them went to the king.

David and his men went to Ke‘ilah and fought the P'lishtim. They defeated them in a great slaughter and led away their livestock. Thus David saved the inhabitants of Ke‘ilah.

So Sha'ul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Ke‘ilah and besiege David and his men.

So David and his men, now around six hundred, got up, left Ke‘ilah and went wherever they could. It was told Sha'ul that David had escaped from Ke‘ilah, so he called off the expedition.

David saw that Sha'ul had mounted another expedition to seek his life. David was then at Horesh in the Zif Desert.

So look closely, find out where all his hiding-places are, and come back when you're sure. Then I will go with you, and if he is there in that territory, I'll search till I find him among all the thousands of Y'hudah."

They set out and went to Zif before Sha'ul. But David and his men had gone on to the Ma‘on Desert, in the ‘Aravah south of Yeshimon.

Sha'ul and his men went searching for him. David was told, so he came down to the rock and stayed in the Ma‘on Desert. When Sha'ul heard that, he pursued David in the Ma‘on Desert.

Sha'ul went along one side of the mountain, while David and his men went along the other. David was hurrying to get away from Sha'ul, while Sha'ul and his men were trying to surround David and his men in order to capture them.