CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub]. Common English Bible
![CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub] - Common English Bible](limg_read715844.jpg "CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub] - Common English Bible")
took these words very seriously and became very frightened of Achish, Gath's king. 13So he changed the way he acted with them, pretending to be insane while he was with them.q He scratched marks on the doors of the city gatesr and let spit run down his chin.
14"Can't you see he's crazy?" Achish asked his servants. "Why bring him to me?15Am I short on insane people that you've brought this person to go crazy right in front of me? Do you really think I'm going to let this man enter my house?"
David gathers support
1Samuel 22David left Gath and escaped to Adullam's fortress.s When David's siblings and all his extended family learned of this, they went to join him there. 2Everyone who was in trouble, in debt, or in desperate circumstances gathered around David, and he became their leader. Approximately four hundred men joined him.
3From there David went to Mizpeh in Moab. He said to the Moabite king, "Please let my father and mother stay with you until I know what God will do to me."4So David left his parents with the Moabite king, and they stayed with him the whole time David was in the fortress.
5Then the prophet Gad told David, "Don't stay in the fortress any longer. Leave now and go to the land of Judah." So David left and went to Hereth forest.
Saul kills the priests of Nob
6Saul learned that David and his soldiers had been located. Saul was sitting under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, spear in hand, with all his servants waiting on him. 7He said to them, "Listen up, Benjaminites! Will Jesse's son give fields and vineyards to each and every one of you? Will he make each one of you commanders of units of one thousand men or commanders of units of one hundred?8Is that why all of you have conspired against me? No one informed me when my son made a covenant with Jesse's son! Not one of you is concerned about me or informs me when my own son sets my servant against me in an ambush--but that's what has happened today!"
9Doeg the Edomite, who was standing with Saul's servants, responded, "I saw Jesse's son go to Ahimelech, Ahitub's son, at Nob. 10Ahimelech questioned the LORD for David, and gave him provisions as well as the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
11The king then sent for the priest Ahimelech, Ahitub's son, and all his extended family, who were the priests at Nob. All of them came to the king.
12"Listen here, son of Ahitub," Saul said.
"Yes sir," he replied.
13Saul said to him, "Why have you conspired against me--you with Jesse's son--giving him food and a sword and questioning God for him so that he is now against me, waiting in ambush, which is what has happened today?"
14Ahimelech answered the king, "Out of all your servants, who is as trustworthy as David? He is the king's son-in-law, does whatever you ask, and is well respected in your house. 15Was that the first time I questioned God for him? Of course not! But please, the king shouldn't accuse me, his servant, or anyone in my father's household of any wrongdoing, because your servant knew nothing whatsoever about this matter."
16But the king said, "You will be executed, Ahimelech--you and all of your father's household!"
17The king ordered the guards waiting on him: "Go ahead and kill the LORD's priests because they've joined up with David too. They knew he was on the run but didn't inform me."
But the king's servants were unwilling to lift a hand to attack the LORD's priests.
18The king then ordered Doeg, "Doeg! You go attack the priests." So Doeg the Edomite went and attacked the priests, killing eighty-five men who wore the linen priestly vestt that day. 19He put the whole priestly city of Nob to the sword: men and women, children and infants, even oxen, donkeys, and sheep.
20But one of the sons of Ahimelech, Ahitub's son, escaped. His name was Abiathar, and he fled to David. 21Abiathar reported to David that Saul had slaughtered the LORD's priests.
22David told Abiathar, "That day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, I knew that he would tell Saul everything. I am to blameu for the deaths in your father's family. 23Stay with me, and don't be afraid. The one who seeks my life now seeks yours too. But you'll be safe with me."
Saul chases David
1Samuel 23David was told, "The Philistines are now attacking Keilah and looting the threshing floors!"
2David asked the LORD, "Should I go and fight these Philistines?"
"Go!" the LORD answered. "Fight the Philistines and save Keilah!"
3But David's men said to him, "Look how frightened we are here in Judah. It'll be worse if we go to Keilah against Philistine forces!"
4So David asked the LORD again, and the LORD reaffirmed, "Yes, go down to Keilah, because I will hand the Philistines over to you."
5Then David and his soldiers went to Keilah and fought the Philistines, driving off their cattle and defeating them decisively. And that's how David saved the residents of Keilah.
6Now after Abiathar, Ahimelech's son, fled to David, he had accompanied David to Keilah,v bringing a priestly vestw with him. 7When Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, he said, "God has handed him overx to me now because he has trapped himself by entering a town with gates and bars!"8So Saul called up all his troops for war, to go down to Keilah and attack David and his soldiers.
9When David learned that Saul was planning to harm him, he told the priest Abiathar, "Bring the priestly vest now."
10Then David said, "LORD God of Israel, I, your servant, have heard that Saul plans on coming to Keilah and will destroy the town because of me. 11LORD God of Israel, will Saul come down as your servant has heard?y Please tell your servant."
"Yes, he will come down," the LORD answered.
12Next David asked, "Will the citizens of Keilah hand me and my soldiers over to Saul?"
"Yes, they will hand you over," the LORD replied.
13So David and his troops--approximately six hundred men--got up and left Keilah. They kept moving, going from one place to the next. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he didn't go there.
14David lived in the fortresses in the wilderness and in the hills of the Ziph wilderness. Saul searched for him constantly, but God did not hand David over to Saul. 15While David was at Horesh in the Ziph wilderness he learned that Saul was looking to kill him. 16Saul's son Jonathan came to David at Horesh and encouraged him with God. 17Jonathan said to him, "Don't be afraid! My father Saul's hand won't touch you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be your second in command. Even my father Saul knows this."18Then the two of them made a covenant before the LORD. David stayed at Horesh, but Jonathan went back home.
19Some Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah. "David is hiding among us in the fortresses at Horesh on the hill of Hachilah, south of Jeshimon," they said. 20"So whenever you want to come down, Your Majesty, do it! Leave it to us to hand him over to the king."
21"The LORD bless you because you have shown this kindness to me!" Saul said. 22"Go now and get everything ready. Find out everything you can: where he stays, where he goes, who has seen him. I am told he is very shrewd. 23Find out every hiding place he uses there and come back to me when you know for certain. I will then go with you. If David is in the area, I will hunt him down among any of Judah's clans!"24So they got up and left for Ziph ahead of Saul.
Meanwhile, David and his soldiers were in the Maon wilderness