Saul conspires against David.

1. SAMUEL. Jonathan discloses it to him.

12 ¶ And Saul was afraid of David, be-king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him cause the LORD was with him, and was Michal his daughter to wife. departed from Saul.

13 Therefore Saul removed him from him, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people.

14 And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the LORD was with him. 15 Wherefore when Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he was afraid of him.

16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.

28 T And Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and that Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him.

29 And Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul became David's enemy continually.

30 Then the princes of the Philistines went forth and it came to pass, after they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul: so that his name was much set by. CHAP. XIX.

17 T And Saul said to David, Behold, AND Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they my elder daughter Merab, her will I give should kill David. thee to wife only be thou valiant for me, : 2 But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted and fight the LORD's battles. For Saul much in David: and Jonathan told David, said, Let not my hand be upon him, but saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: let the hand of the Philistines be upon him. now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to 18 And David said unto Saul, Who am thyself until the morning, and abide in a I? and what is my life, or my father's secret place, and hide thyself: family in Israel, that I should be son-inlaw to the king?

19 But it came to pass at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel the Meholathite to wife.

20 And Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.

:

3 And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will commune with my father of thee; and what I see, that I will tell thee.

4 And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee-ward very good:

21 And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and that 5 For he did put his life in his hand, and the hand of the Philistines may be against slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought him. Wherefore Saul said to David, ja great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest Thou shalt this day be my son-in-law, in it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt the one of the twain. thou sin against innocent blood, to slay

22 And Saul commanded his servants, David without a cause? saying, Commune with David secretly, 6 And Saul hearkened unto the voice of and say, Behold, the king hath delight in Jonathan: and Saul sware, As the LORD thee, and all his servants love thee: now liveth, he shall not be slain. therefore be the king's son-in-law.

7 And Jonathan called David, and Jo23 And Saul's servants spake those nathan shewed him all those things. And words in the ears of David. And David Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he said, Seemeth it to you a light thing to be was in his presence, as in times past. a king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a 8 And there was war again: and Dapoor man, and lightly esteemed? vid went out, and fought with the Philis24 And the servants of Saul told him, tines, and slew them with a great slaughsaying, On this manner spake David. ter; and they fled from him.

25 And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to 9 And the evil spirit from the LORD was David, the king desireth not any dowry, upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his but a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, javelin in his hand : and David played with to be avenged of the king's enemies. But his hand.

Saul thought to make David fall by the 10 And Saul sought to smite David even hand of the Philistines. to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped 26 And when his servants told David away out of Saul's presence, and he smote these words, it pleased David well to be the javelin into the wall: and David fled, the king's son-in-law: and the days were and escaped that night. not expired.

11 Saul also sent messengers unto Da

27 Wherefore David arose and went, vid's house, to watch him, and to slay him he and his men, and slew of the Philistines in the morning: and Michal, David's wife two hundred men; and David brought told him, saying, If thou save not thy life their foreskins, and they gave them in to-night, to-morrow thou shalt be slain. full tale to the king, that he might be the 12 ¶ So Michal let David down through

David and Jonathan consult. CHAP. XX. They renew their covenant,

a window and he went, and fled, and and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step escaped. between me and death.

13 And Michal took an image, and laid 4 Then said Jonathan unto David, at in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even for his bolster, and covered it with a do it for thee.

cloth.

5 And David said unto Jonathan, Be14 And when Saul sent messengers to hold, to-morrow is the new-moon, and I take David, she said, He is sick. should not fail to sit with the king at meat: 15 And Saul sent the messengers again but let me go, that I may hide myself in to see David, saying, Bring him up to me the field unto the third day at even. in the bed, that I may slay him. 6 If thy father at all miss me, then say,

16 And when the messengers were come David earnestly asked leave of me, that he in, behold, there was an image in the bed, might run to Beth-lehem his city: for there with a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster. is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family. 17 And Saul said unto Michal, Why 7 If he say thus, It is well; thy servant hast thou deceived me so, and sent away shall have peace: but if he be very wroth, mine enemy, that he is escaped? And Mi-then be sure that evil is determined by him. chal answered Saul, He said unto me, Let 8 Therefore thou shalt deal kindly with me go; why should I kill thee?

18 So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.

19 And it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.

thy servant; for thou hast brought thy servant into a covenant of the LORD with thee: notwithstanding, if there be in me iniquity, slay me thyself; for why shouldest thou bring me to thy father?

9 And Jonathan said, Far be it from thee: for if I knew certainly that evil were 20 And Saul sent messengers to take determined by my father to come upon David: and when they saw the company thee, then would not I tell it thee? of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel 10 Then said David to Jonathan, Who standing as appointed over them, the Spi- shall tell me? or what if thy father answer rit of God was upon the messengers of thee roughly? Saul, and they also prophesied.

11 T And Jonathan said unto David,

21 And when it was told Saul, he sent Come, and let us go out into the field. And other messengers, and they prophesied they went out both of them into the field. likewise. And Saul sent messengers again 12 And Jonathan said unto David, O the third time, and they prophesied also. LORD God of Israel, when I have sounded 22 Then went he also to Ramah, and my father about to-morrow any time, or came to a great well that is in Sechu: and the third day, and behold, if there be good he asked and said, Where are Samuel and toward David, and I then send not unto David? And one said, Behold, they be at thee, and shew it thee; Naioth in Ramah.

13 The LORD do so and much more to 23 And he went thither to Naioth in Ra-Jonathan; but if it please my father to do mah: and the Spirit of God was upon him thee evil, then I will shew it thee, and send also, and he went on, and prophesied, thee away, that thou mayest go in peace: until he came to Naioth in Ramah. and the LORD be with thee, as he hath been with my father.

24 And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like man- 14 And thou shalt not only while yet I ner, and lay down naked all that day and live shew me the kindness of the LORD, all that night. Wherefore they say, Is that I die not: Saul also among the prophets?

CHAP. XX.

15 But also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever: no, not

AND David fled from Naioth in Ramah, when the LORD hath cut off the enemies of

and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life?

David every one from the face of the earth.

16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David's enemies.

2 And he said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die: behold, my father will 17 And Jonathan caused David to do nothing either great or small, but that he swear again, because he loved him: for he will shew it me: and why should my father loved him as he loved his own soul. hide this thing from me? it is not so.

18 Then Jonathan said to David, To

3 And David sware moreover, and said, morrow is the new-moon: and thou shalt Thy father certainly knoweth that I have be missed, because thy seat will be empty. found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, 19 And when thou hast stayed three Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be days, then thou shalt go down quickly, grieved: But truly as the LORD liveth, and come to the place where thou didst

Saul seeks to kill Jonathan.

I. SAMUEL.

35 ¶ And it came to pass in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad with him.

David goes to Ahimelech. hide thyself when the business was in for David, because his father had done. hand, and shalt remain by the stone Ezel. him shame. 20 And I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof, as though I shot at a mark. 21 And behold, I will send a lad, saying, Go, find out the arrows. If I expressly say unto the lad, Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee, take them; then come thou: for there is peace to thee, and no hurt; as the LORD liveth.

36 And he said unto his lad, Rún, find cut now the arrows which I shoot. And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37 And when the lad was come to the 22 But if I say thus unto the young man, place of the arrow which Jonathan had Behold, the arrows are beyond thee; go shot, Jonathan cried after the lad, and thy way: for the LORD hath sent thee away. said, Is not the arrow beyond thee?

23 And as touching the matter which thou and I have spoken of, behold, the LORD be between thee and me for ever.

24 So David hid himself in the field: and when the new-moon was come, the king sat him down to eat meat.

38 And Jonathan cried after the lad, Make speed, haste, stay not. And Jonathan's fad gathered up the arrows, and came to his master.

39 But the lad knew not any thing: only Jonathan and David knew the matter. 25 And the king sat upon his seat, as 40 And Jonathan gave his artillery unto at other times, even upon a seat by the his lad, and said unto him, Go, carry them wall: and Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by to the city.

Saul's side, and David's place was empty. 41 ¶ And as soon as the lad was gone, 26 Nevertheless Saul spake not any David arose out of a place toward the thing that day: for he thought, Something south, and fell on his face to the ground, hath befallen him, he is not clean; surely and bowed himself three times: and they he is not clean. kissed one another, and wept one with

27 And it came to pass on the morrow, another, until David exceeded. which was the second day of the month, 42 And Jonathan said to David, Go in that David's place was empty and Saul peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both said unto Jonathan his son, Wherefore of us in the name of the LORD, saying, cometh not the son of Jesse to meat, neither yesterday, nor to-day?

28 And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Beth-lehem:

The LORD be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever. And he arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city.

CHAP. XXI.

HEN came David to Nob to Ahime

29 And he said, Let me go, I pray thee: the priest: and Ahimelech was for our family hath a sacrifice in the city;

and my brother he hath commanded me to afraid at the meeting of David, and said be there: and now if I have found favour unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man in thine eyes, let me get away, I pray thee, with thee?

and see my brethren. Therefore he co- 2 And David said unto Ahimelech the meth not unto the king's table. priest, The king hath commanded me a 30 Then Saul's anger was kindled business, and hath said unto me, Let no against Jonathan, and he said unto him, man know any thing of the business whereThou son of the perverse rebellious wo- about I send thee, and what I have comman, do not I know that thou hast chosen manded thee: and I have appointed my the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, servants to such and such a place. and unto the confusion of thy mother's 3 Now therefore what is under thy nakedness? hand? give me five loaves of bread in my

31 For as long as the son of Jesse liveth hand, or what there is present. upon the ground, thou shalt not be esta- 4 And the priest answered David, and blished, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now said, There is no common bread under send and fetch him unto me, for he shall my hand, but there is hallowed bread; if surely die. the young men have kept themselves at 32 And Jonathan answered Saul his fa- least from women. ther, and said unto him, Wherefore shall 5 And David answered the priest, and he be slain? what hath he done? said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sancti34 So Jonathan arose from the table in fied this day in the vessel. fierce anger, and did eat no meat the se- 6 So the priest gave him hallowed bread: ond day of the month: for he was grieved for there was no bread there but the shew

33 And Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him: whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay David.

I