David helped at Nob

21 ^[a] David came to Nob where Ahimelech was priest. Ahimelech was shaking in fear when he met David. “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?” he asked.

² David answered Ahimelech the priest, “The king has given me orders, but he instructed me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about the mission I’m sending you on or about your orders.’ As for my troops, I told them to meet me at an undisclosed location. ³ Now what do you have here with you? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever you can find.”

⁴ “I don’t have any regular bread on hand,” the priest answered David, “just holy bread—but only if your troops have abstained from sexual activity.”

⁵ “Definitely,” David answered the priest. “Whenever I go out to war, women are off-limits; that’s our standard operating procedure. Even on regular missions, the men’s gear is^[b] kept holy. That’s even more true today, with the mission holy along with the gear.”^{[c] 6} So the priest gave David holy bread, because there was no other bread except the bread of the presence, which is removed from the Lord’s presence and replaced by warm bread as soon as it is taken away.

⁷ Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained in the Lord’s presence. His name was Doeg. He was an Edomite and Saul’s head shepherd.

⁸ David asked Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword on hand? I didn’t bring my sword or gear with me because the king’s mission was urgent.”

⁹ The priest said, “The sword of Goliath, the Philistine you killed in the Elah Valley, is here wrapped in a cloth behind a priestly vest.^[d] If you want it, take it, because there are no other swords here.”

David said, “No sword is as good as that one! Give it to me!”

David pretends to be crazy

¹⁰ So David got up and continued running from Saul. He went to Achish, Gath’s king. ¹¹ Achish’s servants said to him, “Isn’t that David, king of the land? He’s the one people sing about in their dances,

¹² David took these words very seriously and became very frightened of Achish, Gath’s king. ¹³ So he changed the way he acted with them, pretending to be insane while he was with them.^[e] He scratched marks on the doors of the city gates^[f] and let spit run down his chin.

¹⁴ “Can’t you see he’s crazy?” Achish asked his servants. “Why bring him to me? ¹⁵ Am 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

22 David left Gath and escaped to Adullam’s fortress.^[g] When David’s siblings and all his extended family learned of this, they went to join him there. ² Everyone who was in trouble, in debt, or in desperate circumstances gathered around David, and he became their leader. Approximately four hundred men joined him.

³ From 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.” ⁴ So David left his parents with the Moabite king, and they stayed with him the whole time David was in the fortress.

⁵ Then 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

⁶ Saul 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. ⁷ He 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? ⁸ Is 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!”

⁹ Doeg the Edomite, who was standing with Saul’s servants, responded, “I saw Jesse’s son go to Ahimelech, Ahitub’s son, at Nob. ¹⁰ Ahimelech questioned the Lord for David, and gave him provisions as well as the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

¹¹ The 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.

¹³ Saul 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?”

¹⁴ Ahimelech 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. ¹⁵ Was 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.”

¹⁶ But the king said, “You will be executed, Ahimelech—you and all of your father’s household!”

¹⁷ The 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.

¹⁸ The 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 vest^[h] that day. ¹⁹ He put the whole priestly city of Nob to the sword: men and women, children and infants, even oxen, donkeys, and sheep.

²⁰ But one of the sons of Ahimelech, Ahitub’s son, escaped. His name was Abiathar, and he fled to David. ²¹ Abiathar reported to David that Saul had slaughtered the Lord’s priests.

²² David told Abiathar, “That day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, I knew that he would tell Saul everything. I am to blame^[i] for the deaths in your father’s family. ²³ Stay with me, and don’t be afraid. The one who seeks my life now seeks yours too. But you’ll be safe with me.”