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¹ David therefore departed there, and escaped to the cave of `Adullam: and when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. ² Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men. ³ David went there to Mitzpeh of Mo'av: and he said to the king of Mo'av, Please let my father and my mother come forth, [and be] with you, until I know what God will do for me. ⁴ He brought them before the king of Mo'av: and they lived with him all the while that David was in the stronghold. ⁵ The prophet Gad said to David, Don't stay in the stronghold; depart, and get you into the land of Yehudah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Heret.

⁶ Sha'ul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him: now Sha'ul was sitting in Gevah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. ⁷ Sha'ul said to his servants who stood about him, Hear now, you Binyamini; will the son of Yishai give everyone of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, ⁸ that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none who discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Yishai, and there is none of you who is sorry for me, or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day? ⁹ Then answered Do'eg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Sha'ul, and said, I saw the son of Yishai coming to Nov, to Achimelekh the son of Achituv. ¹⁰ He inquired of the LORD for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Golyat the Pelishti. ¹¹ Then the king sent to call Achimelekh the Kohen, the son of Achituv, and all his father's house, the Kohanim who were in Nov: and they came all of them to the king. ¹² Sha'ul said, Hear now, you son of Achituv. He answered, Here I am, my lord. ¹³ Sha'ul said to him, Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Yishai, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day? ¹⁴ Then Achimelekh answered the king, and said, Who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and is taken into your council, and is honorable in your house? ¹⁵ Have I today begun to inquire of God for him? be it far from me: don't let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for your servant knows nothing of all this, less or more. ¹⁶ The king said, You shall surely die, Achimelekh, you, and all your father's house. ¹⁷ The king said to the guard who stood about him, Turn, and kill the Kohanim of the LORD; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and didn't disclose it to me. But the servants of the king wouldn't put forth their hand to fall on the Kohanim of the LORD. ¹⁸ The king said to Do'eg, Turn you, and fall on the Kohanim. Do'eg the Edomite turned, and he fell on the Kohanim, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore a linen efod. ¹⁹ Nov, the city of the Kohanim, struck he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and oxen and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword.

²⁰ One of the sons of Achimelekh, the son of Achituv, named Avyatar, escaped, and fled after David. ²¹ Avyatar told David that Sha'ul had slain the LORD's Kohanim. ²² David said to Avyatar, I knew on that day, when Do'eg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Sha'ul: I have occasioned [the death] of all the persons of your father's house. ²³ Abide you with me, don't be afraid; for he who seeks my life seeks your life: for with me you shall be in safeguard.