Study Desk

David continued to succeed in everything he did, for the Lord was with him.

One day Saul said to David, "I am ready to give you my older daughter, Merab, as your wife. But first you must prove yourself to be a real warrior by fighting the Lord 's battles." For Saul thought, "I'll send him out against the Philistines and let them kill him rather than doing it myself."

So when the time came for Saul to give his daughter Merab in marriage to David, he gave her instead to Adriel, a man from Meholah.

When Saul's men said these things to David, he replied, "How can a poor man from a humble family afford the bride price for the daughter of a king?"

he told them, "Tell David that all I want for the bride price is 100 Philistine foreskins! Vengeance on my enemies is all I really want." But what Saul had in mind was that David would be killed in the fight.

Saul became even more afraid of him, and he remained David's enemy for the rest of his life.

Saul now urged his servants and his son Jonathan to assassinate David. But Jonathan, because of his strong affection for David,

Have you forgotten about the time he risked his life to kill the Philistine giant and how the Lord brought a great victory to all Israel as a result? You were certainly happy about it then. Why should you murder an innocent man like David? There is no reason for it at all!"

If your father asks where I am, tell him I asked permission to go home to Bethlehem for an annual family sacrifice.

Show me this loyalty as my sworn friend—for we made a solemn pact before the Lord —or kill me yourself if I have sinned against your father. But please don't betray me to him!"

And Jonathan made David reaffirm his vow of friendship again, for Jonathan loved David as he loved himself.

But if I tell him, ‘Go farther—the arrows are still ahead of you,' then it will mean that you must leave immediately, for the Lord is sending you away.

And may the Lord make us keep our promises to each other, for he has witnessed them."

Saul didn't say anything about it that day, for he said to himself, "Something must have made David ceremonially unclean."

But when David's place was empty again the next day, Saul asked Jonathan, "Why hasn't the son of Jesse been here for the meal either yesterday or today?"

He said, ‘Please let me go, for we are having a family sacrifice. My brother demanded that I be there. So please let me get away to see my brothers.' That's why he isn't here at the king's table."

Jonathan left the table in fierce anger and refused to eat on that second day of the festival, for he was crushed by his father's shameful behavior toward David.

At last Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, for we have sworn loyalty to each other in the Lord 's name. The Lord is the witness of a bond between us and our children forever." Then David left, and Jonathan returned to the town.

"I only have the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah," the priest replied. "It is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. Take that if you want it, for there is nothing else here." "There is nothing like it!" David replied. "Give it to me!"

Later David went to Mizpeh in Moab, where he asked the king, "Please allow my father and mother to live here with you until I know what God is going to do for me."