And David came to Nobe, to Achimelech, the priest and Achimelech was astonished at David’s coming. And he said to him: Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?

²And David said to Achimelech, the priest: The king hath commanded me a business, and said: Let no man know the thing for which thou art sent by me, and what manner of commands I have given thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.

³Now therefore if thou have any thing at hand, though it were but five loaves, give me, or whatsoever thou canst find.

⁴And the priest answered David, saying: I have no common bread at hand, but only holy bread, if the young men be clean, especially from women?

⁵And David answered the priest, and said to him: Truly, as to what concerneth women, we have refrained ourselves from yesterday and the day before, when we came out, and the vessels of the young men were holy. Now this way is defiled, but it shall also be sanctified this day in the vessels.

⁶The priest therefore gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there, but only the loaves of proposition, which had been taken away from before the face of the Lord, that hot loaves might be set up.

⁷Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, within the tabernacle of the Lord: and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of Saul’s herdsmen.

⁸And David said to Achimelech: Hast thou here at hand a spear, or a sword? for I brought not my own sword, nor my own weapons with me, for the king’s business required haste.

⁹And the priest said: Lo, here is the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Terebinth, wrapped up in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take this, take it, for here there is no other but this. And David said: There is none like that, give it me.

¹⁰And David arose and fled that day from the face of Saul: and came to Achis, the king of Geth:

¹¹And the servants of Achis, when they saw David, said to him: Is not this David, the king of the land? Did they not sing to him in their dances, saying: Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?

¹²But David laid up these words in his heart, and was exceedingly afraid at the face of Achis, the king of Geth.

¹³And he changed his countenance before them, and slipt down between their hands: and he stumbled against the doors of the gate, and his spittle ran down upon his beard.

¹⁴And Achis said to his servants: You saw the man was mad: why have you brought him to me?

¹⁵Have we need of mad men, that you have brought in this fellow, to play the madman in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?

Chapter 22

David therefore went from thence, and fled to the cave of Odollam. And when his brethren, and all his father’s house, had heard of it, they went down to him thither.

²And all that were in distress, and oppressed with debt, and under affliction of mind, gathered themselves unto him: and he became their prince, and there were with him about four hundred men.

³And David departed from thence into Maspha of Moab: and he said to the king of Moab: Let my father and my mother tarry with you, I beseech thee, till I know what God will do for me.

⁴And he left them under the eyes of the king of Moab, and they abode with him all the days that David was in the hold.

⁵And Gad the prophet said to David: Abide not in the hold, depart, and go into the land of Juda. And David departed, and came into the forest of Haret.

⁶And Saul heard that David was seen, and the men that were with him. Now whilst Saul abode in Gabaa, and was in the wood, which is by Rama, having his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him,

⁷He said to his servants that stood about him: Hear me now, ye sons of Jemini: will the son of Isai give every one of you fields, and vineyards, and make you all tribunes, and centurions:

⁸That all of you have conspired against me, and there is no one to inform me, especially when even my son hath entered into league with the son of Isai? There is not one of you that pitieth my case, nor that giveth me any information: because my son hath raised up my servant against me, plotting against me to this day.

⁹And Doeg, the Edomite, who stood by, and was the chief among the servants of Saul, answering, said: I saw the son of Isai, in Nobe, with Achimelech, the son of Achitob, the priest.

¹⁰And he consulted the Lord for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine.

¹¹Then the king sent to call for Achimelech, the priest, the son of Achitob, and all his father’s house, the priests that were in Nobe, and they came all of them to the king.

¹²And Saul said to Achimelech: Hear, thou son of Achitob. He answered: Here I am, my lord.

¹³And Saul said to him: Why have you conspired against me, thou, and the son of Isai, and thou hast given him bread and a sword, and hast consulted the Lord for him, that he should rise up against me, continuing a traitor to this day.

¹⁴And Achimelech answering the king, said: And who amongst all thy servants is so faithful as David, who is the king’s son in law, and goeth forth at thy bidding, and is honourable in thy house?

¹⁵Did I begin to day to consult the Lord for him? far be this from me: let not the king suspect such a thing against his servant, or any one in all my father’s house: for thy servant knew nothing of this matter, either little or great.

¹⁶And the king said: Dying thou shalt die, Achimelech, thou and all thy father’s house.

¹⁷And the king said to the messengers that stood about him: Turn, and kill the priests of the Lord, for their hand is with David, because they knew that he was fled, and they told it not to me. And the king’s servants would not put forth their hands against the priests of the Lord.

¹⁸And the king said to Doeg: Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg, the Edomite, turned, and fell upon the priests, and slew in that day eighty-five men that wore the linen ephod.

¹⁹And Nobe, the city of the priests, he smote with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and ox, and ass, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.

²⁰But one of the sons of Achimelech, the son of Achitob, whose name was Abiathar, escaped, and fled to David,

²¹And told him that Saul had slain the priests of the Lord.

²²And David said to Abiathar: I knew that day when Doeg, the Edomite, was there, that without doubt he would tell Saul: I have been the occasion of the death of all the souls of thy father’s house.

²³Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my life, seeketh thy life also, and with me thou shalt be saved.

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