24 So David hid himself in the field. ⌊When the new moon came⌋,d ⌊the king was seated at the feast⌋.e 25 The king sat at his seat ⌊as before⌋,f the seat by the wall, and Jonathan got up, and Abner sat beside Saul, but David’s place was empty. 26 But Saul said nothing on that day, for he thought, “⌊Something happened to him⌋.g He is not ceremonially clean; surely he is not clean.” 27 ⌊And then⌋h on the next day, the second day of the new moon, that David’s place was empty. So Saul asked Jonathan his son, “Why did the son of Jesse not come either yesterday or today to the feast?” 28 Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked permission from me to go up to Bethlehem. 29 He said, ‘Send me away, please, for our clan sacrifice is in the city, and my brother commandedi me to be present. So then, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me slip away and see my brothers.’ Therefore he has not come to the table of the king.” 30 Then ⌊Saul became angry⌋j at Jonathan and said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman!k Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 31 For ⌊as long as⌋l the son of Jesse is alive on the earth, you and your kingdom will not be established! So then, send and bring him to me, for ⌊he will surely die⌋!”m 32 But Jonathan answered his father Saul and said to him, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” 33 Then Saul hurled hisn spear at him to kill him. So Jonathan knew ⌊that his father had decided⌋o to kill David.

34 Jonathan got up from the table ⌊enraged⌋,p and did not eat on the second day of the new moon because he was upset about David, because his father had disgraced him. 35 ⌊And then⌋q in the morning Jonathan went out to the field for the appointment with David, and a young boyr was with him. 36 He said to his servant,s “Run, please find the arrows that I am shooting!” The boyt ran, and he shot the arrow to pass over him. 37 When the boy came up to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called out after the boy and said, “Is not the arrow ⌊beyond you⌋?”u 38 Then Jonathan called out after the boy, “Quick, hurry, do not linger!” And Jonathan’s servant collected the arrows and came to his master. 39 But the boy did not know anything about this; only Jonathan and David knew the matter. 40 Jonathan gave his weapons to his servant and said to him, “Go, bring them to the city.” 41 The boy left, and then David got up from the south side,v and he fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed ⌊each other⌋w and wept ⌊together⌋,x but David wept the most. 42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have sworn, the two of us, an oath in the name of Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring forever.”y Then he got up and left, and Jonathan went into the city.

David Encounters the Priests of Nob

21 Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and he said to him, “Why are you alone and there are no men with you?” 2 So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘No one must know anything about this matter on which I am sending you, with which I have charged you and the servants.’ ” So ⌊I have arranged to meet with my servants at a certain place⌋.a 3 Now then, ⌊what do you have at hand⌋?b Give me five loaves of bread or ⌊whatever is here⌋.”c 4 The priest answered David and said, “There is no ordinary bread ⌊here at hand⌋;d there is only holy bread, but only if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 David answered the priest and said to him, “Indeed, women were held back from us ⌊as it has been when I’ve gone out before⌋.e And the thingsf of the young men are holy wheng it is an ordinary journey. ⌊How much more⌋h ⌊today⌋i will the thingsj be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to set hot bread there on the day when it was taken away.

7 Now there was a man from the servants of Saul on that day, detained before Yahweh, whose name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds. 8 David asked Ahimelech, “Is there not ⌊at your disposal⌋k a spear or a sword? For I took neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king’s matter was urgent.” 9 So the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you killed in the valley of Elah is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, then take it, for there is no other except it here.” And David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”