1So David left that place and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his father's family heard about it, they went down there to him.
2And everyone who was in trouble, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter, gathered around him. He became their captain. There were about four hundred men with him.
3From there David went to Mizpeh in Moab. He said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you, until I know what God will do for me."
4So he brought them to the king of Moab, and they stayed with him the whole time that David was in the stronghold.
5Then the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold. Go away, into the land of Judah." So David left and came to the forest of Hareth.
6Saul heard that David had been seen, and the men who were with him. Now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him.
7Then Saul said to his servants who stood around him, "Listen now, you men of Benjamin. Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds?"
8"Is that why all of you have plotted against me? No one tells me that my son has made an agreement with the son of Jesse. Not one of you is sorry for me, or tells me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as he does this day."
9Then Doeg the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, answered, "I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub."
10"And Ahimelech asked the LORD for him, and gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
11Then the king sent for Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and for all his father's family, the priests who were in Nob. They all came to the king.
12Saul said, "Listen now, son of Ahitub." He answered, "Here I am, my lord."
13Saul said to him, "Why have you plotted against me, you and the son of Jesse? You gave him bread and a sword, and you asked God for him, so that he should rise up against me, to lie in wait, as he does this day."
14Then Ahimelech answered the king, "And who among all your servants is as faithful as David? He is the king's son-in-law, he goes where you send him, and he is honoured in your house."
15"Was this the first time I asked God for him? Far be it from me. Let the king not blame his servant for anything, or any of my father's family. Your servant knew nothing at all about this, little or much."
16The king said, "You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's family."
17The king said to the guards who stood around him, "Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because they too are on David's side. They knew he was running away, and did not tell me." But the king's servants would not raise their hand to strike down the priests of the LORD.
18Then the king said to Doeg, "You turn and strike down the priests." And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he struck down the priests. That day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.
19And Nob, the city of the priests, he struck with the edge of the sword: men and women, children and babies, and oxen and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
20But one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled to David.
22David said to Abiathar, "I knew that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have caused the death of every person in your father's family."
23"Stay with me. Do not be afraid. The man who wants my life wants your life too. But with me you will be safe."