David Flees from Saul

Driven by jealousy, the king’s hatred of David grew every day, for the wicked always persecute the good. So he ordered his servants and his son Jonathan to lay traps for David’s life. But from the very first Jonathan had felt great regard and affection for David, and so, when his son took him to task, the king withdrew the cruel order he had given. But the wicked do not stay good for long. Saul was troubled by a spirit of error, and David was standing beside him, soothing his distress with the harp. Saul tried to run him through with a spear, and would have done it if David had not quickly dodged the deadly blow. From then on the king tried to bring about his death no longer in secret but openly, and David no longer trusted himself in Saul’s power. [a]

He fled. First he went to Samuel, then to Ahimelech, and finally he fled to the king of Moab. Before long, on the instructions of the prophet Gad, he returned to the land of Judah, and there his life was in danger. At that time Saul killed Ahimelech the priest for having taken David in. When none of the king’s servants dared to lay hands on the priest, Doeg the Syrian carried out the cruel task.

After that David made for the desert. Saul followed him there too, but his efforts to destroy him came to nothing, because God protected him. In the desert there was a cave whose mouth opened into a vast hollow, and David had hidden himself in its inner parts. Saul, not knowing he was there, had gone into it to refresh himself, and there, overcome by sleep, he lay resting. When David saw this, although everyone urged him to seize the opportunity, he held back from killing the king and simply took away his cloak. Presently he went out and spoke to the king from a safe position behind him. He went over the services he had done him: how often he had risked his life for the sake of the kingdom, and how, last of all, he had not tried to kill him now, when God had handed him over to him. When Saul heard these things he confessed his fault, begged forgiveness, wept, praised David’s piety, and blamed his own wickedness, calling David both king and son. He was so changed from his former savagery that no one could have thought he would ever again make an attempt on his son-in-law.

But David had thoroughly tested and come to know Saul’s evil character. He did not think it safe to put himself in the king’s power, and he kept to the desert. Saul, almost mad with rage because he could not capture his son-in-law, gave his daughter Michal in marriage to a man named Palti, although, as we related above, she had been married to David. David fled to the Philistines.