1 Samuel chapter .xxij.
¶ lack I madmen, that ye have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? he shall not come into my house.
And David departed thence and escaped, and came unto the cave Odollam. When his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went thither to him.
And there gathered unto him all men that were in cumbrance and in debt and troubled in their hearts, and he became a captain over them. And there were with him upon a four hundredth men.
And David went thence to Mazphah in the land of Moab, and said unto the king of Moab: Let my father and mother I pray thee, have their abiding with you, till I know what God will do with me.
And he left them with the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the while that David kept himself in holds.
¶ And the prophet Gad said unto David: Abide not in castles, but depart and go to the land of Iuda. Then David departed and came into the forest Hareth.
And Saul heard of it: for David was known and also the men that were with him. And as Saul sat in Gabaah under a grove upon a high bank with his spear in his hand and all his men about him,
he said unto his servants that stood about him: Hear I pray you, you sons of Iemini: will the son of Isai also give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains over thousands and over hundreds?
that ye have all conspired against me, so that there is none of you that openeth mine ear, insomuch that my son hath made a bond with the son of Isai, neither is there any of you that mourneth for me or sheweth it in mine ear: because my son hath set up my servant to lie await against me, as it appeareth this day.
Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which had the oversight of the servants of Saul and said: I saw the son of Isai, when he came to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitob,
which asked counsel of the LORD for him, and gave him vitailles, and the sword of Goliath the Philistine also.
Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest the son of Ahitob, and all his father's house: that is to say, the priests that were in Nob. And they came all to the king.
And Saul said: hear thou son of Ahitob. And he said: here I am my lord.
Then said Saul to him: why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Isai, insomuch that thou hast given him vitaille and a sword, and hast asked counsel of God for him, that he should arise against me and lie await as it is come to pass this day?
And Ahimelech answered the king and said: who is so faithful among all thy servants as David and thereto the king's son-in-law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is had in honour in thine house?
have I this day begun first to ask counsel of God for him? God forbid that from me: let not the king put such a thing unto his servant and on all the house of my father. For thy servant knoweth nothing of all this, either less or more.
But for all that the king said: thou shalt surely die Ahimelech, both thou and all thy father's house.
Then said the king unto his footmen that stood about him: turn and slay the priests of the LORD, both because their hand is with David and because they knew when David fled and shewed it not to me. But the servants of the king would not move their hands, to run upon the priests of the LORD.
Then said the king to Doeg: turn thou and smite the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned and ran upon the priests and slew that same day four score and five persons that did wear each man a linen Ephod.
¶ And Nob the city of the priests he smote with the edge of the sword, both man and woman, child and suckling, with ox, ass and sheep.
But yet one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitob, named Abiathar, escaped and fled to David,
and shewed David, how that Saul had slain the LORD's priests.
And David said unto Abiathar: I wist it the same day, that Doeg the Edomite which was there would tell it Saul. And I am cause of the death of all the Souls of thy father's house.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.