Editing Books of Samuel (section)

=====The flight of David (19:8–21:16)=====
Once again Saul tries to kill David with his spear, and so David decides to escape, lowered out of a window by Michal, who then takes an idol, covers it in clothes and places goat's hair on its head to cover David's escape. David visits Samuel. When Saul finds this out, he sends men to capture David, but when they see Samuel they begin prophesying, as does Saul when he tries to capture David himself.

David then visits Jonathan, and they argue about whether Saul actually wants to kill David. David proposes a test: he is to dine with the king the following day for the [[Rosh Chodesh|New Moon festival]]. However, he will hide in a field and Jonathan will tell Saul that David has returned to Bethlehem for a sacrifice. If the king accepts this, he is not trying to kill him, but if he becomes angry, he is. Jonathan devises a code to relay this information to David: he will come to the stone Ezel, shoot three arrows at it and tell a page to find them. If he tells the page the arrows are on his side of the stone, David can come to him, but if he tells them they are beyond the stone, he must run away. When Jonathan puts the plan into action, Saul attempts to kill him with his spear. Jonathan relays this to David using his code and the two weep as they are separated.

David arrives at [[Nob, Israel|Nob]], where he meets [[Ahimelech]] the priest, a great-grandson of Eli. Pretending he is on a mission from the king and is going to meet his men, he asks for supplies. He is given the [[showbread]] and Goliath's sword. He then flees to [[Gath (city)|Gath]] and seeks refuge at the court of King [[Achish]], but feigns insanity since he is afraid of what the Philistines might do to him.