May 22nd

Then everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter of soul, gathered to him; and he became a commander over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.

And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and 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.”

Then he left them with the king of Moab; and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the fortress.

And the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the fortress; go, and enter into the land of Judah.” So David went and entered into the forest of Hereth.

Then Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered. Now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him.

And Saul said to his servants who were standing around him, “Hear now, O Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse also give to all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds?

For all of you have conspired against me so that there is no one who reveals in my ear when my son cuts a covenant with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me or reveals in my ear that my son has caused my servant to rise up against me to lie in ambush, as it is this day.”

Then Doeg the Edomite, who was standing by the servants of Saul, said, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.

And he asked of Yahweh for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

Then the king sent someone to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s household, the priests who were in Nob; and all of them came to the king.

And Saul said, “Listen now, son of Ahitub.” And he answered, “Here I am, my lord.”

Saul then said to him, “Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have asked of God on his behalf, so that he would rise up against me by lying in ambush as it is this day?”

Then Ahimelech answered the king and said, “And who among all your servants is as faithful as David, even the king’s son-in-law, who is captain over your guard, and is honored in your house?

Did I just begin to ask of God on his behalf today? Far be it from me! Do not let the king impute anything to his servant or to any of the household of my father, for your servant knows nothing small or great of this whole affair.”

But the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s household!”

And the king said to the guards who were standing by him, “Turn around and put the priests of Yahweh to death because their hand also is with David and because they knew that he was fleeing and did not reveal it in my ears.” But the servants of the king were not willing to send forth their hands to fall upon the priests of Yahweh.

Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn around and attack the priests.” And Doeg the Edomite turned around and attacked the priests, and he put to death that day eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.

So he struck Nob the city of the priests with the edge of the sword, both men and women, infants and nursing babies; also oxen, donkeys, and sheep he struck with the edge of the sword.

But one son of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David.

And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of Yahweh.

Then David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. It is I who have turned against every person in your father’s household.

Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life, for you are safe with me.”

Then they told David, saying, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are pillaging the threshing floors.”

So David asked of Yahweh, saying, “Shall I go and strike these Philistines?” And Yahweh said to David, “Go and strike the Philistines and save Keilah.”

But David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the battle lines of the Philistines?”

Then David asked of Yahweh once more. And Yahweh answered him and said, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.”

So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines; and he led away their livestock and struck them with a great slaughter. Thus David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

Now it happened when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.

Then it was told to Saul that David had come to Keilah, so Saul said, “God has delivered him into my hand, for he shut himself in by entering a city with double gates and bars.”

Then Saul summoned all the people for battle, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.

But David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him; so he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.”

Then David said, “O Yahweh, the God of Israel, Your slave has heard for certain that Saul is seeking to come to Keilah to make the city a ruin on my account.

Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down just as Your slave has heard? O Yahweh, the God of Israel, I pray, tell Your slave.” And Yahweh said, “He will come down.”

Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And Yahweh said, “They will surrender you.”

Then David and his men, about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. Now it was told to Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, so he ceased going out in pursuit.

And David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.

Then David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. Now David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh.

So Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand in God.

And he said to him, “Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father will not find you, and you will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you; and Saul my father knows that also.”

So the two of them cut a covenant before Yahweh; and David stayed at Horesh while Jonathan went to his house.

Then Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is David not hiding with us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?

So now, O king, according to all the desire of your soul to come down, come down here; and our part shall be to surrender him into the king’s hand.”

And Saul said, “May you be blessed of Yahweh, for you have had compassion on me.

Go now, make more sure, and know and see his place—where his very foot is—and who has seen him there; for I am told that he is very crafty.

So see and know about all the hiding places where he hides himself and return to me with certainty, and I will go with you; and if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.”

Then they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon.

So Saul and his men went to seek him, and they told David, and he came down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. And Saul heard it and pursued David in the wilderness of Maon.

And Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain; and David was hurrying to get away from Saul, but Saul and his men were surrounding David and his men to seize them.

But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land.”

So Saul returned from pursuing David and went to meet the Philistines; therefore they called that place the Rock of Escape.

Then David went up from there and stayed in the strongholds of Engedi.

Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, set His seal.”

Therefore they said to Him, “What should we do, so that we may work the works of God?”

Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?

Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”

Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

Now this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.

Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves.

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.

It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.

Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.

I am the bread of life.

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

This is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.

He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.

He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.