Thus the danger was for the time averted. But this state of suspense was intolerable, and David felt there was but a step between him and death. Probably by Samuel’s advice, he now obtained a secret interviewwith Jonathan at Ezel, a well-known stone near Gibeah. In pathetic language he poured out his whole soul to his friend, and besought him to make an effort to ascertain once for all the real feelings of his father, which he might think had undergone a change after the incidents at Naioth. The morrow was a festival of the New Moon. Saul would hold a solemn feast, and at his table would sit Abner and Jonathan, but David’s place would be vacant. The demeanour of the king on observing his absence was to be taken as an omen. If he acquiesced in Jonathan’s explanation that David was absent at a similar festival under the family roof at Bethlehem, all would be well. If he was wroth, then it would be certain that the old grudge was not healed, and that evil was determined against him. A solemn compact was then ratified between the two. Jonathan undertook to ascertain his father’s mind; David promised to shew kindness not only to Jonathan himself, but to all his posterity (1 Sam. xx. 5–10).
When this compact had been duly ratified, Jonathan suggested an expedient, whereby the news was to be made known to David. Within three days he would again repair to the “great stone” with his bow and arrows, and accompanied by a little lad. He would then shoot three arrows, as though he shot at a mark, and his words to the lad, which David would overhear, must decide the point. If he said to the lad, Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee, take them, then David might come forth, and know that all was well. If he said, The arrows are beyond thee, then he might go his way, certain that the wrath of the king could not be appeased. The day came, and David repaired to his hiding-place. In due time Jonathan and his little lad appeared, and the three arrows were shot as agreed upon, and as the lad ran to pick them up, he cried, Is not the arrow beyond thee? Then David knew that hemust fly, and, when the lad was gone to carry back the bow and arrows to Gibeah, rose from his hiding-place, and with passionate embraces and many tears parted from his friend, who once more commended his posterity to his care (1 Sam. xx. 35–42).
David now betook himself to Nob, a sacerdotal city in the tribe of Benjamin, and situated on an eminence near Jerusalem. Here the High-priest Ahimelech resided with the Tabernacle, and trembled when he saw the captain-general of the royal troops approaching alone, and unattended by his usual retinue. But David disarmed his suspicions by pretending a secret mission from the king, and in this character obtained, in the failure of other bread, the sacred[251] loaves of Shew-bread, which having served their turn in the weekly course, were about to be replaced by new loaves. With these and the sword of Goliath, which was brought forth from its receptacle behind the ephod, he fled away, resolved to seek refuge amongst his enemies the Philistines[252].
On his arrival at the court of Achish, king of Gath, he was recognised by the royal guards as the famous champion of Israel, and the sword he carried doubtless recalled bitter memories of the Valley of Elah. He was accordingly thrown into prison[253]. But in this dilemma he changed his behaviour, scrabbled on the doors of the gates, let his spittle fall upon his beard, and gave every sign of being insane. The oriental respect for madness[254] procured him his release, and he was suffered to depart.
From the Lowlands of the Philistines he now betook himself to the town of Adullam (Josh. xv. 35), at the foot of the mountain-range of Judea, and found a secure retreat in one of the extensive caves, with which thelimestone cliffs of the neighbourhood are pierced[255]. News of his coming reached Bethlehem (1 Sam. xxii. 1), and straightway his brethren and all his father’s house, feeling perhaps insecure from Saul’s vengeance, came down to his stronghold from the Judean hills. These probably included his nephews, the sons of Zeruiah, Joab and Abishai; but besides these, were 400 men who joined him from various motives, some from distress, others to avoid exacting creditors, others from some private sorrow. Not considering, however, his aged father and mother secure even in this secluded spot, David hastily crossed the Jordan, and conveyed them into the friendly territory of Moab, and there consigned them to the king, who agreed to protect them (1 Sam. xxii. 3, 4).
By the advice of his friend the prophet Gad, he now retired to the forest of Hareth, not far from Adullam. It was probably while he was here in hold that the sons of Zeruiah performed the memorable exploit recorded in 2 Sam. xxiii. 14–17, 1 Chr. xi. 16–19. A garrison of the Philistines had established themselves even in David’s native town of Bethlehem. One day, sorely tried by thirst, he expressed a longing for the delicious water of its well near the gate. Upon the word the three heroes burst through the Philistine forces, and returned with the much-coveted draught[256]. But their leader would not drink of the blood of the men that had gone in jeopardy of their lives, and poured it forth as a libation before the Lord.
Other bands now joined him. Amongst these were eleven mighty men, their faces like the faces of lions, their feet as swift as the roes upon the mountains (1 Chr. xii. 8), from the uplands of Gad beyond Jordan, who swam that river when it had overflowed all itsbanks (1 Chr. xii. 15), and found their way to his hold. They were followed by men, not only from the tribe of Judah, but from that of Benjamin, with their chief Amasai. This defection of members of Saul’s own tribe at first excited David’s suspicion, but the straightforward, honest words of their leader convinced him of their sincerity, and he associated them in the command of his band of six hundred faithful followers (1 Chr. xii. 16–18).
Meanwhile the Philistines attacked Keilah, a town of uncertain situation in the lowland district of Judah, and robbed the threshing-floors. At first David’s men, in spite of a Divine assurance of success, feared to relieve the place, and so incur the hostility of their powerful foe. A second assurance restored their courage. Keilah was rescued, and the Philistines defeated with great slaughter. Whilst here David was joined by another and an important ally in the person of Abiathar, the son of the high-priest Ahimelech, bearing sad intelligence. On the day of David’s visit to Nob, there was a stranger watching intently all that took place between him and the high-priest. This was Doeg, an Edomite, and the chief of Saul’s herdmen (1 Sam. xxi. 7). When the king was deploring at Gibeah the defection even of his own tribe, Doeg poured into the royal ear his version of what had occurred at Nob. Transported with rage the king sent for Ahimelech, and all the priests of the line of Ithamar, and charged them with befriending his enemies. In vain the high-priest repelled the charge. Saul sentenced the entire body of the priests to instant death, and gave the signal to his guard to execute it. But they declined to imbrue their hands in such a bloody murder. Thereupon he called on Doeg, who straightway obeyed, and falling upon the unresisting priests slew in one day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. Not content with this, the king put the entire population of the place to the sword, bothmen and women, children and sucklings (1 Sam. xxii. 19). Such was the sad news which the solitary survivor of the house of Ithamar now announced to David. I knew it, replied the latter, I knew it, that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul; I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father’s house[257]. From this day forward Abiathar remained with David, and having brought with him the high-priest’s ephod, was enabled by his oracular answers materially to aid David’s movements on occasions of difficulty or danger. Meanwhile the entry of his rival into a town that had gates and bars (1 Sam. xxiii. 7) inspired Saul with the hope of at length capturing David. Summoning his forces, as if for a regular military expedition, he marched down to Keilah, to besiege him and his followers. Aware of the king’s secret designs, David consulted the Divine Will by means of the ephod, and thus ascertaining the intention of the townspeople to betray him, he and his men departed, and went whithersoever they could (1 Sam. xxiii. 13).