23:9. Now when David understood that Saul secretly prepared evil against him, he said to Abiathar, the priest: Bring hither the ephod.
23:10. And David said: O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath heard a report, that Saul designeth to come to Ceila, to destroy the city for my sake:
23:11. Will the men of Ceila deliver me into his hands? and will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, tell thy servant. And the Lord said: He will come down.
23:12. And David said: Will the men of Ceila deliver me and my men into the hands of Saul? And the Lord said: They will deliver thee up.
23:13. Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose, and departing from Ceila, wandered up and down, uncertain where they should stay: and it was told Saul that David was fled from Ceila, and had escaped: wherefore he forbore to go out.
23:14. But David abode in the desert in strong holds, and he remained in a mountain of the desert of Ziph, in a woody hill. And Saul sought him always: but the Lord delivered him not into his hands.
23:15. And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life. And David was in the desert of Ziph, in a wood.
23:16. And Jonathan, the son of Saul, arose, and went to David, into the wood, and strengthened his hands in God: and he said to him:
23:17. Fear not: for the hand of my father, Saul, shall not find thee, and thou shalt reign over Israel, and I shall be next to thee; yea and my father knoweth this.
23:18. And they two made a covenant before the Lord: and David abode in the wood: but Jonathan returned to his house.