Bible summary
King Saul has been trying to kill David and in chapter 20, David tells his best friend Jonathan, who happens to be Saul’s son, about the king’s plan to kill him. Jonathan doesn’t believe David, however, so David proposes a plan to show Jonathan that he is telling him the truth. The plan does work, and Saul gets angry and tries to kill Jonathan, which confirms what David had been saying.
However, Jonathan and David had made a covenant with each other, and they had also planned a secret signal whereby Jonathan would let David know the outcome of their plan and whether David needed to stay or if he needed to run. And it turns out that he did need to run.
So two best friends are torn apart, crying as David leaves, on the run for his life.
He gets to a place called Nob in chapter 21 where he gets bread from the priest Ahimelech. But he also gets the sword of Goliath, the giant he had killed in an earlier chapter. He then leaves Nob and runs to Gath, which is the territory of the Philistines.
The people tell the king of Gath, king Achish, that David is the king of the land and that he is the one they were singing about – Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands.
So David is afraid for his life because of what the people were saying about him, afraid that the king would now try to kill him. And so he pretends that he is mad and when they bring David before the king of Gath, the king dismisses David as a madman.
