Jonathan replied to Saul, “David urgently requested that he be allowed to go to Bethlehem.

Jonathan responded to his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”

David replied, “Here is the king’s spear! Let one of your servants cross over and get it.

Eli replied, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the request that you have asked of him.”

A man who was from there replied, “And who is their father?” Therefore this became a proverb: “Is even Saul among the prophets?”

Then someone from the army informed him, “Your father put the army under a strict oath ¹  saying, ‘Cursed be the man who eats food today!’ That is why the army is tired.”

Ahimelech replied to the king, “Who among all your servants is faithful like David? He is the king’s son-in-law, the leader of your bodyguard, and honored in your house!

But Nabal responded to David’s servants, “Who is David, and who is this son of Jesse? This is a time when many servants are breaking away from their masters!

The messenger replied, “Israel has fled from ¹  the Philistines! The army has suffered a great defeat! Your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead! The ark of God has been captured!”

Samuel replied to Saul, “I am the seer! Go up in front of me to the high place! Today you will eat with me and in the morning I will send you away. I will tell you everything that you are thinking. ¹ 

Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of Israel’s tribes, and is not my family clan the smallest of all the tribes of Benjamin? Why do you speak to me in this way?”

One of his attendants replied, ¹  “I have seen a son of Jesse in Bethlehem ²  who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave warrior ³  and is articulate ⁴  and handsome, ⁵  for the Lord is with him.”

The priest replied to David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread at my disposal. Only holy bread is available, and then only if your soldiers ¹  have abstained from sexual relations with women.” ² 

David said to the priest, “Certainly women have been kept away from us, just as on previous occasions when I have set out. The soldiers’ ¹  equipment is holy, even on an ordinary journey. How much more so will they be holy today, along with their equipment!”

But Doeg the Edomite, who had stationed himself with the servants of Saul, replied, “I saw this son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob.

David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?” Abishai replied, “I will go down with you.”

David called to the army and to Abner son of Ner, “Won’t you answer, Abner?” Abner replied, “Who are you, that you have called to the king?”

Achish replied to David, “I am convinced that you are as reliable ¹  as the angel of God! However, the leaders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go up with us in the battle.’

But all the evil and worthless men among those who had gone with David said, “Since they didn’t go with us, ¹  we won’t give them any of the loot we retrieved! They may take only their wives and children. Let them lead them away and be gone!”