Now when Abiathar son of Ahimelech had fled to David at Keilah, he had brought with him an ephod. ¹ 

Will the leaders of Keilah deliver me into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? O Lord God of Israel, please inform your servant!” Then the Lord said, “He will come down.”

David went on to say, “As the Lord lives, the Lord himself will strike him down. Either his day will come and he will die, or he will go down into battle and be swept away.

You will go down to Gilgal before me. I am going to join you there to offer burnt offerings and to make peace offerings. You should wait for seven days, until I arrive and tell you what to do.”

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.”

But the leaders of the Philistines became angry with him and said ¹  to him, “Send the man back! Let him return to the place that you assigned him! Don’t let him go down with us into the battle, for he might become ²  our adversary in the battle. What better way to please his lord than with the heads of these men? ³