Now that David knows that King Saul wants him dead, he runs and hides all over the desert. Eventually, he will be King, because the Lord hates having appointed Saul, but just can’t bring Himself to get rid of Saul. So David keeps running.

Every once in a while, David gets advice from the Lord about how to save a town, but the Lord never bothers to tell him to just kill Saul.

In fact, as David is running and hiding, he doesn’t tell anyone who is hiding him that he’s running from Saul. He says he’s on a secret mission. This doesn’t workout so well for the priests that unwittingly hide him.

And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the Lord; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord. And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword. (1 Samuel 22:17-19 KJV)

Why does the Lord let this happen? Why does he let Auschwitz happen?

In the end, David is hiding in the back of a cave where Saul stops to take a leak. Rather than killing him, he snips of a piece of his robe, so that he can prove to Saul that there is nothing to fear. Saul cries like a baby.

The End.

I’ve been gypped. Saul is a bloodthirsty sociopath who will kill every man, woman, child, and goat in a town that accidentally hides David. But he weeps and changes his mind with a scrap of cloth.

Next: 1 Samuel 25-27.