10. Then David said, O Lord God of Israel, thy slave has certainly heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake.
11. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down as thy slave has heard? O Lord God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy slave. And the Lord said, He will come down.
12. Then David said, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver thee up.
13. So David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah and went from one place to another. And it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah, and he forbare to go forth.
14. And David abode in the wilderness in strong holds and remained in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand.
15. And David, seeing that Saul had come out to seek his soul, stayed in the woods in the wilderness of Ziph.
16. Then Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God.
17. And he said unto him, Do not fear, for the hand of Saul, my father, shall not find thee, and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and even my father knows this.
18. And the two made a covenant before the Lord, and David abode in the woods, and Jonathan returned to his house.
19. Then those of Ziph came to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Does not David hide himself with us in strong holds in the woods in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the right hand side of the wilderness?
20. Now, therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down, and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hand.