When Saul heard of this, his rage was almost beyond bounds, but Michal
did not care, for she knew that David was safe now, and her answers to
her father's reproaches at her conduct in helping David to escape were
as fearless as possible.
All this took time, and meanwhile, David, now an outcast from his home,
had hurried to Ramah, a city on a height about three miles west of
Gibeah, where he found Samuel at the School of Prophets, and when he
told Samuel all that Saul had done to him, Samuel felt sorely against
Saul, and went with David to Naioth, hoping that they might in that way
escape Saul's messengers, who David knew would surely discover and
follow him. And he was right. No sooner had David reached Ramah than
Saul did find it out, and sent soldiers to arrest him, but three
different bands which he sent, one after another, when they came to the
School of Prophets became filled with religious excitement, and
neglected their errand. Then Saul himself was frenzied with impatience
and started out for Ramah, but before he reached the city, he, too, was
overcome by the spirit of religious excitement, and for a day and a
night forgot his own errand. So David had time to escape, and went
straight back to Saul's court, the place where he had been in such high
favour only a short time before. He went to find Jonathan, his friend,
who had been eagerly waiting for news of him. The meeting of the youths
was a glad one, but there was no time for discussing anything except
what David had come to get advice about. At once he asked Jonathan:
"What have I done? What is my sin before your father, that he seeketh
my life?"
And Jonathan loved him with a great love and was deeply troubled for
his safety, and he answered David:
"God forbid. Thou shalt not die. Behold my father will do nothing
either great or small, but he will show it to me, and why should he
hide this thing from me? It is not so."
But David knew the truth and he answered:
"Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found favour in thine eyes,
and he said 'Let not Jonathan know this lest he be grieved' but truly,
as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between
me and death."
A solemn thing for a young man, so strong, so full of the joy of life,
to believe and to say, and as he said it, his voice trembled, and
Jonathan's cheeks were white with fear. Only for a moment was Jonathan
silent, then looking straight into David's eyes, he said:
"Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee."
Could there be any better proof of friendship than that?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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