to Ceila: for I will deliver the Philistines into
thy hand.

23:5. David, therefore, and his men, went to Ceila, and fought against
the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and made a great
slaughter of them: and David saved the inhabitants of Ceila.

23:6. Now at that time, when Abiathar, the son of Achimelech, fled to
David, to Ceila, he came down, having an ephod with him.

An ephod... Or the ephod. That is, the vestment of the high priest, with
the urim and thummim, by which the Lord gave his oracle.

23:7. And it was told Saul that David was come to Ceila: and Saul said:
The Lord hath delivered him into my hands, and he is shut up, being come
into a city that hath gates and bars.

23:8. And Saul commanded all the people to go down to fight against
Ceila, and to besiege David and his men.

23:9. Now when David understood that Saul secretly prepared evil against
him, he said to Abiathar, the priest: Bring hither the ephod.

23:10. And David said: O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath heard a
report, that Saul designeth to come to Ceila, to destroy the city for my
sake:

23:11. Will the men of Ceila deliver me into his hands? and will Saul
come down, as thy servant hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, tell thy
servant. And the Lord said: He will come down.

23:12. And David said: Will the men of Ceila deliver me and my men into
the hands of Saul? And the Lord said: They will deliver thee up.

23:13. Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose, and
departing from Ceila, wandered up and down, uncertain where they should
stay: and it was told Saul that David was fled from Ceila, and had
escaped: wherefore he forbore to go out.

23:14. But David abode in the desert in strong holds, and he remained in
a mountain of the desert of Ziph, in a woody hill. And Saul sought him
always: but the Lord delivered him not into his hands.

23:15. And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life. And David
was in the desert of Ziph, in a wood.

23:16. And Jonathan, the son of Saul, arose, and went to David, into the
wood, and strengthened his hands in God: and he said to him:

23:17. Fear not: for the hand of my father, Saul, shall not find thee,
and thou shalt reign over Israel, and I shall be next to thee; yea and
my father knoweth this.

23:18. And they two made a covenant before the Lord: and David abode in
the wood: but Jonathan returned to his house.

23:19. And the Ziphites went up to Sau