"But if you return to the city, and say to Absalom, 'I will be your servant, O king; [as] I [was] your father's servant previously, so I [will] now also [be] your servant,' then you may defeat the counsel of Ahithophel for me.

And the midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women [are] not like the Egyptian women; for they [are] lively and give birth before the midwives come to them."

Then the woman took the two men and hid them. So she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they [were] from.

"And it happened as the gate was being shut, when it was dark, that the men went out. Where the men went I do not know; pursue them quickly, for you may overtake them."

So when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, "He [is] sick."

And when the messengers had come in, there was the image in the bed, with a cover of goats' [hair] for his head.

So David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, 'Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.' And I have directed [my] young men to such and such a place.

David would save neither man nor woman alive, to bring [news] to Gath, saying, "Lest they should inform on us, saying, 'Thus David did.' " And thus [was] his behavior all the time he dwelt in the country of the Philistines.

So Achish believed David, saying, "He has made his people Israel utterly abhor him; therefore he will be my servant forever."

They departed and went to the mountain, and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers sought [them] all along the way, but did not find [them.]

So the two men returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over; and they came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them.