11 As for man and woman, David was not preserving any alive to bring them to Gath, saying: “That they may not tell on us, saying, ‘This is the way David did.’”+ (And this way has been his procedure all the days that he dwelt in the countryside of the Phi·lisʹtines.)

12 Consequently Aʹchish believed+ David, saying to himself: “He has unquestionably become a stench among his people Israel;+ and he will have to become my servant to time indefinite.”

3 And the princes of the Phi·lisʹtines began to say: “What do these Hebrews+ mean?” At this Aʹchish said to the princes of the Phi·lisʹtines: “Is this not David the servant of Saul king of Israel, who happened to be with me here a year or two,*+ and I have not found+ in him a single thing from the day of his deserting [to me] until this day?”

16 “Look! I am sending YOU forth as sheep amidst wolves;+ therefore prove yourselves cautious as serpents+ and yet innocent as doves.+