Single lesson
David's Refuge and the Priests of Nob
1 Samuel 22:1–23
This lesson helps students follow a serious part of David’s story carefully and in order. Students will trace the choices, speeches, and outcomes in the passage, including harm done at Nob and the refuge David gives Abiathar.
Before you teach
In 1 Samuel 22, David escapes to Adullam, gathers people to him, places his parents in Moab, and moves into Judah after Gad speaks to him. Saul hears about David, accuses others, hears Doeg’s report about Ahimelech, summons the priests, condemns them, and Nob is struck. Abiathar escapes to David.
Students will be able to sequence 1 Samuel 22:1–23, identify key choices and outcomes, and explain that Saul’s accusations and orders bring harm while David gives Abiathar refuge.
Welcome: prepare to read a serious passage
5 minIntroduce the main people and places named in the passage: David, Saul, Gad, Ahimelech, Doeg, Abiathar, Adullam, Nob, Moab, and Judah. Explain plainly that this text includes Saul ordering violence against the priests and Nob being struck, so the class will observe the text carefully without acting it out or dramatising it.
1 Samuel 22:1, 1 Samuel 22:3, 1 Samuel 22:5, 1 Samuel 22:11, 1 Samuel 22:16, 1 Samuel 22:17, 1 Samuel 22:18, 1 Samuel 22:19, 1 Samuel 22:20
Read and explain: David moves and waits on God
8 minRead verses 1 to 5. Help students trace the sequence: David escapes to Adullam’s cave, his family joins him, distressed and discontented people gather, and he becomes captain over about four hundred men. He asks the king of Moab to receive his parents “until I know what God will do for me”. After Gad speaks, David leaves the stronghold and goes into Judah.
1 Samuel 22:1, 1 Samuel 22:2, 1 Samuel 22:3, 1 Samuel 22:4, 1 Samuel 22:5
Discuss the middle: Saul complains, Doeg reports, priests are summoned
10 minRead verses 6 to 15. Saul speaks to his servants and accuses them of conspiracy. Then Doeg reports that he saw David with Ahimelech at Nob, where Ahimelech inquired of Yahweh for him, gave him food, and gave him Goliath’s sword. Saul summons Ahimelech and the priests, and Ahimelech answers that David had been faithful and that he knew nothing of Saul’s complaint.
1 Samuel 22:6, 1 Samuel 22:7, 1 Samuel 22:8, 1 Samuel 22:9, 1 Samuel 22:10, 1 Samuel 22:11, 1 Samuel 22:12, 1 Samuel 22:13, 1 Samuel 22:14, 1 Samuel 22:15
Explain the outcome: Saul’s order and what happens at Nob
9 minRead verses 16 to 19 slowly and explain the sequence clearly. Saul condemns Ahimelech and his father’s house to die. Saul’s servants refuse to strike the priests of Yahweh. Saul then orders Doeg to attack. Doeg kills eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod, and Nob, the city of the priests, is struck. Keep the discussion sober and text-based.
1 Samuel 22:16, 1 Samuel 22:17, 1 Samuel 22:18, 1 Samuel 22:19
Make and respond: sequence cards and final refuge
8 minIn pairs, students make sequence cards for key moments, then place them in order from verse 1 to verse 23. Include the final events: Abiathar escapes, tells David what happened, David says, “I am responsible”, and David tells Abiathar to stay with him and not be afraid. Finish by asking how the passage ends differently from the violence before it.
1 Samuel 22:20, 1 Samuel 22:21, 1 Samuel 22:22, 1 Samuel 22:23
Questions to explore
Why does David ask the king of Moab to receive his father and mother?
Use David’s own words and notice that he says he is waiting to know what God will do for him.
1 Samuel 22:3, 1 Samuel 22:4
What steps come between Saul’s complaint and Ahimelech’s defence?
Name the report Doeg gives, what Ahimelech did for David, and the summons that brings the priests before Saul.
1 Samuel 22:8, 1 Samuel 22:9, 1 Samuel 22:10, 1 Samuel 22:11, 1 Samuel 22:12, 1 Samuel 22:14, 1 Samuel 22:15
What does David say to Abiathar after hearing what happened, and what does that show at the end of the passage?
Include David’s words about responsibility, fear, and safety in your answer.
1 Samuel 22:21, 1 Samuel 22:22, 1 Samuel 22:23
Make, think or respond
Sequence and Consequence Cards
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pens or pencils
- Bible text
- scissors
Try it together
- Cut paper into eight or ten small cards.
- Write one event or speech from the passage on each card, including Doeg’s report, Saul’s sentence, Doeg’s attack, and Abiathar’s escape.
- Place the cards in order from verse 1 to verse 23.
- Mark each card with one label: action, speech, order, or outcome.
- Share your sequence with another pair and explain one link between a choice and its outcome.
This activity helps students follow the exact order of 1 Samuel 22 and notice how the passage moves from escape and speeches to judgement, harm, responsibility, and refuge.
Adapt for your group
- For less confident readers, give the class six shared event labels orally and let pairs focus on ordering them and matching each one to a verse.
- For older or more confident readers, ask them to sort their cards into David’s actions, Saul’s accusations and orders, and the outcomes for the priests and Abiathar.
An optional closing prayer
Lord God, help us read this serious passage truthfully and carefully. Teach us to notice what people say and do, and help us value refuge, honesty, and responsibility. Amen.
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
1 Samuel 22
1 David therefore departed from there and escaped to Adullam’s cave. When his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him.
2 Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them. There were with him about four hundred men.
3 David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother come out to you, until I know what God will do for me.”
4 He brought them before the king of Moab; and they lived with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.
5 The prophet Gad said to David, “Don’t stay in the stronghold. Depart, and go into the land of Judah.” Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.
6 Saul heard that David was discovered, with the men who were with him. Now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him.
7 Saul said to his servants who stood around him, “Hear now, you Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds?
8 Is that why all of you have conspired against me, and there is no one who discloses to me when my son makes a treaty with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me, or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as it is today?”
9 Then Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, answered and said, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.
10 He inquired of Yahweh for him, gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
11 Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the priests who were in Nob; and they all came to the king.
12 Saul said, “Hear now, you son of Ahitub.” He answered, “Here I am, my lord.”
13 Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as it is today?”
14 Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, “Who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, captain of your body guard, and honored in your house?
15 Have I today begun to inquire of God for him? Be it far from me! Don’t let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for your servant knew nothing of all this, less or more.”
16 The king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house.”
17 The king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of Yahweh, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled and didn’t disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king wouldn’t put out their hand to fall on the priests of Yahweh.
18 The king said to Doeg, “Turn and attack the priests!” Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod.
19 He struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword—both men and women, children and nursing babies, and cattle, donkeys, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
20 One of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David.
21 Abiathar told David that Saul had slain Yahweh’s priests.
22 David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of all the persons of your father’s house.
23 Stay with me. Don’t be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. You will be safe with me.”
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.