He changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard.
From Nob David went to the Philistine city of Gath. He expected that the Philistines would welcome him as a deserter from the Israelite army and so give him refuge (10). But the Philistines had not yet heard of David’s break with Saul. They knew only that David had killed thousands of their own Philistine people. Thinking he may have been spying in preparation for more attacks, they decided to kill him. David acted quickly, and escaped by pretending he had gone mad (11-15; see Psalms 34:0; Psalms 56:0).