For we do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, of our pressure which came to us in Asia, that we were weighed down, exceedingly, beyond ability, so that we despaired even of life.
And I do not wish you to be unaware, brothers, that I often purposed to come to you, but was hindered until now, in order to have some fruit among you, as also among the other nations.
If, as men do, I have fought with beasts at Ephesos, of what good is it to me? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
You are already satisfied! You are already enriched! You have reigned as sovereigns, apart from us! And I wish, indeed, you did reign, that we also might reign with you!
But Dawiḏ swore again, and said, “Your father knows well that I have found favour in your eyes, and he says, ‘Do not let Yehonathan know this, lest he be grieved.’ But truly, as יהוה lives and as your being lives, there is but a step between me and death.”
And Dawiḏ said in his heart, “Now I shall perish by the hand of Sha’ul, some day. There is naught better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Sha’ul shall give up searching for me any longer in any part of Yisra’ĕl, and I shall escape out of his hand.”