1 Samuel 20:1-22 ▼

1 David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and said, |What have I done? What is my crime, and how have I wronged your father so that he's determined to kill me?

2 Jonathan told him, |Far from it! You won't die. Look, my father never does anything, great or small, without telling me; so why should my father hide this thing from me? It's not like that!|

3 David again took an oath: |Your father certainly knows that I've found favor with you, and so he told himself, 'Jonathan must not know this so he won't be upset.' But as certainly as the LORD is alive and living, and as certainly as I'm alive and living, too, there is only a step between me and death.|

4 Jonathan told David, |Whatever you say, I'll do.|

5 David told Jonathan, |Look, the New Moon is tomorrow, and I'm expected to sit down with the king to eat. Let me go so I can hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow.

6 If your father actually notices that I'm not there, then you are to say, 'David urgently requested that I allow him to run to his hometown of Bethlehem because the yearly sacrifice for the entire family was taking place there.'

7 If he says, 'Good,' then your servant will be safe. But if he actually gets angry, you will know that his intentions are evil.

8 Now, show gracious kindness to your servant because you have entered into a sacred covenant with your servant. If there is iniquity in me, then kill me yourself—why should you bring me to your father?|

9 |Nonsense!| Jonathan replied. |If I actually knew that my father intended evil against you, wouldn't I tell you about it?|

10 Then David told Jonathan, |Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?|

11 Then Jonathan told David, |Come, let's go into the field.| So the two of them went into the field.

12 Jonathan told David, |The LORD God of Israel is my witness that I'll carefully question my father by tomorrow or the next day. And if the response is favorable for David, will I not then send word to you and let you know?

13 But if my father intends to harm you, may the LORD strike me dead if I don't let you know and send you away so you may go safely. May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father.

14 If I remain alive, don't fail to show me the LORD's gracious love so that I don't die.

15 And don't stop showing your gracious love to my family forever, not even when the LORD eliminates each of David's enemies from the surface of the earth.|

16 Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David: |May the LORD punish any violation of this covenant by the hand of David's enemies.|

17 Jonathan made David vow again out of his love for him, because he loved him as himself.

18 Jonathan told him, |Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed because your seat is empty.

19 On the third day go down quickly and come to the place where you hid earlier. Remain beside the rock at Ezel.

20 I'll shoot three arrows to the side of the rock as though I were shooting at a target.

21 Then I'll send a servant, saying, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I specifically say to the servant, 'Look, the arrows are on this side of you, get them,' then come out because it's safe for you, and, as surely as the LORD lives, there is no danger.

22 But if I say this to the young man: 'Look, the arrows are beyond you,' then go, for the LORD has sent you away.