1 Samuel 20:1-6 ▼

1 Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my iniquity? And what is my sin before your father, that he is seeking my life?”

2 And he said to him, “Far from it, you shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without revealing it in my ear. So why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so!”

3 Yet David swore again, saying, “Your father knows well that I have found favor in your sight, and he has said, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.’ But truly as Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, there is hardly a step between me and death.”

4 Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever your soul says, I will do for you.”

5 So David said to Jonathan, “Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I ought to sit down to eat with the king. But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field until the third evening.

6 If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city because it is the yearly sacrifice there for the whole family.’