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fled from Naioth in Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I sinned against your father, that he is trying to take my life?”
2 Jonathan said to him, “You must not think that! You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without telling me first. So why would my father hide this from me? It’s not so!”
3 But David took an oath and said, “Your father certainly knows that I have found favour in your eyes. He has said, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this or he will be grieved’. But as surely as the Lord lives and as you also live, there is but a step between me and death.”
4 Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want, I will do it for you.”
5 So David said, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon festival, and I am supposed to sit down and eat with the king at the meal. Instead, let me go and hide in the field until the third evening. 6 If your father misses me at all then say, ‘David earnestly asked permission from me to hurry down to his home town, Bethlehem, for there is a annual sacrifice there for his whole clan’. 7 If he says, ‘Very well,’ then your servant will be safe; but if he is angry, then know he is determined to do me harm. 8 So deal faithfully with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I have done anything wrong, then kill me yourself. Why hand me over to your father?”
9 Jonathan said, “Never,” Jonathon said. “For if I had the least suspicion that my father had determined to bring harm upon you, then I would certainly tell you.”
10 So David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”
11 Jonathan said to David, “Come on, let’s go out into the field.” So both of them went out into the field.
12 Then Jonathan said to David, “By the Lord, the God of Israel, if I sound out my father by this time tomorrow or on the third day, and I find out that he is favourably disposed toward you, will I not send word and let you know? 13 But if my father intends to do you harm, may the Lord do so and much more to me if I do not let you know and send you away safely. May the Lord be with you, just as he has been with my father. 14 While I remain alive, treat me with the Lord’s unfailing kindness, and if I die, 15 do not ever cut off your kindness from my house—not even when the Lord has cut off all of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”
16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord hold David’s enemies accountable.” 17 Jonathan had David renew his oath to him, because he loved him as he loved his own life.
18 Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, you will be missed when your seat is empty. 19 So the day after tomorrow you should go to the place you hid at when this trouble began, and remain beside the rock Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though aiming at a target. 21 Then I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go and find the arrows’. If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you, bring them here’, then come out, because as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe and there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you’, then leave, for the Lord has sent you away. 23 As for the matter of which you and I have spoken, the Lord will be a witness between you and me forever.” 24 So David hid in the field.
When the New Moon came, the king sat down at the feast to eat. 25 He sat at his usual place on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat facing him, while Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. 26 Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, “Something must have happened to make him ceremonially unclean, surely he is not yet clean.”
27 But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was still empty. And Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today?” 28 Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. 29 He said, ‘Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favour in your eyes, please let me get away so that I may see my brothers’. That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”
30 Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of the mother who gave birth to you? 31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send and bring him to me, for he must die.”
32 But Jonathan spoke up and asked his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” 33 Then Saul hurled his spear at Jonathon trying to kill him, so he knew that his father was determined to kill David.
34 Then Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food on the second day of the month, for he was grieved over David, because his father had dishonoured him.
35 In the morning Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a small boy was with him. 36 He said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows that I shoot.” As the boy was running, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy reached the place where the arrow that Jonathan shot was, Jonathan call out after the boy and said, “Is not the arrow beyond you?” 38 Then Jonathan called to the boy, “Make haste, hurry, do not stay!” And Jonathan’s boy picked up the arrow and came back to his master. 39 But the boy did not know anything; only Jonathan and David knew about the arrangement. 40 Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said to him, “Go and take them to the city.”
41 As soon as the boy had gone, David arose from beside the mound, fell face down to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed each other and wept together, but David wept even more.
42 Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since we have both pledged in the name of the Lord: ‘The Lord will be witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever’.” Then he got up and departed, while Jonathan went into the city.