David and Jonathan

20 Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged^(A) your father, that he is trying to kill me?”^(B)

² “Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!”

³ But David took an oath^(C) and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.”

⁴ Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.”

¹¹ “Come,” Jonathan said, “let’s go out into the field.” So they went there together.

¹² Then Jonathan said to David, “I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound^(A) out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? ¹³ But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely,^(B) if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lord be with^(C) you as he has been with my father. ¹⁴ But show me unfailing kindness^(D) like the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, ¹⁵ and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family^(E)—not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”

¹⁶ So Jonathan^(F) made a covenant^(G) with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord call David’s enemies to account.^(H)” ¹⁷ And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath^(I) out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.

²⁴ So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon feast^(A) came, the king sat down to eat.

²⁵ He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan,^[a] and Abner sat next to Saul, but David’s place was empty.^(A)

²⁷ But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?”

²⁸ Jonathan answered, “David earnestly asked me for permission^(A) to go to Bethlehem. ²⁹ He said, ‘Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice^(B) in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”

³⁰ Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? ³¹ As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom^(C) will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!”

³² “Why^(D) should he be put to death? What^(E) has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. ³³ But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended^(F) to kill David.

³⁵ In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him,

⁴⁰ Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, “Go, carry them back to town.”

⁴¹ After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground.^(A) Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most.

⁴² Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace,^(B) for we have sworn friendship^(C) with each other in the name of the Lord,^(D) saying, ‘The Lord is witness^(E) between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.^(F)’” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.^[a]