Jonathan’s Covenant with David

18 When David^[a] had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.^{(A) 2} Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house.^{(B) 3} Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. ⁴ Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that he was wearing and gave it to David and his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt. ⁵ David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him; as a result, Saul set him over the army. And all the people, even the servants of Saul, approved.

⁶ As they were coming home, when David returned from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the towns of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments.^{[b](C) 7} And the women sang to one another as they made merry,

⁸ Saul was very angry, for this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands; what more can he have but the kingdom?”^{(E) 9} So Saul eyed David from that day on.

The Friendship of David and Jonathan

20 David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came before Jonathan and said, “What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin against your father that he is trying to take my life?”^{(A) 2} He said to him, “Far from it! You shall not die. My father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me, and why should my father hide this from me? Never!” ³ But David also swore, “Your father knows well that you like me, and he thinks, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, or he will be grieved.’ But truly, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.” ⁴ Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.” ⁵ David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at the meal, but let me go, so that I may hide in the field until the third evening.^{(B) 6} If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’^{(C) 7} If he says, ‘Good!’ it will be well with your servant, but if he is angry, then know that evil has been determined by him. ⁸ Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a sacred covenant^[a] with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”^{(D) 9} Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! If I knew that it was decided by my father that evil should come upon you, would I not tell you?” ¹⁰ Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?” ¹¹ Jonathan replied to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So they both went out into the field.

¹² Jonathan said to David, “By the Lord, the God of Israel! When I have sounded out my father, about this time tomorrow or on the third day, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you? ¹³ But if my father intends to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan and more also, if I do not disclose it to you and send you away, so that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father.^{(E) 14} If I am still alive, show me the faithful love of the Lord, but if I die,^{[b] 15} never cut off your faithful love from my house, even if the Lord were to cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”^{(F) 16} Thus Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord seek out the enemies of David.” ¹⁷ Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own life.^(G)

¹⁸ Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon; you will be missed because your place will be empty.^{(H) 19} On the day after tomorrow, you shall go a long way down; go to the place where you hid yourself earlier, and remain beside the stone there.^{[c](I) 20} I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark. ²¹ Then I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; collect them,’ then you are to come, for, as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. ²² But if I say to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go, for the Lord has sent you away.^{(J) 23} As for the matter about which you and I have spoken, the Lord be between you and me forever.”^(K)

²⁴ So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat at the feast to eat. ²⁵ The king sat upon his seat, as at other times, upon the seat by the wall. Jonathan stood, while Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty.^(L)

²⁶ Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has befallen him; he is not clean; surely he is not clean.”^{(M) 27} But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David’s place was empty. And Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to the feast, either yesterday or today?” ²⁸ Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem;^{(N) 29} he said, ‘Let me go, for our family is holding a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your sight, let me get away and see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king’s table.”

³⁰ Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan. He said to him, “You son of a rebellious woman!^[d] Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?^{(O) 31} For as long as the son of Jesse lives upon the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.” ³² Then Jonathan answered his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”^{(P) 33} But Saul threw his spear at him to strike him, so Jonathan knew that it was the decision of his father to put David to death.^{(Q) 34} Jonathan sprang up^[e] from the table in fierce anger and ate no food on the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David and because his father had disgraced him.

³⁵ In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him was a little boy. ³⁶ He said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows that I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.^{(R) 37} When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called after the boy and said, “Is the arrow not beyond you?”^{(S) 38} Jonathan called after the boy, “Hurry, be quick, do not linger.” So Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. ³⁹ But the boy knew nothing; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement. ⁴⁰ Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said to him, “Go and carry them to the city.” ⁴¹ As soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap^[f] and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He bowed three times, and they kissed each other and wept with each other; David wept the more.^{[g] 42} Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since both of us have sworn in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord shall be between me and you and between my descendants and your descendants forever.’ ” He got up and left, and Jonathan went into the city.^[h](T)

Psalm 101

A Sovereign’s Pledge of Integrity and Justice

Of David. A Psalm.

Concerning Treasures

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust^[a] consume and where thieves break in and steal,^{(A) 20} but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust^[b] consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.^{(B) 21} For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The Eye

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,^{(C) 23} but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Serving Two Masters

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.^[c](D)

The Parable of the Sower

13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. ² Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach.^{(A) 3} And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seeds fell on a path, and the birds came and ate them up. ⁵ Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. ⁶ But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. ⁷ Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸ Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.^{(B) 9} If you have ears,^[a] hear!”^(C)

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰ Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” ¹¹ He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets^[b] of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.^{(D) 12} For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.^{(E) 13} The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’^{(F) 14} With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:

¹⁶ “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.^{(I) 17} Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.^(J)

The Parable of the Sower Explained

¹⁸ “Hear, then, the parable of the sower. ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path.^{(K) 20} As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, ²¹ yet such a person has no root but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.^{[c](L) 22} As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this^[d] age and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.^{(M) 23} But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”^(N)

The Gift of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.^{(A) 3} If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast^[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.^(B)

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant^{(C) 5} or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs;^{(D) 6} it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.^{(E) 7} It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.^(F)

⁸ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. ⁹ For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, ¹⁰ but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. ¹² For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.^{(G) 13} And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.

God Is Love

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.^{(A) 8} Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.^{(B) 10} In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.^{(C) 11} Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.^{(D) 12} No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.^(E)

¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.^{(F) 16} So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. ¹⁷ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.^{(G) 18} There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. ¹⁹ We love^[a] because he first loved us. ²⁰ Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.^{(H) 21} The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.