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1 Samuel 20
Lexham English Bible

Jonathan Supports David over Saul

20 Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my guilt and what is my sin before your father that he is trying to kill me?[a] 2 And he said to him, “Far from it! You will not die! Look, my father does not do[b] anything large or small unless he reveals it to me.[c] Why should my father hide this thing or anything from me?” 3 Then David took an oath[d] again and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he thought, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he worry.’ But as Yahweh lives[e] and as your soul lives,[f] surely there is merely a step between me and death!” 4 Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you wish,[g] I will do for you.” 5 David said to Jonathan, “Look, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should certainly sit with the king to eat. You must send me away so that I can hide myself in the field until the third evening. 6 If your father misses me at all, then you must say, ‘David earnestly asked from me to run to Bethlehem his city, for the yearly sacrifice[h] is there for all the clan.’ 7 If he says ‘Good,’ it will mean peace for your servant; but if he is very angry, know that he has decided to do me harm.[i] 8 So you must show loyal love to your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of Yahweh with you. But if there is guilt in me, then kill me yourself! But why should you bring me to your father?” 9 Then Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! For if I know for certain that my father decided evil should come upon you,[j] would I not have told it to you?” 10 Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if what your father answers you is harsh?” 11 And Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out to the field.” So the two of them went out to the field.

12 Then Jonathan said to David, “Yahweh the God of Israel is my witness[k] that I will question my father by this time the day after tomorrow.[l] And look, if he is well disposed toward you,[m] will I not send word to you and disclose it to you?[n] 13 So may Yahweh punish Jonathan and more[o] if my father decides to do you harm[p] and if I fail to disclose it to you[q] and send word to you that you can go safely. And may Yahweh be with you, as he has been with my father. 14 And not while I am still alive, will you not show the loyal love of Yahweh with me, that I may not die?[r] 15 And do not cut off your loyal love from my family[s] forever, not even when Yahweh exterminates[t] each of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” 16 So Jonathan made a covenant[u] with the house of David, saying, “May Yahweh call the enemies of David to account.”[v] 17 And Jonathan again made David swear an oath, because he loved him; for with the love of his soul he loved him.

18 Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, for your seat will stay empty. 19 On the third day you must go down quickly and go to the place where you hid yourself on the day all this started[w] and remain beside the stone Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side as if I were shooting at a target. 21 Then[x] I will send word to my servant, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ If I clearly say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you;[y] bring[z] it,’ then[aa] come, for it means peace for you. And there is no problem, as Yahweh lives.[ab] 22 But if I say this to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’[ac] go, for Yahweh has sent you away. 23 And as for the matter about which you and I spoke, look, Yahweh is between you and me forever.”

24 So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon came,[ad] the king was seated at the feast.[ae] 25 The king sat at his seat as before,[af] the seat by the wall, and Jonathan got up, and Abner sat beside Saul, but David’s place was empty. 26 But Saul said nothing on that day, for he thought, “Something happened to him.[ag] He is not ceremonially clean; surely he is not clean.” 27 And then[ah] on the next day, the second day of the new moon, that David’s place was empty. So Saul asked Jonathan his son, “Why did the son of Jesse not come either yesterday or today to the feast?” 28 Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked permission from me to go up to Bethlehem. 29 He said, ‘Send me away, please, for our clan sacrifice is in the city, and my brother commanded[ai] me to be present. So then, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me slip away and see my brothers.’ Therefore he has not come to the table of the king.” 30 Then Saul became angry[aj] at Jonathan and said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman![ak] Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 31 For as long as[al] the son of Jesse is alive on the earth, you and your kingdom will not be established! So then, send and bring him to me, for he will surely die!”[am] 32 But Jonathan answered his father Saul and said to him, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” 33 Then Saul hurled his[an] spear at him to kill him. So Jonathan knew that his father had decided[ao] to kill David.

34 Jonathan got up from the table enraged,[ap] and did not eat on the second day of the new moon because he was upset about David, because his father had disgraced him. 35 And then[aq] in the morning Jonathan went out to the field for the appointment with David, and a young boy[ar] was with him. 36 He said to his servant,[as] “Run, please find the arrows that I am shooting!” The boy[at] ran, and he shot the arrow to pass over him. 37 When the boy came up to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called out after the boy and said, “Is not the arrow beyond you?”[au] 38 Then Jonathan called out after the boy, “Quick, hurry, do not linger!” And Jonathan’s servant collected the arrows and came to his master. 39 But the boy did not know anything about this; only Jonathan and David knew the matter. 40 Jonathan gave his weapons to his servant and said to him, “Go, bring them to the city.” 41 The boy left, and then David got up from the south side,[av] and he fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed each other[aw] and wept together,[ax] but David wept the most. 42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have sworn, the two of us, an oath in the name of Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring forever.”[ay] Then he got up and left, and Jonathan went into the city.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 20:1 Literally “seeking my life”
  2. 1 Samuel 20:2 The Masoretic Hebrew text (Kethib) reads “he does to/for him”; the translation follows the reading tradition (Qere) which has “does not do”
  3. 1 Samuel 20:2 Literally “a large thing or a small thing and he does not reveal to my ear”
  4. 1 Samuel 20:3 Literally “swore”
  5. 1 Samuel 20:3 Literally “the life of Yahweh”
  6. 1 Samuel 20:3 Literally “the life of your soul”
  7. 1 Samuel 20:4 Literally “What your soul says”
  8. 1 Samuel 20:6 Literally “the sacrifice of the days”
  9. 1 Samuel 20:7 Literally “the evil has been determined from with him”
  10. 1 Samuel 20:9 Literally “the evil is determined from with my father to come over you”
  11. 1 Samuel 20:12 The phrase “is my witness” is supplied based on the Syriac version
  12. 1 Samuel 20:12 Literally “as the time tomorrow the third”
  13. 1 Samuel 20:12 Literally “if he is good to David”
  14. 1 Samuel 20:12 Literally “I will reveal it to your ear”
  15. 1 Samuel 20:13 Literally “So may Yahweh do to Jonathan and so may he add”
  16. 1 Samuel 20:13 Literally “the evil over you is regarded as good by my father”
  17. 1 Samuel 20:13 Literally “I will reveal it to your ear”
  18. 1 Samuel 20:14 Or perhaps “and if I die, may you not …”
  19. 1 Samuel 20:15 Literally “my house”
  20. 1 Samuel 20:15 Literally “cuts off”
  21. 1 Samuel 20:16 Literally “cut a covenant”
  22. 1 Samuel 20:16 Literally “seek from the hand of the enemies of David”
  23. 1 Samuel 20:19 Literally “on the day of the deed”
  24. 1 Samuel 20:21 Literally “And look”
  25. 1 Samuel 20:21 Literally “from you and here”
  26. 1 Samuel 20:21 Literally “take”
  27. 1 Samuel 20:21 Hebrew “and”
  28. 1 Samuel 20:21 Literally “the life of Yahweh”
  29. 1 Samuel 20:22 Literally “from you and beyond”
  30. 1 Samuel 20:24 Literally “And it was the new moon”
  31. 1 Samuel 20:24 Literally “the king sat at the food to eat”
  32. 1 Samuel 20:25 Literally “as occurrence at occurrence”
  33. 1 Samuel 20:26 Literally “It is incident”
  34. 1 Samuel 20:27 Literally “And it happened”
  35. 1 Samuel 20:29 Or “urged”
  36. 1 Samuel 20:30 Literally “the nose of Saul became hot”
  37. 1 Samuel 20:30 Or “bastard of a wayward woman” (HALOT 796)
  38. 1 Samuel 20:31 Literally “all the days which”
  39. 1 Samuel 20:31 Literally “he is a son of death”
  40. 1 Samuel 20:33 Hebrew “the”
  41. 1 Samuel 20:33 Literally “it was complete from with his father”
  42. 1 Samuel 20:34 Literally “with burning of nose”
  43. 1 Samuel 20:35 Literally “And it happened”
  44. 1 Samuel 20:35 Or “young servant”
  45. 1 Samuel 20:36 Or “boy”
  46. 1 Samuel 20:36 Or “servant”
  47. 1 Samuel 20:37 Literally “from you and beyond”
  48. 1 Samuel 20:41 So Masoretic Hebrew text; LXX reads “from the mound” (of stones)
  49. 1 Samuel 20:41 Literally “each his friend”
  50. 1 Samuel 20:41 Literally “each with his friend”
  51. 1 Samuel 20:42 In the Hebrew Bible, 1 Sam 21 begins here. 1 Samuel 20:42b–21:15 in the English Bible is 21:1–16 in the Hebrew Bible
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1 Samuel 20
Holman Christian Standard Bible

Jonathan Protects David

20 David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done?(A) What did I do wrong? How have I sinned against your father so that he wants to take my life?”

2 Jonathan said to him, “No, you won’t die. Listen, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without telling me.[a] So why would he hide this matter from me? This can’t be true.”

3 But David said, “Your father certainly knows that you have come to look favorably on me. He has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or else he will be grieved.’” David also swore, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”(B)

4 Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.”

5 So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon,(C) and I’m supposed to sit down and eat with the king.(D) Instead, let me go, and I’ll hide in the field until the third night.(E) 6 If your father misses me at all, say, ‘David urgently requested my permission to quickly go to his town Bethlehem(F) for an annual sacrifice(G) there involving the whole clan.’ 7 If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he becomes angry, you will know he has evil intentions. 8 Deal faithfully with your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the Lord.(H) If I have done anything wrong,(I) then kill me yourself; why take me to your father?”

9 “No!” Jonathan responded. “If I ever find out my father has evil intentions against you, wouldn’t I tell you about it?”

10 So David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”

11 He answered David, “Come on, let’s go out to the field.” So both of them went out to the field. 12 “By the Lord, the God of Israel, I will sound out my father by this time tomorrow or the next day. If I find out that he is favorable toward you, will I not send for you and tell you?[b] 13 If my father intends to bring evil on you, may God punish Jonathan and do so severely(J) if I do not tell you[c] and send you away so you may go in peace. May the Lord be with you,(K) just as He was with my father. 14 If I continue to live, treat me with the Lord’s faithful love, but if I die, 15 don’t ever withdraw your faithful love from my household—not even when the Lord cuts off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”(L) 16 Then Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David,(M) saying, “May the Lord hold David’s enemies accountable.”[d](N) 17 Jonathan once again swore to David[e] in his love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.(O)

18 Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the New Moon;(P) you’ll be missed because your seat will be empty. 19 The following day hurry down and go to the place where you hid on the day this incident began and stay beside the rock Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows beside it as if I’m aiming at a target. 21 Then I will send the young man and say, ‘Go and find the arrows!’ Now, if I expressly say to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you—get them,’ then come, because as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no problem. 22 But if I say this to the youth: ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you!’(Q) then go, for the Lord is sending you away. 23 As for the matter you and I have spoken about,(R) the Lord will be a witness[f] between you and me forever.”(S) 24 So David hid in the field.

At the New Moon, the king sat down to eat the meal. 25 He sat at his usual place on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat facing him[g] and Abner took his place beside Saul, but David’s place was empty.(T) 26 Saul did not say anything that day because he thought, “Something unexpected has happened; he must be ceremonially unclean—yes, that’s it, he is unclean.”(U)

27 However, the day after the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why didn’t Jesse’s son come to the meal either yesterday or today?”

28 Jonathan answered, “David asked for my permission to go to Bethlehem.(V) 29 He said, ‘Please let me go because our clan is holding a sacrifice in the town, and my brother has told me to be there. So now, if you are pleased with me, let me go so I can see my brothers.’ That’s why he didn’t come to the king’s table.”

30 Then Saul became angry with Jonathan and shouted, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you are siding with Jesse’s son to your own shame and to the disgrace of your mother?[h] 31 Every day Jesse’s son lives on earth you and your kingship are not secure. Now send for him and bring him to me—he deserves to die.”(W)

32 Jonathan answered his father back: “Why is he to be killed? What has he done?”(X)

33 Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him,(Y) so he knew that his father was determined to kill David.(Z) 34 He got up from the table in fierce anger and did not eat any food that second day of the New Moon, for he was grieved because of his father’s shameful behavior toward David.

35 In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for the appointed meeting with David. A small young man was with him. 36 He said to the young man, “Run and find the arrows I’m shooting.”(AA) As the young man ran, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. 37 He came to the location of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, but Jonathan called to him and said, “The arrow is beyond you, isn’t it?”(AB) 38 Then Jonathan called to him, “Hurry up and don’t stop!” Jonathan’s young man picked up the arrow and returned to his master. 39 He did not know anything; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement. 40 Then Jonathan gave his equipment to the young man who was with him and said, “Go, take it back to the city.”

41 When the young man had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone Ezel, fell with his face to the ground, and bowed three times.(AC) Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and wept with each other, though David wept more.(AD)

42 Jonathan then said to David, “Go in the assurance the two of us pledged in the name of the Lord when we said: The Lord will be a witness between you and me and between my offspring and your offspring forever.”[i](AE) Then David left, and Jonathan went into the city.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 20:2 Lit without uncovering my ear
  2. 1 Samuel 20:12 Lit and uncover your ear
  3. 1 Samuel 20:13 Lit will uncover your ears
  4. 1 Samuel 20:16 Lit Lord require it from the hand of David’s enemies
  5. 1 Samuel 20:17 LXX; MT reads Jonathan once again made David swear
  6. 1 Samuel 20:23 LXX; MT omits a witness
  7. 1 Samuel 20:25 Text emended; MT reads Jonathan got up
  8. 1 Samuel 20:30 Lit your mother’s genitals
  9. 1 Samuel 20:42 The last sentence of v. 42 is 1Sm 21:1 in Hb.
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