1 Samuel 20

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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David turns to Jonathan

¹David escaped from Naioth in Ramah and went to Jonathan. “What have I done?” he asked. “What is my crime? What wrong have I done to your father, that he is trying to take my life?” ²Jonathan answered, “Never! You are not going to die. My father does nothing, great or small, without telling me. Why would he hide this from me? It is not so.” ³But David answered him with an oath: “Your father knows very well that you think well of me, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this, or it will grieve him.’ But as surely as the LORD lives and as surely as you live, there is only a step between me and death.” ⁴Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want, I will do for you.”

⁵David said to Jonathan, “Listen, tomorrow is the new moon festival, and I am expected to sit at the table with the king. But let me go, and I will hide in the field until the evening of the third day. ⁶If your father notices that I am missing, tell him, ‘David begged me to let him hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because the whole clan is holding its yearly sacrifice there.’ ⁷Should he say, ‘Good,’ your servant is safe. But should he flare up in anger, you will know that he has made up his mind to do me harm. ⁸So show faithful love to your servant, because you brought your servant into a covenant with you before the LORD. But if I am guilty, kill me yourself. Why hand me over to your father?”

⁹Jonathan said, “Never think it! If I knew for certain that my father had decided to bring harm on you, would I not tell you?”

¹⁰David asked Jonathan, “Who will let me know if your father gives you a harsh answer?”

¹¹Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So the two of them went out together.

¹²Then Jonathan said to David, “The LORD, the God of Israel, is my witness! By this time tomorrow, or the day after, I will sound out my father. If he is well disposed toward David, I will certainly send word and let you know. ¹³But if my father means to do you harm, may the LORD deal with me, Jonathan, ever so severely if I do not let you know and send you away to go in safety. May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father. ¹⁴And if I am still alive then, will you not show me the faithful love of the LORD, so that I do not die? ¹⁵And never cut off your faithful love from my family, not even when the LORD has cut off David’s enemies, every one of them, from the face of the earth.” ¹⁶So Jonathan made a covenant with David’s house, and said, “May the LORD call David’s enemies to account.” ¹⁷Jonathan had David swear again by his love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.

¹⁸Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon festival. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. ¹⁹On the day after tomorrow, go down quickly to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait beside the stone Ezel. ²⁰I will shoot three arrows to one side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. ²¹Then I will send the boy and tell him, ‘Go and find the arrows.’ If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; pick them up,’ then come, because as surely as the LORD lives, you are safe and there is no danger. ²²But if what I tell the young man is, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go, because the LORD is sending you away. ²³As for what you and I have agreed, the LORD is witness between you and me forever.”

Saul’s anger at the new moon festival

²⁴So David hid in the field. When the new moon festival came, the king sat down to eat the meal. ²⁵The king sat in his usual seat by the wall. Jonathan got up, and Abner sat down beside Saul, but David’s place was empty. ²⁶Saul did not say a word that day. He thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not ritually clean. Surely he is unclean.”

²⁷But on the next day, the second day of the new moon festival, David’s place was empty again. Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today?” ²⁸Jonathan answered Saul, “David begged me to let him go to Bethlehem. ²⁹He said, ‘Please let me go, because our family is holding a sacrifice in the town, and my brother has told me to be there. So if you are willing, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”

³⁰Saul’s anger flared up against Jonathan, and he told him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Do you think I do not know that you have sided with the son of Jesse? It is a disgrace to you and a disgrace to the mother who bore you. ³¹As long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be secure. Now send for him and bring him to me, because he must die.”

³²Jonathan answered his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” ³³But Saul threw his spear at him to strike him down. Then Jonathan knew that his father was determined to kill David.

³⁴Jonathan got up from the table in a rage and ate nothing on that second day of the festival. He was grieved for David, since his father had shamed him.

The arrows in the field

³⁵Next morning Jonathan went out to the field for the meeting he had arranged with David, and a young boy was with him. ³⁶He said to his boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” As the boy ran, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. ³⁷When the boy came to the spot where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan shouted after him, “Is the arrow not beyond you?” ³⁸Then Jonathan shouted after the boy, “Hurry! Be quick! Do not stop!” Jonathan’s boy picked up the arrows and came back to his master. ³⁹The boy knew nothing of what it meant; only Jonathan and David knew. ⁴⁰Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and told him, “Go, carry them back to town.” ⁴¹As soon as the boy had gone, David got up from his place by the south side and fell with his face to the ground, bowing down three times. Then they kissed each other and wept together, and David wept the more. ⁴²Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace. We two have sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD will be witness between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants, forever.’”