1 SAMUEL Chapter 20 (GNB)
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20:1
Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and went to Jonathan. "What have I
done?" he asked. "What crime have I committed? What wrong have I done
to your father to make him want to kill me?"
20:2
Jonathan answered, "God forbid that you should die! My father tells me
everything he does, important or not, and he would not hide this from me. It
just isn't so!"
20:3
But David answered, "Your father knows very well how much you like me, and
he has decided not to let you know what he plans to do, because you would be
deeply hurt. I swear to you by the living LORD that I am only a step away from
death!"
20:4
Jonathan said, "I'll do anything you want."
20:5
"Tomorrow is the New Moon Festival," David replied, "and I am
supposed to eat with the king. But if it's all right with you, I will go and
hide in the fields until the evening of the day after tomorrow.
20:6
If your father notices that I am not at the table, tell him that I begged your
permission to hurry home to Bethlehem, since it's the time for the annual
sacrifice there for my whole family.
20:7
If he says, 'All right,' I will be safe; but if he becomes angry, you will know
that he is determined to harm me.
20:8
Please do me this favor, and keep the sacred promise you made to me. But if I'm
guilty, kill me yourself ! Why take me to your father to be killed?"
20:9
"Don't even think such a thing!" Jonathan answered. "If I knew
for sure that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn't I tell you?"
20:10
David then asked, "Who will let me know if your father answers you
angrily?"
20:11
"Let's go out to the fields," Jonathan answered. So they went,
20:12
and Jonathan said to David, "May the LORD God of Israel be our witness! At
this time tomorrow and on the following day I will question my father. If his
attitude toward you is good, I will send you word.
20:13
If he intends to harm you, may the LORD strike me dead if I don't let you know
about it and get you safely away. May the LORD be with you as he was with my
father!
20:14
And if I remain alive, please keep your sacred promise and be loyal to me; but
if I die,
20:15
show the same kind of loyalty to my family forever. And when the LORD has
completely destroyed all your enemies,
20:16
may our promise to each other still be unbroken. If it is broken, the LORD will
punish you."
20:17
Once again Jonathan made David promise to love him, for Jonathan loved David as
much as he loved himself.
20:18
Then Jonathan said to him, "Since tomorrow is the New Moon Festival, your
absence will be noticed if you aren't at the meal.
20:19
The day after tomorrow your absence will be noticed even more; so go to the
place where you hid yourself the other time, and hide behind the pile of stones
there.
20:20
I will then shoot three arrows at it, as though it were a target.
20:21
Then I will tell my servant to go and find them. And if I tell him, 'Look, the
arrows are on this side of you; get them,' that means that you are safe and can
come out. I swear by the living LORD that you will be in no danger.
20:22
But if I tell him, 'The arrows are on the other side of you,' then leave,
because the LORD is sending you away.
20:23
As for the promise we have made to each other, the LORD will make sure that we
will keep it forever."
20:24
So David hid in the fields. At the New Moon Festival, King Saul came to the
meal
20:25
and sat in his usual place by the wall. Abner sat next to him, and Jonathan sat
across the table from him. David's place was empty,
20:26
but Saul said nothing that day, because he thought, "Something has
happened to him, and he is not ritually pure."
20:27
On the following day, the day after the New Moon Festival, David's place was
still empty, and Saul asked Jonathan, "Why didn't David come to the meal
either yesterday or today?"
20:28
Jonathan answered, "He begged me to let him go to Bethlehem.
20:29
'Please let me go,' he said, 'because our family is celebrating the sacrificial
feast in town, and my brother ordered me to be there. So then, if you are my
friend, let me go and see my relatives.' That is why he isn't in his place at
your table."
20:30
Saul became furious with Jonathan and said to him, "How rebellious and
faithless your mother was! Now I know you are taking sides with David and are
disgracing yourself and that mother of yours!
20:31
Don't you realize that as long as David is alive, you will never be king of
this country? Now go and bring him here---he must die!"
20:32
"Why should he die?" Jonathan replied. "What has he done?"
20:33
At that, Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him, and Jonathan realized
that his father was really determined to kill David.
20:34
Jonathan got up from the table in a rage and ate nothing that day---the second
day of the New Moon Festival. He was deeply distressed about David, because
Saul had insulted him.
20:35
The following morning Jonathan went to the fields to meet David, as they had
agreed. He took a young boy with him
20:36
and said to him, "Run and find the arrows I'm going to shoot." The
boy ran, and Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him.
20:37
When the boy reached the place where the arrow had fallen, Jonathan shouted to
him, "The arrow is farther on!
20:38
Don't just stand there! Hurry up!" The boy picked up the arrow and
returned to his master,
20:39
not knowing what it all meant; only Jonathan and David knew.
20:40
Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and told him to take them back to town.
20:41
After the boy had left, David got up from behind the pile of stones, fell on
his knees and bowed with his face to the ground three times. Both he and
Jonathan were crying as they kissed each other; David's grief was even greater
than Jonathan's.
20:42
Then Jonathan said to David, "God be with you. The LORD will make sure
that you and I, and your descendants and mine, will forever keep the sacred
promise we have made to each other." Then David left, and Jonathan went
back to the town.
CHAPTER ENDS
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