¹David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my offense? How have I sinned before your father, that he is seeking my life?” ²Jonathan said to him, “By no means are you going to die! My father does nothing large or small without making me aware of it. Why would my father hide this matter from me? It just won’t happen!”³Taking an oath, David again said, “Your father is very much aware of the fact that I have found favor with you, and he has thought, ‘Don’t let Jonathan know about this, or he will be upset.’ But as surely as the Lord lives and you live, there is about one step between me and death!” ⁴Jonathan replied to David, “Tell me what I can do for you.”⁵David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I am certainly expected to join the king for a meal. You must send me away so I can hide in the field until the third evening from now.⁶If your father happens to miss me, you should say, ‘David urgently requested me to let him go to his town Bethlehem, for there is an annual sacrifice there for his entire family.’ ⁷If he should then say, ‘That’s fine,’ then your servant is safe. But if he becomes very angry, be assured that he has decided to harm me. ⁸You must be loyal to your servant, for you have made a covenant with your servant in the Lord’s name. If I am guilty, you yourself kill me! Why bother taking me to your father?” ⁹Jonathan said, “Far be it from you to suggest this! If I were at all aware that my father had decided to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you about it?” ¹⁰David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?” ¹¹Jonathan said to David, “Come on. Let’s go out to the field.”When the two of them had gone out into the field, ¹²Jonathan said to David, “The Lord God of Israel is my witness! I will feel out my father about this time the day after tomorrow. If he is favorably inclined toward David, will I not then send word to you and let you know? ¹³But if my father intends to do you harm, may the Lord do all this and more to Jonathan if I don’t let you know and send word to you, so you can go safely on your way. May the Lord be with you, as he was with my father. ¹⁴While I am still alive, extend to me the loyalty of the Lord, or else I will die. ¹⁵Don’t ever cut off your loyalty to my family, not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth ¹⁶and called David’s enemies to account.” So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David. ¹⁷Jonathan once again took an oath with David, because he loved him. In fact Jonathan loved him as much as he did his own life. ¹⁸Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, for your seat will be empty.¹⁹On the third day you should go down quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself the day this all started. Stay near the stone Ezel. ²⁰I will shoot three arrows near it, as though I were shooting at a target. ²¹When I send a boy after them, I will say, ‘Go and find the arrows.’ If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; get them,’ then come back. For as surely as the Lord lives, you will be safe and there will be no problem. ²²But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on the other side of you,’ then get away. For in that case the Lord has sent you away. ²³With regard to the matter that you and I discussed, the Lord is the witness between us forever.” ²⁴So David hid in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat down to eat his meal.²⁵The king sat down in his usual place by the wall, with Jonathan opposite him and Abner at his side. But David’s place was vacant. ²⁶However, Saul said nothing about it that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to make him ceremonially unclean. Yes, he must be unclean.” ²⁷But the next morning, the second day of the new moon, David’s place was still vacant. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has Jesse’s son not come to the meal yesterday or today?” ²⁸Jonathan replied to Saul, “David urgently requested that he be allowed to go to Bethlehem. ²⁹He said, ‘Permit me to go, for we are having a family sacrifice in the town, and my brother urged me to be there. So now, if I have found favor with you, let me go to see my brothers.’ For that reason he has not come to the king’s table.” ³⁰Saul became angry with Jonathan and said to him, “You stupid traitor! Don’t I realize that to your own disgrace and to the disgrace of your mother’s nakedness you have chosen this son of Jesse? ³¹For as long as this son of Jesse is alive on the earth, you and your kingdom will not be established. Now, send some men and bring him to me. For he is as good as dead!” ³²Jonathan responded to his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” ³³Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan in order to strike him down. So Jonathan was convinced that his father had decided to kill David. ³⁴Jonathan got up from the table enraged. He did not eat any food on that second day of the new moon, for he was upset that his father had humiliated David. ³⁵The next morning Jonathan, along with a young servant, went out to the field to meet David. ³⁶He said to his servant, “Run, find the arrows that I am about to shoot.” As the servant ran, Jonathan shot the arrow beyond him.³⁷When the servant came to the place where Jonathan had shot the arrow, Jonathan called out to the servant, “Isn’t the arrow farther beyond you?”³⁸Jonathan called out to the servant, “Hurry! Go faster! Don’t delay!” Jonathan’s servant retrieved the arrow and came back to his master. ³⁹(Now the servant did not understand any of this. Only Jonathan and David knew what was going on.)⁴⁰Then Jonathan gave his equipment to the servant who was with him. He said to him, “Go, take these things back to the town.” ⁴¹When the servant had left, David got up from beside the mound, knelt with his face to the ground, and bowed three times. Then they kissed each other and they both wept, especially David. ⁴²Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for the two of us have sworn together in the name of the Lord saying, ‘The Lord will be between me and you and between my descendants and your descendants forever.’”(21:1) Then David got up and left, while Jonathan went back to the town of Naioth.