1 Samuel 20
20
Jonathan Helps David Escape
1David escaped from Prophets Village. Then he ran to see Jonathan and asked, “Why does your father Saul want to kill me? What have I done wrong?”
2“My father can't be trying to kill you! He never does anything without telling me about it. Why would he hide this from me? It can't be true!”
3“Jonathan, I swear it's true! But your father knows how much you like me, and he didn't want to break your heart. That's why he didn't tell you. I swear by the living Lord and by your own life that I'm only one step ahead of death.”
4Then Jonathan said, “Tell me what to do, and I'll do it.”
5 #
Nu 28.11. David answered:
Tomorrow is the New Moon Festival,#20.5 New Moon Festival: The first day of the month, when Israelites offered special sacrifices to the Lord and had special sacred meals. and I'm supposed to eat dinner with your father. But instead, I'll hide in a field until the evening of the next day. 6If Saul wonders where I am, tell him, “David asked me to let him go to his hometown of Bethlehem, so he could take part in a sacrifice his family makes there every year.”
7If your father says it's all right, then I'm safe. But if he gets angry, you'll know he wants to harm me. 8Be kind to me. After all, it was your idea to promise the Lord that we would always be loyal friends. If I've done anything wrong, kill me yourself, but don't hand me over to your father.
9“Don't worry,” Jonathan said. “If I find out that my father wants to kill you, I'll certainly let you know.”
10“How will you do that?” David asked.
11“Let's go out to this field, and I'll tell you,” Jonathan answered.
When they got there, 12Jonathan said:
I swear by the Lord God of Israel, that two days from now I'll know what my father is planning. Of course I'll let you know if he's friendly toward you. 13But if he wants to harm you, I promise to tell you and help you escape. And I ask the Lord to punish me severely if I don't keep my promise.
I pray that the Lord will bless you, just as he used to bless my father. 14-15#2 S 9.1. Someday the Lord will wipe out all of your enemies. Then if I'm still alive, please be as kind to me as the Lord has been. But if I'm dead, be kind to my family.
16Jonathan and David made an agreement that even David's descendants would have to keep.#20.16 Jonathan … keep: Or, continuing Jonathan's statement to David, “You and your descendants must not kill off my descendants.” Then Jonathan said, “I pray that the Lord will take revenge on your descendants if they break our promise.”#20.16 I pray … promise: Or “I pray that the Lord take revenge on you if you break our promise!”
17Jonathan thought as much of David as he did of himself, so he asked David to promise once more that he would be a loyal friend. 18After this Jonathan said:
Tomorrow is the New Moon Festival, and people will wonder where you are, because your place at the table will be empty. 19By the day after tomorrow, everyone will think you've been gone a long time.#20.19 By … time: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. Then go to the place where you hid before and stay beside Going-Away Rock.#20.19 Going-Away Rock: Or “Ezel Rock”; one ancient translation “that mound” (see 20.41). 20I'll shoot three arrows at a target off to the side of the rock, 21and send my servant to find the arrows.
You'll know if it's safe to come out by what I tell him. If it is safe, I swear by the living Lord that I'll say, “The arrows are on this side of you! Pick them up!” 22But if it isn't safe, I'll say to the boy, “The arrows are farther away!” This will mean that the Lord wants you to leave, and you must go. 23But he will always watch us to make sure that we keep the promise we made to each other.
24So David hid there in the field.
During the New Moon Festival, Saul sat down to eat 25by the wall, just as he always did. Jonathan sat across from him,#20.25 sat … him: One ancient translation; Hebrew “stood up.” and Abner sat next to him. But David's place was empty. 26Saul didn't say anything that day, because he was thinking, “Something must have happened to make David unfit to be at the Festival.#20.26 unfit … Festival: During the New Moon Festival a sacred meal was served that could only be eaten by people who were properly prepared. Some of the things that could make a person unfit are listed in Leviticus 7.20,21; 15.2,31; 22.4-8; Deuteronomy 23.10,11. Yes, something must have happened.”
27The day after the New Moon Festival, when David's place was still empty, Saul asked Jonathan, “Why hasn't that son of Jesse come to eat with us? He wasn't here yesterday, and he still isn't here today!”
28-29Jonathan answered, “The reason David hasn't come to eat with you is that he begged me to let him go to Bethlehem. He said, ‘Please let me go. My family is offering a sacrifice, and my brother told me I have to be there. Do me this favor and let me slip away to see my brothers.’ ”
30Saul was furious with Jonathan and yelled, “You're no son of mine, you traitor! I know you've chosen to be loyal to that son of Jesse. You should be ashamed of yourself! And your own mother should be ashamed that you were ever born. 31You'll never be safe, and your kingdom will be in danger as long as that son of Jesse is alive. Turn him over to me now! He deserves to die!”
32“Why do you want to kill David?” Jonathan asked. “What has he done?”
33Saul threw his spear at Jonathan and tried to kill him. Then Jonathan was sure that his father really did want to kill David. 34Jonathan was angry and hurt that his father had insulted David#20.34 insulted David: Or “insulted him” (that is, Jonathan). so terribly. He got up, left the table, and didn't eat anything all that day.
35In the morning, Jonathan went out to the field to meet David. He took a servant boy along 36and told him, “When I shoot the arrows, you run and find them for me.”
The boy started running, and Jonathan shot an arrow so that it would go beyond him. 37When the boy got near the place where the arrow had landed, Jonathan shouted, “Isn't the arrow on past you?” 38Jonathan shouted to him again, “Hurry up! Don't stop!”
The boy picked up the arrows and brought them back to Jonathan, 39but he had no idea about what was going on. Only Jonathan and David knew. 40Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and told him, “Take these back into town.”
41After the boy had gone, David got up from beside the mound#20.41 the mound: One ancient translation; Hebrew “from the south side.” and bowed very low three times. Then he and Jonathan kissed#20.41 kissed: A common way of greeting or saying goodbye in biblical times (see Mark 14.44). each other and cried, but David cried louder. 42Jonathan said, “Take care of yourself. And remember, we each have asked the Lord to watch and make sure that we and our descendants keep our promise forever.”
David left and Jonathan went back to town.
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1 Samuel 20: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
1 Samuel 20
20
1 Samuel 20
1¶ And David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? What is my iniquity or what is my sin before thy father that he seeks my life?
2And he said unto him, No, in no wise; thou shalt not die. Behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will show it me, and why should my father hide this thing from me? It shall not be so.
3And David swore moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knows that I have found grace in thine eyes, and he saith in himself, Let Jonathan not know this lest he be grieved; but truly as the Lord lives and as thy soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.
4Then Jonathan said unto David, Whatever thy soul saith, I will do it for thee.
5And David replied unto Jonathan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at food, but thou shalt let me go and hide myself in the field until the evening of the third day.
6If thy father at all misses me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem, his city, for all those of his lineage have an anniversary sacrifice.
7If he should say, It is well; thy slave shall have peace; but if he is very wroth, then be sure that the evil is determined in him.
8Therefore, thou shalt deal in mercy with thy slave, for thou hast brought thy slave into a covenant of the Lord with thee; notwithstanding, if there is iniquity in me, slay me thyself, for why should thou bring me to thy father?
9¶ And Jonathan said, Far be it from thee, for if I knew certainly that evil were determined by my father to come upon thee, then would I not be obliged to show it to thee?
10Then said David to Jonathan, Who shall tell me? Or what if thy father answers thee roughly?
11And Jonathan said unto David, Come, and let us go out into the field. And both of them went out into the field.
12Then Jonathan said unto David, O Lord God of Israel, when I shall have asked my father tomorrow at this time or after tomorrow and, behold, if there is good toward David and I then do not send unto thee and show it to thee,
13the Lord do so and much more to Jonathan. But if it pleases my father to do thee evil, then I will show it to thee and send thee away that thou may go in peace; and the Lord be with thee as he has been with my father.
14And if I live, thou shalt show me the mercy of the Lord, but if I am dead,
15thou shalt not cut off thy mercy from my house for ever. When the Lord has cut off one by one the enemies of David from the face of the earth, remove even Jonathan from thy house if I fail thee and require it at the hand of David’s enemies.
16So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David.
17And Jonathan swore unto David again because he loved him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
18Then Jonathan said to David, Tomorrow is the new moon, and thou shalt be missed because thy seat will be empty.
19And when thou hast stayed three days, then thou shalt go down quickly and come to the place where thou didst hide thyself on the day of the work and shalt remain by the stone Ezel;
20and I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof as though I shot at a mark.
21And, behold, I will send a lad, saying, Go, find the arrows. If I expressly say unto the lad, Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee; take them, then come thou, for there is peace unto thee and no hurt, as the Lord lives.
22But if I say thus unto the young man, Behold, the arrows are beyond thee, then go away, for the Lord has sent thee away.
23And as touching the matter which thou and I have spoken of, behold, let the Lord be between thee and me for ever.
24¶ So David hid himself in the field, and when the new moon was come, the king sat down to eat bread.
25And the king sat upon his seat as at other times, even upon a seat by the wall; and Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, and David’s place was empty.
26Nevertheless, Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, Something has befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean.
27And it came to pass on the next day, which was the second day of the new moon, that David’s place was empty, and Saul said unto Jonathan his son, Why did not the son of Jesse come to food, neither yesterday nor today?
28And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem.
29And he said, Let me go, I pray thee, for those of our lineage have a sacrifice in the city, and my brother, he has commanded me to be there, and now, if I have found grace in thine eyes, let me get away, I pray thee, and see my brethren. Therefore he has not come unto the king’s table.
30Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do I not know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion and unto the confusion of thy mother’s shame?
31For as long as the son of Jesse lives upon the land, thou shalt not be established nor thy kingdom. Therefore, now send and bring him unto me, for he shall surely die.
32And Jonathan answered Saul his father and said unto him, Why shall he be slain? What has he done?
33And Saul cast a spear at him to smite him whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay David.
34So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food the second day of the new moon, for he was grieved for David and because his father had done him shame.
35¶ And it came to pass in the morning that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad with him.
36And he said unto his lad, Run and find the arrows which I shoot. And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
37And when the lad was come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the lad, and said, Is not the arrow beyond thee?
38And Jonathan cried after the lad, Make speed, haste, stay not. And Jonathan’s lad gathered up the arrows and came to his master.
39But the lad did not understand anything; only Jonathan and David understood the matter.
40And Jonathan gave his weapons unto his lad and said unto him, Go, carry them to the city.
41 And as soon as the lad was gone, David arose out of a place toward the Negev and fell on his face to the ground and bowed himself three times, and they kissed one another and wept one with another, although David exceeded.
42And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord be between me and thee and between my seed and thy seed for ever. And he arose and departed, and Jonathan entered into the city.
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International