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 Then David fled from Naioth, which is in Ramah, and he went and said before Jonathan: "What have I done? What is my iniquity, or what is my sin, against your father, so that he would seek my life?"
2 And he said to him: "May this not be! You shall not die. For my father will not do anything, great or small, without first revealing it to me. Therefore, has my father concealed this word solely from me? By no means shall this be!"
3 And he swore again to David. And David said: "Your father certainly knows that I have found favor in your sight, and so he will say, 'Let Jonathan not know this, lest he be saddened.' So truly, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, there is only one step (if I may say it) separating me from death."
4 And Jonathan said to David, "Whatever your soul will tell me, I will do for you."
5 Then David said to Jonathan: "Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I am accustomed to sit in a seat beside the king to eat. Therefore, permit me that I may be hidden in the field, until the evening of the third day.
6 If your father, looking around, will seek me, you shall respond to him: 'David asked me if he may hurry to Bethlehem, his own city. For there are solemn sacrifices in that place for all of his tribe together.'
7 If he will say, 'It is well,' then your servant will have peace. But if he will be angry, know that his malice has reached its height.
8 Therefore, show mercy to your servant. For you have brought me, your servant, into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is any iniquity in me, you may kill me, and you shall not lead me in to your father."
9 And Jonathan said: "May this be far from you. For certainly, if I ever realized that any wickedness was determined by my father against you, I would not be able to do anything other than report it to you."
10 And David responded to Jonathan, "Who will repeat it to me, if your father may perhaps answer you harshly about me?"
11 And Jonathan said to David, "Come, and let us go out into the field." And when they both had gone out into the field,
12 Jonathan said before David: "O Lord, God of Israel, if I will discover a decision by my father, tomorrow, or the day after, and if there will be anything good concerning David, and yet I do not immediately send to you and make it known to you,
13 may the Lord do these things to Jonathan, and may he add these other things. But if my father will have persevered in malice against you, I will reveal it to your ear, and I will send you away, so that you may go in peace, and so that the Lord may be with you, just as he was with my father.
14 And if I live, you shall show the mercy of the Lord to me. Yet truly, if I die,
15 you shall not take away your mercy from my house, even forever, when the Lord will have rooted out the enemies of David, each and every one of them, from the earth. May he take Jonathan from his house, and may the Lord require it from the hands of the enemies of David."
16 Therefore, Jonathan formed a covenant with the house of David. And the Lord required it from the hands of the enemies of David.
17 And Jonathan continued to swear to David, because he loved him. For he loved him like his own soul.
18 And Jonathan said to him: "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be sought.
19 For your seat will be empty until the day after tomorrow. Therefore, you shall descend quickly, and you shall go to the place where you are to be hidden, on a day when it is lawful to work, and you shall remain beside the stone that is called Ezel.
20 And I will shoot three arrows near it, and I will cast them as if I were practicing for myself toward a mark.
21 Also, I will send a boy, saying to him, 'Go and bring the arrows to me.'
22 If I will say to the boy, 'Behold, the arrows are before you, take them up,' you shall approach before me, because there is peace for you, and there is nothing evil, as the Lord lives. But if I will have spoken to the boy in this way, 'Behold, the arrows are away from you,' then you shall go away in peace, for the Lord has released you.
23 Now about the word that you and I have spoken, may the Lord be between you and me, even forever."
24 Therefore, David was hidden in the field. And the new moon came, and the king sat down to eat bread.
25 And when the king had sat down on his chair, (according to custom) which was beside the wall, Jonathan rose up, and Abner sat beside Saul, and David's place appeared empty.
26 And Saul did not say anything on that day. For he was thinking that perhaps something happened to him, so that he was not clean, or not purified.
27 And when the second day after the new moon had begun to dawn, David's place again appeared empty. And Saul said to Jonathan, his son, "Why has the son of Jesse not arrived to eat, neither yesterday, nor today?"
28 And Jonathan responded to Saul, "He petitioned me earnestly that he might go to Bethlehem,
29 and he said: 'Permit me. For there is a solemn sacrifice in the city. One of my brothers has summoned me. Now therefore, if I have found favor in your eyes, I will go quickly, and I will see my brothers.' For this reason, he has not come to the table of the king."
30 Then Saul, becoming angry against Jonathan, said to him: "You son of a woman wantonly seizing a man! Could I be ignorant that you love the son of Jesse, to your own shame, and to the shame of your disgraceful mother?
31 For all the days that the son of Jesse moves upon earth, neither you, nor your kingdom, will be secure. And so, send and bring him to me, here and now. For he is a son of death."
32 Then Jonathan, answering his father Saul, said: "Why should he die? What has he done?"
33 And Saul picked up a lance, so that he might strike him. And Jonathan understood that it had been decided by his father that David be put to death.
34 Therefore, Jonathan rose up from the table in a rage of anger. And he did not eat bread on the second day after the new moon. For he was saddened over David, because his father had confounded him.
35 And when the morning had begun to dawn, Jonathan went into the field according to the agreement with David, and a young boy was with him.
36 And he said to his boy, "Go, and bring to me the arrows that I shoot." And when the boy had run, he shot another arrow away from the boy.
37 And so, the boy went to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot. And Jonathan cried out, from behind the back of boy, and said: "Behold, the arrow is there, farther away from you."
38 And Jonathan cried out again, from behind the back of the boy, saying, "Go quickly! Do not stand still!" Then Jonathan's boy collected the arrows, and he brought them to his lord.
39 And he did not understand at all what was happening. For only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
40 Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy, and he said to him, "Go, and carry them into the city."
41 And when the boy had gone away, David rose up from his place, which turned toward the south, and falling prone on the ground, he reverenced three times. And kissing one another, they wept together, but David more so.
42 Then Jonathan said to David: "Go in peace. And let us both keep all that we have ever sworn in the name of the Lord, saying, 'May the Lord be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, even forever.' "
43 And David rose up and went away. But Jonathan entered into the city.
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