1 Samuel 20
20
Jonathan Protects David
1David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? # 1Sm 24:9 What did I do wrong? How have I sinned against your father so that he wants to take my life? ”
2Jonathan said to him, “No, you won’t die. Listen, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without telling me. # Lit without uncovering my ear So why would he hide this matter from me? This can’t be true.”
3But David said, “Your father certainly knows that you have come to look favorably on me. He has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or else he will be grieved.’ ” David also swore, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.” # 1Sm 25:26; 2Kg 2:6
4Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.”
5So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, # Nm 10:10; 28:11-15; Am 8:5 and I’m supposed to sit down and eat with the king. # 1Sm 20:24,27 Instead, let me go, and I’ll hide in the field until the third night. # 1Sm 19:2 6If your father misses me at all, say, ‘David urgently requested my permission to quickly go to his town Bethlehem # 1Sm 17:58 for an annual sacrifice # Dt 12:5 there involving the whole clan.’ 7If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he becomes angry, you will know he has evil intentions. 8Deal faithfully with your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the Lord. # 1Sm 18:3; 20:16; 23:18 If I have done anything wrong, # 2Sm 14:32 then kill me yourself; why take me to your father? ”
9“No! ” Jonathan responded. “If I ever find out my father has evil intentions against you, wouldn’t I tell you about it? ”
10So David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly? ”
11He answered David, “Come on, let’s go out to the field.” So both of them went out to the field. 12“By the Lord, the God of Israel, I will sound out my father by this time tomorrow or the next day. If I find out that he is favorable toward you, will I not send for you and tell you? # Lit and uncover your ear 13If my father intends to bring evil on you, may God punish Jonathan and do so severely # Ru 1:17; 1Sm 3:17 if I do not tell you # Lit will uncover your ears and send you away so you may go in peace. May the Lord be with you, # 1Sm 18:12 just as He was with my father. 14If I continue to live, treat me with the Lord’s faithful love, but if I die, 15don’t ever withdraw your faithful love from my household — not even when the Lord cuts off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.” # 2Sm 9:1 16Then Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, # 1Sm 18:3; 23:18 saying, “May the Lord hold David’s enemies accountable.” # Lit Lord require it from the hand of David’s enemies # Dt 23:21 17Jonathan once again swore to David # LXX; MT reads Jonathan once again made David swear in his love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself. # 1Sm 18:1
18Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the New Moon; # Nm 10:10 you’ll be missed because your seat will be empty. 19The following day hurry down and go to the place where you hid on the day this incident began and stay beside the rock Ezel. 20I will shoot three arrows beside it as if I’m aiming at a target. 21Then I will send the young man and say, ‘Go and find the arrows! ’ Now, if I expressly say to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you — get them,’ then come, because as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no problem. 22But if I say this to the youth: ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you! ’ # 1Sm 20:37 then go, for the Lord is sending you away. 23As for the matter you and I have spoken about, # 1Sm 20:14-15 the Lord will be a witness # LXX; MT omits a witness between you and me forever.” # Gn 31:49,53 24So David hid in the field.
At the New Moon, the king sat down to eat the meal. 25He sat at his usual place on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat facing him # Text emended; MT reads Jonathan got up and Abner took his place beside Saul, but David’s place was empty. # 1Sm 20:18 26Saul did not say anything that day because he thought, “Something unexpected has happened; he must be ceremonially unclean — yes, that’s it, he is unclean.” # Lv 7:20-21; Nm 10:10
27However, the day after the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why didn’t Jesse’s son come to the meal either yesterday or today? ”
28Jonathan answered, “David asked for my permission to go to Bethlehem. # 1Sm 20:6 29He said, ‘Please let me go because our clan is holding a sacrifice in the town, and my brother has told me to be there. So now, if you are pleased with me, let me go so I can see my brothers.’ That’s why he didn’t come to the king’s table.”
30Then Saul became angry with Jonathan and shouted, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you are siding with Jesse’s son to your own shame and to the disgrace of your mother? # Lit your mother’s genitals 31Every day Jesse’s son lives on earth you and your kingship are not secure. Now send for him and bring him to me — he deserves to die.” # 2Sm 12:5
32Jonathan answered his father back: “Why is he to be killed? What has he done? ” # 1Sm 19:5
33Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him, # 1Sm 18:11; 19:10 so he knew that his father was determined to kill David. # 1Sm 20:7 34He got up from the table in fierce anger and did not eat any food that second day of the New Moon, for he was grieved because of his father’s shameful behavior toward David.
35In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for the appointed meeting with David. A small young man was with him. 36He said to the young man, “Run and find the arrows I’m shooting.” # 1Sm 20:20-21 As the young man ran, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. 37He came to the location of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, but Jonathan called to him and said, “The arrow is beyond you, isn’t it? ” # 1Sm 20:22 38Then Jonathan called to him, “Hurry up and don’t stop! ” Jonathan’s young man picked up the arrow and returned to his master. 39He did not know anything; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement. 40Then Jonathan gave his equipment to the young man who was with him and said, “Go, take it back to the city.”
41When the young man had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone Ezel, fell with his face to the ground, and bowed three times. # Gn 42:6 Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and wept with each other, though David wept more. # 1Sm 18:3
42Jonathan then said to David, “Go in the assurance the two of us pledged in the name of the Lord when we said: The Lord will be a witness between you and me and between my offspring and your offspring forever.” # The last sentence of v. 42 is 1Sm 21:1 in Hb. # 1Sm 20:15-23 Then David left, and Jonathan went into the city.
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1 Samuel 20: HCSB
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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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