1 Samuel 20
20
1And David fleeth from Naioth in Ramah, and cometh, and saith before Jonathan, ‘What have I done? what [is] mine iniquity? and what my sin before thy father, that he is seeking my life?’
2And he saith to him, ‘Far be it! thou dost not die; lo, my father doth not do anything great or small and doth not uncover mine ear; and wherefore doth my father hide from me this thing? this [thing] is not.’
3And David sweareth again, and saith, ‘Thy father hath certainly known that I have found grace in thine eyes, and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved; and yet, Jehovah liveth, and thy soul liveth, but — as a step between me and death.’
4And Jonathan saith to David, ‘What doth thy soul say? — and I do it for thee.’
5And David saith unto Jonathan, ‘Lo, the new moon [is] to-morrow; and I do certainly sit with the king to eat; and thou hast sent me away, and I have been hidden in a field till the third evening;
6if thy father at all look after me, and thou hast said, David asked earnestly of me to run to Beth-Lehem his city, for a sacrifice of the days [is] there for all the family.
7If thus he say: Good; peace [is] for thy servant; and if it be very displeasing to him — know that the evil hath been determined by him;
8and thou hast done kindness, to thy servant, for into a covenant of Jehovah thou hast brought thy servant with thee; — and if there is in me iniquity, put thou me to death; and unto thy father, why is this — thou dost bring me in?’
9And Jonathan saith, ‘Far be it from thee! for I certainly do not know that the evil hath been determined by my father to come upon thee, and I do not declare it to thee.’
10And David saith unto Jonathan, ‘Who doth declare to me? or what [if] thy father doth answer thee sharply?’
11And Jonathan saith unto David, ‘Come, and we go out into the field;’ and they go out both of them into the field.
12And Jonathan saith unto David, ‘Jehovah, God of Israel — when I search my father, about [this] time to-morrow [or] the third [day], and lo, good [is] towards David, and I do not then send unto thee, and have uncovered thine ear —
13thus doth Jehovah do to Jonathan, and thus doth He add; when the evil concerning thee is good to my father, then I have uncovered thine ear, and sent thee away, and thou hast gone in peace, and Jehovah is with thee, as he was with my father;
14and not only while I am alive dost thou do with me the kindness of Jehovah, and I die not,
15but thou dost not cut off thy kindness from my house unto the age, nor in Jehovah's cutting off the enemies of David, each one from off the face of the ground.’
16And Jonathan covenanteth with the house of David, and Jehovah hath sought [it] from the hand of the enemies of David;
17and Jonathan addeth to cause David to swear, because he loveth him, for with the love of his own soul he hath loved him.
18And Jonathan saith to him, ‘To-morrow [is] new moon, and thou hast been looked after, for thy seat is looked after;
19and on the third day thou dost certainly come down, and hast come in unto the place where thou wast hidden in the day of the work, and hast remained near the stone Ezel.
20‘And I shoot three of the arrows at the side, sending out for myself at a mark;
21and lo, I send the youth: Go, find the arrows. If I at all say to the youth, Lo, the arrows [are] on this side of thee — take them, — then come thou, for peace [is] for thee, and there is nothing; Jehovah liveth.
22And if thus I say to the young man, Lo, the arrows [are] beyond thee, — go, for Jehovah hath sent thee away;
23as to the thing which we have spoken, I and thou, lo, Jehovah [is] between me and thee — unto the age.’
24And David is hidden in the field, and it is the new moon, and the king sitteth down by the food to eat,
25and the king sitteth on his seat, as time by time, on a seat by the wall, and Jonathan riseth, and Abner sitteth at the side of Saul, and David's place is looked after.
26And Saul hath not spoken anything on that day, for he said, ‘It [is] an accident; he is not clean — surely not clean.’
27And it cometh to pass on the second morrow of the new moon, that David's place is looked after, and Saul saith unto Jonathan his son, ‘Wherefore hath the son of Jesse not come in, either yesterday or to-day, unto the food?’
28And Jonathan answereth Saul, ‘David hath been earnestly asked of me unto Beth-Lehem,
29and he saith, Send me away, I pray thee, for a family sacrifice we have in the city, and my brother himself hath given command to me, and now, if I have found grace in thine eyes, let me go away, I pray thee, and see my brethren; therefore he hath not come unto the table of the king.’
30And the anger of Saul burneth against Jonathan, and he saith to him, ‘Son of a perverse rebellious woman! have I not known that thou art fixing on the son of Jesse to thy shame, and to the shame of the nakedness of thy mother?
31for all the days that the son of Jesse liveth on the ground thou art not established, thou and thy kingdom; and now, send and bring him unto me, for he [is] a son of death.’
32And Jonathan answereth Saul his father, and saith unto him, ‘Why is he put to death? what hath he done?’
33And Saul casteth the javelin at him to smite him, and Jonathan knoweth that it hath been determined by his father to put David to death.
34And Jonathan riseth from the table in the heat of anger, and hath not eaten food on the second day of the new moon, for he hath been grieved for David, for his father put him to shame.
35And it cometh to pass in the morning, that Jonathan goeth out into the field for the appointment with David, and a little youth [is] with him.
36And he saith to his youth, ‘Run, find, I pray thee, the arrows which I am shooting;’ the youth is running, and he hath shot the arrow, causing [it] to pass over him.
37And the youth cometh unto the place of the arrow which Jonathan hath shot, and Jonathan calleth after the youth, and saith, ‘Is not the arrow beyond thee?’
38and Jonathan calleth after the youth, ‘Speed, haste, stand not;’ and Jonathan's youth gathereth the arrows, and cometh unto his lord.
39And the youth hath not known anything, only Jonathan and David knew the word.
40And Jonathan giveth his weapons unto the youth whom he hath, and saith to him, ‘Go, carry into the city.’
41The youth hath gone, and David hath risen from Ezel, at the south, and falleth on his face to the earth, and boweth himself three times, and they kiss one another, and they weep one with another, till David exerted himself;
42and Jonathan saith to David, ‘Go in peace, in that we have sworn — we two — in the name of Jehovah, saying, Jehovah is between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed — unto the age;’ and he riseth and goeth; and Jonathan hath gone in to the city.
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1 Samuel 20: YLT98
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maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society
1 Samuel 20
20
1David ran from Naioth in Ramah to Jonathan and asked him, “What have I done? What is my wrong have I done? What terrible thing have I done to your father that he wants to kill me?”
2“Nothing!” Jonathan replied. “You're not going to die! Listen! My father tells me everything he's planning, whatever it is. Why would my father keep something like this from me? It's not true!”
3But David swore an oath again, saying, “Your father knows very well that I'm your friend, and so he's told himself, ‘Jonathan can't find out about this, otherwise he'll be really upset.’ I swear on the life of the Lord, and on your own life, my life is hanging by a thread.”#20:3. “My life is hanging by a thread”: literally, “there's just a step between me and death.”
4“Tell me what you want me to do for you and I'll do it,” Jonathan told David.
5“Well, the New Moon festival is tomorrow, and I'm meant to sit down and eat with the king. But if it's all right with you, I plan to go and hide in the field until the evening three days from now. 6If your father does indeed miss me, tell him, ‘David had to urgently ask my permission to hurry down to Bethlehem, his hometown, because of a yearly sacrifice there for his whole family group.’ 7If he says, ‘That's fine,’ then there's no problem for me, your servant, but if he gets mad, you'll know he intends to do me harm. 8So please treat me well, as you promised when you made an agreement with me before the Lord. If I've done wrong, then kill me yourself! Why take me to your father for him to do it?”
9“Absolutely not!” Jonathan replied. “If I knew for certain that my father had plans to harm you, don't you think I'd tell you?”
10“So who's going to let me know if your father gives you a nasty answer?” David asked.
11“Come on, let's go out into the countryside,” Jonathan said. So they both went out into the countryside.
12Jonathan said to David, “I promise by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will question my father by this time tomorrow or the day after. If things look good for you, I'll send a message to you and let you know. 13But if my father plans to do you harm, then may the Lord punish me very severely, if I don't let you know by sending you a message so you can get away safely. May the Lord be with you, just as he was with my father. 14While I live, please show me trustworthy love like that of the Lord so I don't die, 15and please don't ever remove your trustworthy love for my family, even when the Lord has removed every one of your enemies from the earth.”
16Jonathan made a solemn agreement with the family of David, saying, “May the Lord impose retribution on David's enemies.”#20:16. This and the previous verses have a number of problems in translation. 17Jonathan made David swear this once more by making an oath based on David's love for him, for Jonathan already loved David as he loved himself.
18Then Jonathan said to David, “The New Moon festival is tomorrow. You'll be missed, because your place will be empty. 19In three days time, go quickly to where you hid when all this started, and stay there beside the pile of stones. 20I'll shoot three arrows to the side of it as if I were shooting at a target. 21Then I'll send a boy and tell him, ‘Go and find the arrows!’ Now, if I say to him specifically, ‘Look, the arrows are this side of you; bring them over here,’ then I swear on the life of the Lord it's safe for you to come out—there's no danger. 22But if I tell the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are way past you,’ then you'll have to leave, for the Lord wants you to go away. 23As for what you and I talked about, remember that the Lord is a witness between you and me forever.”
24So David hid himself in the field. When the New Moon festival arrived, the king sat down to eat. 25He sat in his usual place by the wall opposite Jonathan. Abner sat next to Saul, but David's place was empty. 26Saul didn't say anything that day because he thought, “Something has probably happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—yes, he must be unclean.”
27But the second day, the day after the New Moon, David's place was still empty. Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why hasn't the son of Jesse come to dinner either yesterday or today?”
28Jonathan answered, “David had to urgently ask my permission to go to Bethlehem. 29He told me, ‘Please let me go, because our family is having a sacrifice in the town and my brother told me I had to be there. If you think well of me, please let me go and see my brothers.’ That's why he's absent from the king's table.”
30Saul got very angry with Jonathan and said, “You rebellious son of a whore! Don't you think I know that you prefer the son of Jesse? Shame on you! You're a disgrace to the mother who bore you! 31While the son of Jesse remains alive, you and your kingship are not secure. Now go and bring him here to me, for he has to die!”
32“Why does he have to be put to death?” Jonathan asked. “What has he done?”
33Saul threw his spear at Jonathan, trying to kill him, so he knew that his father definitely wanted David dead. 34Jonathan left the table absolutely furious. He would not eat anything on the second day of the festival, for he was so upset by the shameful way his father had treated David.
35In the morning Jonathan went to the field to the place he had agreed with David, and a young boy was with him. 36He told the boy, “Run and find the arrows that I shoot.” The boy started running and Jonathan shot an arrow past him. 37When the boy got to the place where Jonathan's arrow had landed, Jonathan shouted to him, “Isn't the arrow farther past you? 38Hurry up! Do it quickly! Don't wait!” The boy picked up the arrows and took them back to his master. 39The boy didn't suspect anything—only Jonathan and David knew what it meant. 40Jonathan gave his bow and arrows to the boy and said, “Take these back to town.”
41After the boy had gone, David got up from beside the pile of stones, fell facedown to the ground, and bowed three times. Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and cried together as friends, though David cried the hardest.
42Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for the two of us have sworn a solemn oath in the name of the Lord. We said, ‘The Lord will be a witness between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.’” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to town.
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com