King James Version › 1 Samuel › 20

1 Samuel

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1 And David fled from Naio­th in Ramah, and came and said be­fore Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine in­iq­ui­ty? and what is my sin be­fore thy fa­ther, that he seeketh my life? 2 And he said unto him, God for­bid; thou shalt not die: be­hold, my fa­ther will do noth­ing ei­ther great or small, but that he will shew it me: and why should my fa­ther hide this thing from me? it is not so. 3 And David sware more­over, and said, Thy fa­ther cer­tain­ly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but tru­ly as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step be­tween me and death. 4 Then said Jonathan unto David, What­so­ev­er thy soul de­sireth, I will even do it for thee. 5 And David said unto Jonathan, Be­hold, to mor­row is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide my­self in the field unto the third day at even. 6 If thy fa­ther at all miss me, then say, David earnest­ly asked leave of me that he might run to Beth­le­hem his city: for there is a year­ly sac­ri­fice there for all the fam­i­ly. 7 If he say thus, It is well; thy ser­vant shall have peace: but if he be very wroth, then be sure that evil is de­ter­mined by him. 8 There­fore thou shalt deal kind­ly with thy ser­vant; for thou hast brought thy ser­vant into a covenant of the LORD with thee: notwith­stand­ing, if there be in me in­iq­ui­ty, slay me thy­self; for why shouldest 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 not I tell it thee? 10 Then said David to Jonathan, Who shall tell me? or what if thy fa­ther an­swer thee rough­ly? 11 And Jonathan said unto David, Come, and let us go out into the field. And they went out both of them into the field. 12 And Jonathan said unto David, O LORD God of Is­rael, when I have sound­ed my fa­ther about to mor­row any time, or the third day, and, be­hold, if there be good to­ward David, and I then send not unto thee, and shew it thee; 13 The LORD do so and much more to Jonathan: but if it please my fa­ther ­to do thee evil, then I will shew it thee, and send thee away, that thou mayest go in peace: and the LORD be with thee, as he hath been with my fa­ther. 14 And thou shalt not only while yet I live shew me the kind­ness of the LORD, that I die not: 15 But also thou shalt not cut off thy kind­ness from my house for ev­er: no, not when the LORD hath cut off the en­e­mies of David ev­ery one from the face of the earth. 16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even re­quire it at the hand of David's en­e­mies. 17 And Jonathan caused David to swear again, be­cause he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul. 18 Then Jonathan said to David, To mor­row is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, be­cause thy seat will be emp­ty. 19 And when thou hast stayed three days, then thou shalt go down quick­ly, and come to the place where thou didst hide thy­self when the busi­ness was in hand, and shalt re­main by the stone Ezel. 20 And I will shoot three ar­rows on the side thereof, as though I shot at a mark. 21 And, be­hold, I will send a lad, saying, Go, find out 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 to thee, and no hurt; as the LORD liveth. 22 But if I say thus unto the young man, Be­hold, the ar­rows are be­yond thee; go thy way: for the LORD hath sent thee away. 23 And as touching the mat­ter which thou and I have spo­ken of, be­hold, 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 him down to eat meat. 25 And 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. 26 Nev­er­the­less Saul spake not any thing that day: for he thought, Some­thing hath be­fall­en him, he is not clean; sure­ly he is not clean. 27 And it came to pass on the mor­row, which was the sec­ond day of the month, that David's place was emp­ty: and Saul said unto Jonathan his son, Where­fore cometh not the son of Jesse to meat, nei­ther yes­ter­day, nor to day? 28 And Jonathan an­swered Saul, David earnest­ly asked leave of me ­to go to Beth­le­hem: 29 And he said, Let me go, I pray thee; for our fam­i­ly hath a sac­ri­fice in the city; and my broth­er, he hath com­mand­ed me ­to be there: and now, if I have found favour in thine eyes, let me get away, I pray thee, and see my brethren. There­fore he cometh not unto the king's table. 30 Then Saul's anger was kin­dled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the per­verse re­bel­lious woman, do not I know that thou hast cho­sen the son of Jesse to thine own con­fu­sion, and unto the con­fu­sion of thy mother's naked­ness? 31 For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be es­tab­lished, nor thy king­dom. Where­fore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall sure­ly die. 32 And Jonathan an­swered Saul his fa­ther, and said unto him, Where­fore shall he be slain? what hath he done? 33 And Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him: where­by Jonathan knew that it was de­ter­mined of his fa­ther to slay David. 34 So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and did eat no meat the sec­ond day of the month: for he was grieved for David, 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. 36 And he said unto his lad, Run, find out now the ar­rows which I shoot. And as the lad ran, he shot an ar­row be­yond him. 37 And 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? 38 And Jonathan cried af­ter the lad, Make speed, haste, stay not. And Jonathan's lad gath­ered up the ar­rows, and came to his mas­ter. 39 But the lad knew not any thing: only Jonathan and David knew the mat­ter. 40 And Jonathan gave his ar­tillery 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 south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed him­self three times: and they kissed one an­oth­er, and wept one with an­oth­er, un­til David ex­ceed­ed. 42 And 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 went into the city.