¹David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my guilt, and what is my sin before your father, that he is seeking my living being?"

²He said to him, "Far be it! You will not die. Look, my father does not do a great word or a small word without uncovering my ear; and why would my father hide this word from me? It is not so."

³David swore again and said, "Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he says, 'Let Jonathan not know this, lest he be grieved.' But as Yahweh lives and as your living being lives, surely there is but a step between me and death."

⁴Jonathan said to David, "Whatever your living being says, I will do for you."

⁵David said to Jonathan, "Look, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should surely sit with the king to eat. But send me away, and I will hide myself in the field, until the third evening.

⁶If your father truly misses me, then say, 'David earnestly asked leave from me to run to his city Beth-lechem, for the yearly sacrifice is there for all the family.'

⁷If he says this, 'Good, wholeness for your slave'; but if he burns hot, know that the evil is determined from him.

⁸So you will do loyal love toward your slave, for you have brought your slave into a covenant of Yahweh with you. But if there is guilt in me, put me to death yourself; why then would you bring me as far as your father?"

⁹Jonathan said, "Far be it from you! If I ever knew that the evil was determined from my father to come on you, would I not tell it to you?"

¹⁰David said to Jonathan, "Who will tell me? Or what if your father answers you harshly?"

¹¹Jonathan said to David, "Go on, let us go out to the field." And the two of them went out to the field.

¹²Jonathan said to David, "Yahweh, the God of Israel—when I have searched out my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, and look, it is good toward David, will I not then send to you and uncover your ear?

¹³So may Yahweh do to Jonathan, and so may he repeat, if it pleases my father to bring the evil upon you, then I will uncover your ear and send you away, and you will go in wholeness. And may Yahweh be with you, as he has been with my father.

¹⁴And if I am still alive, will you not act toward me with the loyal love of Yahweh, so that I do not die?

¹⁵but you will not cut off your loyal love from my house forever; and not when Yahweh cuts off the enemies of David, each man from the face of the ground."

¹⁶So Jonathan cut a covenant with the house of David: "May Yahweh search it out from the hand of the enemies of David."

¹⁷And Jonathan again made David swear by his love for him, for he loved him with the love of his own being.

¹⁸Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, for your seat will be empty.

¹⁹And when you have stayed three days, you will come down quickly and come to the place where you hid there on the day of the work, and you will dwell beside the stone Ezel.

²⁰And I will shoot three arrows toward its side, as though sending them out for myself at a target.

²¹And look, I will send the boy, saying, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I surely say to the boy, 'Look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them and come,' then there is wholeness for you and no word against you, as Yahweh lives.

²²But if I say this to the young man, 'Look, the arrows are beyond you,' then go, for Yahweh has sent you away.

²³And as for the word which we spoke, I and you, look, Yahweh is between me and you forever."

²⁴So David hid himself in the field; and when the new moon came, the king sat down to the food to eat.

²⁵The king sat on his seat, as time after time, at the seat by the wall; and Jonathan rose, and Abner sat at the side of Saul, but David's place was empty.

²⁶Yet Saul did not speak a thing on that day, for he said, "It is a chance; he is not clean, surely he is not clean."

²⁷And it was the day after the new moon, the second day, that David's place was empty; and Saul said to Jonathan his son, "Why has the son of Jesse not come to the food, neither yesterday nor today?"

²⁸Jonathan answered Saul, "David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Beth-lechem.

²⁹He said, 'Let me go, please, for our family has a sacrifice in the city, and he, my brother, has commanded me. And now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me slip away and see my brothers.' Therefore he has not come to the table of the king."

³⁰Then the anger of Saul burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, "You son of a perverted, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of the nakedness of your mother?

³¹For all the days that the son of Jesse lives on the ground, you and your kingdom will not be established. So now, send and fetch him to me, for he is a son of death."

³²Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?"

³³But Saul hurled the spear at him to strike him; so Jonathan knew that it was determined by his father to put David to death.

³⁴Jonathan rose from the table in burning anger and ate no food on the day of the second new moon, for he was pained for David, because his father had put him to shame.

³⁵And it was in the morning that Jonathan went out to the field at the time appointed with David, and a small boy was with him.

³⁶He said to his boy, "Run, please find the arrows that I am about to shoot." The boy ran, and he shot the arrow to make it pass beyond him.

³⁷When the boy came to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called out after the boy and said, "Is not the arrow beyond you?"

³⁸And Jonathan called out after the boy, "Quickly, hasten, do not stand!" So the boy of Jonathan gathered the arrows and came to his lord.

³⁹But the boy did not know a thing; only Jonathan and David knew the word.

⁴⁰Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy who belonged to him, and said to him, "Go, bring them to the city."

⁴¹The boy went, and David rose from beside the south and fell on his face to the land and bowed down three times; and they kissed each man his friend and wept, each man over his friend, until David made it great.

⁴²Jonathan said to David, "Go in wholeness, since the two of us have sworn by the name of Yahweh, saying, 'Yahweh will be between me and you, and between my seed and your seed, forever.'" And he rose and went; and Jonathan came to the city.