1David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came and said to Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my wrongdoing? What is my sin against your father, that he wants to take my life?"
2And Jonathan said to him, "Far be it from you. You will not die. Look, my father does nothing, great or small, without telling me. Why should my father hide this from me? It is not so."
3But David swore again and said, "Your father knows very well that I have found grace in your eyes. So he says, 'Do not let Jonathan know this, or he will be grieved.' But truly, as the LORD lives, and as you live, there is only a step between me and death."
5And David said to Jonathan, "Look, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should be sitting with the king at his food. But let me go and hide myself in the field until the evening of the third day."
6"If your father misses me at all, then say, 'David earnestly begged me to let him run to Bethlehem, his own city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.'"
7"If he says, 'It is well,' then your servant is safe. But if he is very angry, then be sure that he has decided to do harm."
8"So show kindness to your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you. But if there is wrongdoing in me, kill me yourself. Why should you bring me to your father?"
9And Jonathan said, "Far be it from you. If I knew for certain that my father had decided to bring harm on you, would I not tell you?"
11And Jonathan said to David, "Come, let us go out into the field." And the two of them went out into the field.
12And Jonathan said to David, "O LORD God of Israel, when I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or on the third day, if he is well disposed toward David, and I do not then send to you and tell you,"
13"may the LORD do so to Jonathan, and much more. But if my father means to do you harm, I will tell you and send you away, so that you may go in peace. And may the LORD be with you, as he has been with my father."
14"And while I am still alive, show me the kindness of the LORD, so that I do not die."
15"And do not ever cut off your kindness from my house, not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth."
16So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "Let the LORD require it at the hand of David's enemies."
17And Jonathan made David swear again, because he loved him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
18Then Jonathan said to David, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty."
19"When you have stayed three days, go down quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand, and stay by the stone Ezel."
20"And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target."
21"Then I will send a boy and say, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I say plainly to the boy, 'Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them,' then come, for it is safe for you and there is no harm, as the LORD lives."
22"But if I say to the young man, 'Look, the arrows are beyond you,' then go your way, for the LORD has sent you away."
23"And about the matter you and I have spoken of, look, the LORD is between you and me for ever."
24So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat down to eat.
25The king sat in his seat, as at other times, on a seat by the wall. Jonathan stood up, and Abner sat at Saul's side, but David's place was empty.
26Yet Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, "Something has happened to him. He is not clean; surely he is not clean."
27The next day, the second day of the month, David's place was empty again. Saul said to Jonathan his son, "Why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today?"
29"He said, 'Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has ordered me to be there. Now, if I have found favour in your eyes, please let me get away and see my brothers.' That is why he has not come to the king's table."
30Then Saul's anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, "You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse, to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?"
31"For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you will not be established, nor your kingdom. So now send and bring him to me, for he must surely die."
32And Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, "Why should he be killed? What has he done?"
33And Saul threw a javelin at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to kill David.
34So Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food on the second day of the month. He was grieved for David, because his father had shamed him.
35In the morning Jonathan went out into the field at the time he had agreed with David, and a little boy was with him.
36And he said to his boy, "Run, find the arrows that I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
37When the boy came to the place where the arrow lay that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, "Is not the arrow beyond you?"
38And Jonathan called after the boy, "Hurry, be quick, do not stay." Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master.
40And Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, "Go, carry them to the city."
41As soon as the boy was gone, David got up from a place toward the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down three times. They kissed one another and wept together, until David wept the most.