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Jonathan Helps David

(Psalm 59:1-17)

¹ Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my iniquity? How have I sinned against your father, that he wants to take my life?”² “Far from it!” Jonathan replied. “You will not die. Indeed, my father does nothing, great or small, without telling me. So why would he hide this matter from me? This cannot be true!”³ But David again vowed, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or he will be grieved.’ As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”⁴ Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you desire, I will do for you.”⁵ So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I am supposed to dine with the king. Instead, let me go and hide in the field until the third evening from now.⁶ If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David urgently requested my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because there is an annual sacrifice for his whole clan.’⁷ If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he is enraged, you will know he has evil intentions.⁸ Therefore deal faithfully with your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the LORD. If there is iniquity in me, then kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”

⁹ “Never!” Jonathan replied. “If I ever found out my father has evil intentions against you, would I not tell you?”

Jonathan and David Renew Their Covenant

²⁴ So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon had come, the king sat down to eat.^{25 (a)}He sat in his usual place by the wall, opposite Jonathan and beside Abner, but David’s place was empty.²⁶ Saul said nothing that day because he thought, “Something has happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.”²⁷ But on the day after the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why hasn't the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today?”²⁸ Jonathan answered, “David urgently requested my permission to go to Bethlehem,²⁹ saying, ‘Please let me go because our clan is holding a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has told me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me go and see my brothers.’ That is why he did not come to the king’s table.”

Saul Seeks to Kill Jonathan

³⁵ In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for the appointment with David, and a small boy was with him.³⁶ He said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” And as the boy ran, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him.³⁷ When the boy reached the place where Jonathan's arrow had fallen, Jonathan called to him, “Isn't the arrow beyond you?”³⁸ Then Jonathan cried out, “Hurry! Make haste! Do not delay!” So the boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master.³⁹ But the boy did not know anything; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement.⁴⁰ Then Jonathan gave his equipment to the boy and said, “Go, take it back to the city.”⁴¹ When the young man had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone^(a), fell facedown, and bowed three times. Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and wept together—though David wept more.⁴² And Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for the two of us have sworn in the name of the LORD when we said, ‘May the LORD be a witness between you and me, and between your descendants and mine forever.’” Then David got up and departed, and Jonathan went back into the city.