Jonathan Helps David
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?” 2Pe 2:91Jn 3:212Co 1:121Sa 12:31Sa 19:19-241Sa 23:26-281Sa 24:111Sa 24:17
“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!” 1Sa 9:15Jhn 17:8Gen 44:71Sa 14:451Sa 20:12Isa 50:5Jos 22:29Jos 24:16
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.” 1Sa 25:261Sa 27:12Ki 2:6Deu 6:131Sa 1:262Ki 2:22Ki 2:41Co 15:30-31
Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you desire, I will do for you.”
So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, 1 and I am supposed to dine with the king. Instead, let me go and hide in the field until the third evening from now. Num 10:101Sa 19:2Num 28:11Psa 81:31Sa 20:191Sa 20:6Act 17:14Col 2:16 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.’ 1Sa 17:581Sa 9:121Sa 16:2-5Deu 12:5Jhn 7:42 If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he is enraged, you will know he has evil intentions. 1Sa 25:17Est 7:71Sa 20:92Sa 17:4Deu 1:23 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?” 1Sa 18:32Sa 14:321Sa 23:181Ch 12:171Sa 20:16Act 25:11Gen 24:49Gen 47:29
“Never!” Jonathan replied. “If I ever found out that my father had evil intentions against you, would I not tell you?” 1Sa 19:21Sa 20:381Sa 20:42
Jonathan and David Renew Their Covenant
Then David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?” 1Ki 12:131Sa 20:30-341Sa 25:101Sa 25:141Sa 25:17Gen 42:30Gen 42:7Pro 18:23
“Come,” he replied, “let us go out to the field.”
So the two of them went out into the field, and Jonathan said, “By the LORD, the God of Israel, I will sound out my father by this time tomorrow or the next day. If he is favorable toward you, will I not send for you and tell you? Job 31:4Jos 22:22Pro 20:5Pro 25:2-3Psa 139:1-4Psa 17:3 But if my father intends to bring evil on you, then may the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if I do not tell you and send you on your way in safety. May the LORD be with you, just as He has been with my father. 1Ch 22:111Ch 22:161Sa 17:37Jos 1:5Rut 1:171Sa 3:171Ki 19:21Ki 20:10 And as long as I live, treat me with the LORD’s loving devotion, 2 that I may not die, 2Sa 9:3Eph 5:1-2 and do not ever cut off your loving devotion from my household—not even when the LORD cuts off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.” 2Sa 21:71Sa 24:212Sa 9:1-7
So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD hold David’s enemies accountable.” 1Sa 25:221Sa 18:31Sa 31:22Sa 21:82Sa 4:7-8Gen 15:18 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his vow out of love for him, for Jonathan loved David as he loved himself. Pro 18:241Sa 18:11Sa 18:32Sa 1:26Deu 13:6
Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed if your seat is empty. 1Sa 20:251Sa 20:5 When you have stayed three days, hurry down to the place you hid on the day this trouble began, and remain beside the stone Ezel. 3 1Sa 19:21Sa 20:5 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as if I were aiming at a target. Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ Now, if I expressly say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them,’ then come, because as surely as the LORD lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. Amo 8:14Jer 12:16Jer 4:2Jer 5:2 But if I say to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, for the LORD has sent you away. 1Sa 20:37 And as for the matter you and I have discussed, the LORD is a witness between you and me forever.” 1Sa 20:14-151Sa 20:42Gen 31:50Gen 16:5
So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon had come, the king sat down to eat. Isa 1:11-15Pro 15:17Pro 17:1Pro 21:3Pro 4:17Psa 50:16-21Jhn 18:28Pro 21:27 He sat in his usual place by the wall, opposite Jonathan and beside Abner, 4 but David’s place was empty. 1Sa 20:18Jdg 16:20 Saul said nothing that day because he thought, “Something has happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.” Lev 15:5Lev 11:24Lev 11:271Sa 16:5Lev 11:31Lev 11:40Lev 15:16-17Lev 15:19-21
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?” 1Sa 19:151Pe 2:41Sa 18:111Sa 19:9-101Sa 22:13-141Sa 22:7-91Sa 25:10Isa 11:1-2
Jonathan answered, “David urgently requested my permission to go to Bethlehem, 1Sa 20:6 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.” 1Sa 17:28
Saul Seeks to Kill Jonathan
Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the disgrace of the mother who bore you? Pro 21:24Jas 1:19-20Eph 4:31Eph 6:4Job 5:2Mat 5:22Pro 14:29Pro 15:2 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingship shall be established. Now send for him and bring him to me, for he must surely die!” 1Sa 19:61Sa 20:81Sa 19:11-151Sa 26:162Sa 19:28Psa 79:11
“Why must he be put to death?” Jonathan replied. “What has he done?” Mat 27:231Sa 19:5Gen 31:36Luk 23:221Sa 18:111Sa 19:10-111Sa 20:7Ecc 7:9
Then Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan to kill him; so Jonathan knew that his father was determined to kill David. 1Sa 18:111Sa 20:71Sa 19:10 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger and did not eat any food that second day of the month, for he was grieved by his father’s shameful treatment of David. Ecc 7:20Eph 4:26Mrk 3:5
In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for the appointment with David, and a small boy was with him. 1Sa 20:192Sa 20:5 He said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” And as the boy ran, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. 1Sa 20:20-22
When the boy reached the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called to him, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” 1Sa 20:22 Then Jonathan cried out, “Hurry! Make haste! Do not delay!” So the boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. Luk 17:31-32Mat 24:16-18Mrk 13:14-16Pro 6:4-5Psa 55:6-9
But the boy did not know anything; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement. Then Jonathan gave his equipment to the boy and said, “Go, take it back to the city.”
When the young man had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone, 5 fell facedown, and bowed three times. Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and wept together—though David wept more. 1Sa 18:3Gen 29:111Sa 10:11Sa 25:232Sa 1:262Sa 19:392Sa 9:6Act 20:37
And Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for the two of us have sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘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. 1Sa 1:171Sa 23:181Sa 20:22-231Sa 20:15Act 16:36Luk 7:50Num 6:26