Jonathan and David Renew Their Covenant

David asks how he will learn Saul’s answer, and Jonathan swears before the LORD to report it faithfully. He asks for enduring covenant love from David and his house, and the two renew their oath because of Jonathan’s love.

T¹⁰hen David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?” ¹¹“Come,” he replied, “let us go out to the field.” ¹²So 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? ¹³But 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. ¹⁴And as long as I live, treat me with the LORD’s loving devotion, that I may not die, ¹⁵and 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.” ¹⁶So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD hold David’s enemies accountable.” ¹⁷And Jonathan had David reaffirm his vow out of love for him, for Jonathan loved David as he loved himself.

Jonathan explains the sign of the arrows that will tell David whether to return or flee. The arrangement ends with the reminder that the LORD stands as witness between them forever.

¹⁸Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. ¹⁹When you have stayed three days, hurry down to the place you hid on the day this trouble began, and remain beside the stone Ezel. ²⁰I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as if I were aiming at a target. ²¹Then 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. ²²But if I say to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, for the LORD has sent you away. ²³And as for the matter you and I have discussed, the LORD is a witness between you and me forever.”

David hides while Saul takes his seat at the New Moon meal. After overlooking David’s absence the first day, Saul asks about him on the second, and Jonathan gives the agreed account of Bethlehem and the family sacrifice.

²⁴So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon had come, the king sat down to eat. ²⁵He sat in his usual place by the wall, opposite Jonathan and beside Abner, but David’s place was empty. ²⁶Saul said nothing that day because he thought, “Something has happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean— surely he is unclean.” ²⁷But 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?” ²⁸Jonathan answered, “David urgently requested my permission to go to Bethlehem, ²⁹saying, ‘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 has not come to the king’s table.”