Jonathan Helps David
David pleads his innocence and says Saul has hidden his intent from Jonathan, because death is now very near. Jonathan, still unconvinced at first, offers to do whatever David asks.
T1hen 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!” 3But 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.” 4Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you desire, I will do for you.”
David proposes that his absence from the New Moon meal reveal Saul’s true mind. He appeals to Jonathan’s covenant loyalty, and Jonathan answers with a firm promise that he will not hide the truth.
5So 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. 6If 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.’ 7If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he is enraged, you will know he has evil intentions. 8Therefore show kindness to 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 that my father had evil intentions against you, would I not tell you?”