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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>1 Samuel 20 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/1_samuel/20.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/1_samuel/20-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > 1 Samuel 20</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../1_samuel/19.htm" title="1 Samuel 19">◄</a> 1 Samuel 20 <a href="../1_samuel/21.htm" title="1 Samuel 21">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/1_samuel/20.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">David and Jonathan</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>“Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the <span class="name">Lord</span> lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>So David said, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>If he says, ‘Very well,’ then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the <span class="name">Lord</span>. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>“Never!” Jonathan said. “If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>David asked, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>“Come,” Jonathan said, “let’s go out into the field.” So they went there together.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>Then Jonathan said to David, “I swear by the <span class="name">Lord</span>, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>But if my father intends to harm you, may the <span class="name">Lord</span> deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the <span class="name">Lord</span> be with you as he has been with my father. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>But show me unfailing kindness like the <span class="name">Lord</span>’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the <span class="name">Lord</span> has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the <span class="name">Lord</span> call David’s enemies to account.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon feast. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,’ then come, because, as surely as the <span class="name">Lord</span> lives, you are safe; there is no danger. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, because the <span class="name">Lord</span> has sent you away. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>And about the matter you and I discussed—remember, the <span class="name">Lord</span> is witness between you and me forever.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon feast came, the king sat down to eat. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Septuagint; Hebrew wall. Jonathan arose">a</a></sup></span> and Abner sat next to Saul, but David’s place was empty. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, “Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>Jonathan answered, “David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>He said, ‘Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>“Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span>Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the feast he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-35.htm"><b>35</b></a></span>In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-36.htm"><b>36</b></a></span>and he said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-37.htm"><b>37</b></a></span>When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-38.htm"><b>38</b></a></span>Then he shouted, “Hurry! Go quickly! Don’t stop!” The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-39.htm"><b>39</b></a></span>(The boy knew nothing about all this; only Jonathan and David knew.) <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-40.htm"><b>40</b></a></span>Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, “Go, carry them back to town.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-41.htm"><b>41</b></a></span>After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_samuel/20-42.htm"><b>42</b></a></span>Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the <span class="name">Lord</span>, saying, ‘The <span class="name">Lord</span> is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’ ” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town. <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="In Hebrew texts this sentence (20:42b) is numbered 21:1.">b</a></sup></span> </p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">25</span> <span class="footnotebot">Septuagint; Hebrew <i>wall. Jonathan arose</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">42</span> <span class="footnotebot">In Hebrew texts this sentence (20:42b) is numbered 21:1.</span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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