Parallel Bible results for "1 samuel 20"

1 Samuel 20

Good News Translation GNT

1 Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and went to Jonathan. "What have I done?" he asked. "What crime have I committed? What wrong have I done to your father to make him want to kill me?"

2 Jonathan answered, "God forbid that you should die! My father tells me everything he does, important or not, and he would not hide this from me. It just isn't so!"

3 But David answered, "Your father knows very well how much you like me, and he has decided not to let you know what he plans to do, because you would be deeply hurt. I swear to you by the living Lord that I am only a step away from death!"

4 Jonathan said, "I'll do anything you want."

5 "Tomorrow is the New Moon Festival," David replied, "and I am supposed to eat with the king. But if it's all right with you, I will go and hide in the fields until the evening of the day after tomorrow.

6 If your father notices that I am not at the table, tell him that I begged your permission to hurry home to Bethlehem, since it's the time for the annual sacrifice there for my whole family.

7 If he says, "All right,' I will be safe; but if he becomes angry, you will know that he is determined to harm me.

8 Please do me this favor, and keep the sacred promise you made to me. But if I'm guilty, kill me yourself! Why take me to your father to be killed?"

9 "Don't even think such a thing!" Jonathan answered. "If I knew for sure that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn't I tell you?"

10 David then asked, "Who will let me know if your father answers you angrily?"

11 "Let's go out to the fields," Jonathan answered. So they went,

12 and Jonathan said to David, "May the Lord God of Israel be our witness! At this time tomorrow and on the following day I will question my father. If his attitude toward you is good, I will send you word.

13 If he intends to harm you, may the Lord strike me dead if I don't let you know about it and get you safely away. May the Lord be with you as he was with my father!

14 And if I remain alive, please keep your sacred promise and be loyal to me; but if I die,

15 show the same kind of loyalty to my family forever. And when the Lord has completely destroyed all your enemies,

16 may our promise to each other still be unbroken. If it is broken, the Lord will punish you."

17 Once again Jonathan made David promise to love him, for Jonathan loved David as much as he loved himself.

18 Then Jonathan said to him, "Since tomorrow is the New Moon Festival, your absence will be noticed if you aren't at the meal.

19 The day after tomorrow your absence will be noticed even more; so go to the place where you hid yourself the other time, and hide behind the pile of stones there.

20 I will then shoot three arrows at it, as though it were a target.

21 Then I will tell my servant to go and find them. And if I tell him, "Look, the arrows are on this side of you; get them,' that means that you are safe and can come out. I swear by the living Lord that you will be in no danger.

22 But if I tell him, "The arrows are on the other side of you,' then leave, because the Lord is sending you away.

23 As for the promise we have made to each other, the Lord will make sure that we will keep it forever."

24 So David hid in the fields. At the New Moon Festival, King Saul came to the meal

25 and sat in his usual place by the wall. Abner sat next to him, and Jonathan sat across the table from him. David's place was empty,

26 but Saul said nothing that day, because he thought, "Something has happened to him, and he is not ritually pure."

27 On the following day, the day after the New Moon Festival, David's place was still empty, and Saul asked Jonathan, "Why didn't David come to the meal either yesterday or today?"

28 Jonathan answered, "He begged me to let him go to Bethlehem.

29 "Please let me go,' he said, "because our family is celebrating the sacrificial feast in town, and my brother ordered me to be there. So then, if you are my friend, let me go and see my relatives.' That is why he isn't in his place at your table."

30 Saul became furious with Jonathan and said to him, "How rebellious and faithless your mother was! Now I know you are taking sides with David and are disgracing yourself and that mother of yours!

31 Don't you realize that as long as David is alive, you will never be king of this country? Now go and bring him here - he must die!"

32 "Why should he die?" Jonathan replied. "What has he done?"

33 At that, Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him, and Jonathan realized that his father was really determined to kill David.

34 Jonathan got up from the table in a rage and ate nothing that day - the second day of the New Moon Festival. He was deeply distressed about David, because Saul had insulted him.

35 The following morning Jonathan went to the fields to meet David, as they had agreed. He took a young boy with him

36 and said to him, "Run and find the arrows I'm going to shoot." The boy ran, and Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him.

37 When the boy reached the place where the arrow had fallen, Jonathan shouted to him, "The arrow is farther on!

38 Don't just stand there! Hurry up!" The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master,

39 not knowing what it all meant; only Jonathan and David knew.

40 Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and told him to take them back to town.

41 After the boy had left, David got up from behind the pile of stones, fell on his knees and bowed with his face to the ground three times. Both he and Jonathan were crying as they kissed each other; David's grief was even greater than Jonathan's.

42 Then Jonathan said to David, "God be with you. The Lord will make sure that you and I, and your descendants and mine, will forever keep the sacred promise we have made to each other." Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.

World English Bible WEB

1 David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is my iniquity? and what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?

2 He said to him, Far from it; you shall not die: behold, my father does nothing either great or small, but that he discloses it to me; and why should my father hide this thing from me? it is not so.

3 David swore moreover, and said, Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he says, Don't let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.

4 Then said Jonathan to David, Whatever your soul desires, I will even do it for you.

5 David said to Jonathan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field to the third day at even.

6 If your father miss me at all, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Beth-lehem his city; for it is the yearly sacrifice there for all the family.

7 If he say thus, It is well; your servant shall have peace: but if he be angry, then know that evil is determined by him.

8 Therefore deal kindly with your servant; for you have brought your servant into a covenant of Yahweh with you: but if there be in me iniquity, kill me yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?

9 Jonathan said, Far be it from you; for if I should at all know that evil were determined by my father to come on you, then wouldn't I tell you that?

10 Then said David to Jonathan, Who shall tell me if perchance your father answer you roughly?

11 Jonathan said to David, Come, and let us go out into the field. They went out both of them into the field.

12 Jonathan said to David, Yahweh, the God of Israel, [be witness]: when I have sounded my father about this time tomorrow, [or] the third day, behold, if there be good toward David, shall I not then send to you, and disclose it to you?

13 Yahweh do so to Jonathan, and more also, should it please my father to do you evil, if I don't disclose it to you, and send you away, that you may go in peace: and Yahweh be with you, as he has been with my father.

14 You shall not only while yet I live show me the lovingkindness of Yahweh, that I not die;

15 but also you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever; no, not when Yahweh has cut off the enemies of David everyone from the surface of the earth.

16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, [saying], Yahweh will require it at the hand of David's enemies.

17 Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

18 Then Jonathan said to him, Tomorrow is the new moon: and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty.

19 When you have stayed three days, you shall go down quickly, and come to the place where you did hide yourself when the business was in hand, and shall remain by the stone Ezel.

20 I will shoot three arrows on the side of it, as though I shot at a mark.

21 Behold, I will send the boy, [saying], Go, find the arrows. If I tell the boy, Behold, the arrows are on this side of you; take them, and come; for there is peace to you and no hurt, as Yahweh lives.

22 But if I say thus to the boy, Behold, the arrows are beyond you; go your way; for Yahweh has sent you away.

23 As touching the matter which you and I have spoken of, behold, Yahweh is between you and me forever.

24 So David hid himself in the field: and when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat food.

25 The king sat on his seat, as at other times, even on the seat by the wall; and Jonathan stood up, and Abner sat by Saul's side: but David's place was empty.

26 Nevertheless Saul didn't say anything that day: for he thought, Something has befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean.

27 It happened on the next day after the new moon, [which was] the second [day], that David's place was empty: and Saul said to Jonathan his son, Why doesn't the son of Jesse come to meat, neither yesterday, nor today?

28 Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Beth-lehem:

29 and he said, Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he has commanded me [to be there]: and now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away, I pray you, and see my brothers. Therefore he is not come to the king's table.

30 Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, You son of a perverse rebellious woman, don't I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?

31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you shall not be established, nor your kingdom. Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.

32 Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, Why should he be put to death? what has he done?

33 Saul cast his spear at him to strike him; whereby Jonathan knew that is was determined of his father to put David to death.

34 So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month; for he was grieved for David, because his father had done him shame.

35 It happened in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy with him.

36 He said to his boy, Run, find now the arrows which I shoot. As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.

37 When the boy was come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the boy, and said, Isn't the arrow beyond you?

38 Jonathan cried after the boy, Go fast! Hurry! Don't delay! Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows, and came to his master.

39 But the boy didn't know anything: only Jonathan and David knew the matter.

40 Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to him, Go, carry them to the city.

41 As soon as the boy was gone, David arose out of [a place] toward the South, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.

42 Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of Yahweh, saying, Yahweh shall be between me and you, and between my seed and your seed, forever. He arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city.