1 Samuel 18 - 20 — Legacy Standard Bible

Jonathan Cuts a Covenant with David

18Now it happened when he had finished speaking to Saul, that ^athe soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and ^bJonathan loved him as his own soul. ²And Saul took him that day and ^adid not let him return to his father’s house. ³Then ^aJonathan cut a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. ⁴^aAnd Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, even his sword and his bow and his belt. ⁵So David went out wherever Saul sent him and ¹prospered; and Saul set him over the men of war. And it was pleasing in the eyes of all the people and also in the eyes of Saul’s servants.

Saul Looks at David with Suspicion

⁶And it happened as they were coming, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, that ^athe women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with gladness, and with ¹musical instruments. ⁷And the women ^asang as they ¹were merry and said, “^bSaul has struck his thousands,^cAnd David his ten thousands.”

⁸Then Saul became very angry, for this saying was ¹displeasing in his eyes; and he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me they have ascribed thousands. Now ^awhat more can he have but the kingdom?” ⁹So Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on.

¹⁰Now it happened on the next day that ^aan evil spirit from God ¹came mightily upon Saul, and ^bhe raved in the midst of the house. Now David was playing the harp with his hand, ²^,^cas usual; and ³^,^da spear was in Saul’s hand. ¹¹^aThen Saul hurled the spear for he thought, “I will ¹pin David to the wall.” But David ²escaped from his presence twice.

¹²And ^aSaul was afraid of David, ^bfor Yahweh was with him but ^chad turned away from Saul. ¹³Therefore Saul turned him away from ¹his presence and appointed him as his commander of one thousand; and ^ahe went out and came in before the people. ¹⁴And David was ¹prospering in all his ways, and ^aYahweh was with him. ¹⁵Then Saul saw that he was ¹prospering greatly, so he dreaded him. ¹⁶But ^aall Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.

¹⁷Then Saul said to David, “^aHere is my older daughter Merab; I will give her to you as a wife; only be a man of valor for me and fight ^bYahweh’s battles.” For Saul thought, “My hand shall not be against him, but ^clet the hand of the Philistines be against him.” ¹⁸But David said to Saul, “^aWho am I, and what is my life or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be the king’s son-in-law?” ¹⁹So it happened at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to ^aAdriel ^bthe Meholathite as a wife.

Saul’s Daughter Given to David

²⁰And ^aMichal, Saul’s daughter, loved David. So they told Saul, and the thing was right in his eyes. ²¹And Saul said, “I will give her to him that she may become a snare to him, and ^athat the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David, “^bFor a second time you may be my son-in-law today.” ²²Then Saul commanded his servants, “Speak to David secretly, saying, ‘Behold, the king delights in you, and all his servants love you; so now, become the king’s son-in-law.’” ²³So Saul’s servants spoke these words in ¹David’s hearing. But David said, “Is it trivial in your eyes to become the king’s son-in-law, ^asince I am a poor man and lightly esteemed?” ²⁴And the servants of Saul told to him ¹according to these words which David spoke. ²⁵Saul then said, “Thus you shall say to David, ‘The king does not desire any ^adowry except one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, ^bto take vengeance on the king’s enemies.’” Now ^cSaul planned to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. ²⁶Then his servants told David these words, and it was right in the eyes of David to become the king’s son-in-law. ¹^,^aSo before the days had expired, ²⁷David rose up and went, ^ahe and his men, and struck down two hundred men among the Philistines. Then ^bDavid brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might become the king’s son-in-law. So Saul gave him Michal his daughter as a wife. ²⁸Then Saul saw and knew that Yahweh was with David, and that Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him, ²⁹so Saul was even more afraid of David. So Saul was David’s enemy continually.

³⁰Then the commanders of the Philistines ^awent out to battle, and it happened as often as they went out, that David ^bbehaved himself more insightfully than all the servants of Saul. So his name was highly esteemed.

David Escapes from Saul

19Then Saul spoke with Jonathan his son and all his servants ^ato put David to death. But ^bJonathan, Saul’s son, greatly delighted in David. ²So Jonathan told David saying, “Saul my father is seeking to put you to death. So now, please be careful in the morning, and stay in a secret place and hide yourself. ³“And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you; ^awhat I ¹perceive, I will tell you.” ⁴Then Jonathan ^aspoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “^bDo not let the king sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his works have been very good for you. ⁵“For ^ahe took his life in his hand and struck the Philistine, and ^bYahweh brought about a great salvation for all Israel; you saw it and were glad. ^cWhy then will you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death without a cause?” ⁶And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, “As Yahweh lives, he shall not be put to death.” ⁷Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these words. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as ^aformerly.

⁸Then there was war again. And David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great slaughter, so that they fled before him. ⁹Now there was ^aan evil spirit from Yahweh on Saul as he was sitting in his house ^bwith his spear in his hand, ^cand David was playing the harp with his hand. ¹⁰^aAnd Saul tried to ¹pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, so that he ²stuck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.

¹¹Then ^aSaul sent messengers to David’s house to keep watch over him, in order to put him to death in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you do not make an escape for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be put to death.” ¹²^aSo Michal let David down through a window, and he went out and fled and escaped. ¹³Then Michal took ^athe ¹household idol and laid it on the bed and put a quilt of goats’ hair at its head and covered it with clothes. ¹⁴Then Saul sent messengers to take David, but she said, “^aHe is sick.” ¹⁵So Saul sent messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on ¹his bed, that I may put him to death.” ¹⁶The messengers came, and behold, the ¹household idol was on the bed with the quilt of goats’ hair at its head. ¹⁷So Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” And Michal said to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go! ^aWhy should I put you to death?’”

¹⁸Now David fled and escaped and came ^ato Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in ^bNaioth. ¹⁹And it was told to Saul, saying, “Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.” ²⁰Then ^aSaul sent messengers to take David, but they saw ^bthe company of the prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing and presiding over them. And the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul; and ^cthey also prophesied. ²¹This was told to Saul, and he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. So Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. ²²Then he himself went to Ramah and came as far as the large well that is in Secu; and he asked and said, “Where are Samuel and David?” And someone said, “Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.” ²³So he went there, to Naioth in Ramah; and ^athe Spirit of God came upon him also, so that he went along prophesying continually until he came to Naioth in Ramah. ²⁴He also stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and ¹lay down ²^,^anaked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “^bIs Saul also among the prophets?”

David and Jonathan’s Covenant

20Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and ^asaid before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my iniquity? And what is my sin before your father, that he is seeking my life?” ²And he said to him, “Far from it, you shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without revealing it in my ear. So why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so!” ³Yet David ^aswore again, ¹saying, “Your father knows well that I have found favor in your sight, and he has said, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.’ But truly ^bas Yahweh lives and as your soul lives, there is ²hardly a step between me and death.” ⁴Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever your soul says, I will do for you.” ⁵So David said to Jonathan, “Behold, tomorrow is ^athe new moon, and I ought ^bto sit down to eat with the king. But let me go, ^cthat I may hide myself in the field until the third evening. ⁶“If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me to run to ^aBethlehem his city because it is ^bthe yearly sacrifice there for the whole family.’ ⁷“If he ¹says, ‘It is good,’ your servant will have peace; but if he is very angry, ^aknow that he has decided on evil. ⁸“Therefore show lovingkindness to your servant, for ^ayou have brought your servant into a covenant of Yahweh with you. But ^bif there is iniquity in me, put me to death yourself; for why then should you bring me to your father?” ⁹And Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! For if I should indeed come to know that evil has been decided by my father to come upon you, then would I not tell you about it?” ¹⁰Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me ¹if your father answers you harshly?” ¹¹And Jonathan said to David, “Come, and let us go out into the field.” So both of them went out to the field.

¹²Then Jonathan said to David, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, be witness! When I have examined my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there is good feeling toward David, shall I not then send to you and reveal it in your ear? ¹³“If it please my father to do you harm, ^amay Yahweh do so to Jonathan and more also, if I do not reveal it in your ear and send you away, that you may go in peace. And ^bmay Yahweh be with you as He has been with my father. ¹⁴“And if I am still alive, will you not show me the lovingkindness of Yahweh, that I may not die? ¹⁵“^aYou shall not cut off your lovingkindness from my house forever, not even when Yahweh cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” ¹⁶So Jonathan cut a covenant with the house of David, saying, “^aMay Yahweh require it at the hands of David’s enemies.” ¹⁷And Jonathan made David swear again because of his love for him, because ^ahe loved him as he loved his own soul.

¹⁸Then Jonathan said to him, “^aTomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be missing. ¹⁹“When you have stayed for three days, you shall go down quickly and come to the place ¹where you hid yourself on that eventful day, and you shall remain by the stone Ezel. ²⁰“And I will shoot three arrows to the side, as though I sent them towards a target. ²¹“And behold, I will send the young man, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I specifically say to the young man, ‘Behold, the arrows are on this side of you, get them,’ then come, for there is peace for you and ¹no harm, as Yahweh lives. ²²“But if I ¹say to the youth, ‘^aBehold, the arrows are beyond you,’ go, for Yahweh has sent you away. ²³“^aAs for the ¹agreement of which you and I have spoken, behold, ^bYahweh is between you and me forever.”

²⁴So David hid in the field; and when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. ²⁵And the king sat on his seat as usual, the seat by the wall; then Jonathan rose up, and Abner sat down by Saul’s side, but ^aDavid’s place was missing. ²⁶Nevertheless Saul did not speak anything that day, for he said, “It is an accident; ^ahe is not clean; surely he is not clean.” ²⁷Now it happened the next day, the second day of the new moon, that David’s place was missing; so Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today?” ²⁸Jonathan then answered Saul, “^aDavid earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem, ²⁹and he said, ‘Please send me on my way, since our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to attend. So now, if I have found favor in your sight, please let me get away that I may see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king’s table.”

Saul Is Angry with Jonathan

³⁰Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? ³¹“For ¹as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. So now, send and bring him to me, for ^ahe ²must surely die.” ³²But Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, “^aWhy should he be put to death? What has he done?” ³³Then ^aSaul hurled his spear at him to strike him down; ^bso Jonathan knew that his father had decided to put David to death. ³⁴Then Jonathan arose from the table in burning anger and did not eat food on the second day of the new moon, for he was grieved over David because his father had dishonored him.

³⁵Now it happened in the morning that Jonathan went out into the field for the appointment with David, and a very young man was with him. ³⁶And he said to his young man, “^aRun, find now the arrows which I am about to shoot.” As the young man was running, he shot ¹an arrow past him. ³⁷When the young man reached the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the lad and said, “^aIs not the arrow beyond you?” ³⁸And Jonathan called after the young man, “Hurry, be quick, do not stay!” And Jonathan’s young man gathered up the arrow and came to his master. ³⁹But the young man did not know of anything; only Jonathan and David knew about the matter. ⁴⁰Then Jonathan gave his weapons to his young man and said to him, “Go, bring them to the city.” ⁴¹When the young man was gone, David rose from the south side and fell on his ¹face to the ground and ^abowed three times. And they kissed each other and wept together, but ^bDavid wept more. ⁴²And Jonathan said to David, “^aGo in peace, inasmuch as we have sworn to each other in the name of Yahweh, saying, ‘^bYahweh will be between me and you, and between my seed and your seed forever.’” ¹Then he rose and departed, while Jonathan went into the city.