1 Samuel 19–20

Chapter 19

And Saul spoke to Jonathan, his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, the son of Saul, loved David exceedingly.

²And Jonathan told David, saying: Saul, my father, seeketh to kill thee: wherefore look to thyself, I beseech thee, in the morning and thou shalt abide in a secret place, and shalt be hid.

³And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art: and I will speak of thee to my father, and whatsoever I shall see, I will tell thee.

⁴And Jonathan spoke good things of David to Saul, his father: and said to him: Sin not, O king, against thy servant, David, because he hath not sinned against thee, and his works are very good towards thee.

⁵And he put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the Lord wrought great salvation for all Israel. Thou sawest it and didst rejoice. Why therefore wilt thou sin against innocent blood, by killing David, who is without fault?

⁶And when Saul heard this, he was appeased with the words of Jonathan, and swore: As the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain.

⁷Then Jonathan called David, and told him all these words: and Jonathan brought in David to Saul, and he was before him, as he had been yesterday and the day before.

⁸And the war began again, and David went out, and fought against the Philistines, and defeated them with a great slaughter, and they fled from his face.

⁹And the evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul; and he sat in his house, and held a spear in his hand: and David played with his hand.

¹⁰And Saul endeavoured to nail David to the wall with his spear. And David slipt away out of the presence of Saul: and the spear missed him, and was fastened in the wall, and David fled, and escaped that night.

¹¹Saul therefore sent his guards to David’s house to watch him, that he might be killed in the morning. And when Michol, David’s wife, had told him this, saying: Unless thou save thyself this night, to morrow thou wilt die:

¹²She let him down through a window. And he went and fled away, and escaped.

¹³And Michol took an image, and laid it on the bed, and put a goat’s skin, with the hair at the head of it, and covered it with clothes.

¹⁴And Saul sent officers to seize David; and it was answered that he was sick.

¹⁵And again Saul sent to see David, saying: Bring him to me in the bed, that he may be slain.

¹⁶And when the messengers were come in, they found an image upon the bed, and a goat skin at his head.

¹⁷And Saul said to Michol: Why hast thou deceived me so, and let my enemy go and flee away? And Michol answered Saul: Because he said to me: Let me go, or else I will kill thee.

¹⁸But David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel in Ramatha, and told him all that Saul had done to him: and he and Samuel went and dwelt in Najoth.

¹⁹And it was told Saul by some, saying: Behold David is in Najoth, in Ramatha.

²⁰So Saul sent officers to take David: and when they saw a company of prophets prophesying, and Samuel presiding over them, the Spirit of the Lord came also upon them, and they likewise began to prophesy.

²¹And when this was told Saul, he sent other messengers: but they also prophesied. And again Saul sent messengers the third time: and they prophesied also. And Saul being exceeding angry,

²²Went also himself to Ramatha, and came as far as the great cistern, which is in Socho, and he asked, and said: In what place are Samuel and David? And it was told him: Behold they are in Najoth, in Ramatha.

²³And he went to Najoth, in Ramatha, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied till he came to Najoth, in Ramatha.

²⁴And he stripped himself also of his garments, and prophesied with the rest before Samuel, and lay down naked all that day and night. This gave occasion to a proverb: What! is Saul too among the prophets?

Chapter 20

But David fled from Najoth, which is in Ramatha, and came and said to Jonathan: What have I done? what is my iniquity, and what is my sin against thy father, that he seeketh my life?

²And he said to him: (God forbid, thou shalt not die: for my father will do nothing, great or little, without first telling me: hath then my father hid this word only from me? no, this shall not be.

³And he swore again to David. And David said: Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, and he will say: Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved. But truly as the Lord liveth, and thy soul liveth, there is but one step (as I may say) between me and death.

⁴And Jonathan said to David: Whatsoever thy soul shall say to me, I will do for thee.

⁵And David said to Jonathan: Behold to morrow is the new moon, and I, according to custom, am wont to sit beside the king to eat: let me go then that I may be hid in the field till the evening of the third day.

⁶If thy father look and inquire for me, thou shalt answer him: David asked me that he might run to Bethlehem, his own city: because there are solemn sacrifices there for all of his tribe.

⁷If he shall say: It is well: thy servant shall have peace: but if he be angry, know that his malice is come to its height.

⁸Deal mercifully then with thy servant: for thou hast brought me, thy servant, into a covenant of the Lord with thee. But if there be any iniquity in me, do thou kill me, and bring me not in to thy father.

⁹And Jonathan said: Far be this from thee: for if I should certainly know that evil is determined by my father against thee, I could do no otherwise than tell thee.

¹⁰And David answered Jonathan: Who shall bring me word, if thy father should answer thee harshly concerning me?

¹¹And Jonathan said to David: Come, and let us go out into the field. And when they were both of them gone out into the field,

¹²Jonathan said to David: O Lord God of Israel, if I shall discover my father’s mind, to morrow, or the day after, and there be any thing good for David, and I send not immediately to thee, and make it known to thee,

¹³May the Lord do so and so to Jonathan, and add still more. But if my father shall continue in malice against thee, I will discover it to thy ear, and will send thee away, that thou mayst go in peace, and the Lord be with thee, as he hath been with my father.

¹⁴And if I live, thou shalt shew me the kindness of the Lord: but if I die,

¹⁵Thou shalt not take away thy kindness from my house for ever, when the Lord shall have rooted out the enemies of David, every one of them from the earth, may he take away Jonathan from his house, and may the Lord require it at the hands of David’s enemies.

¹⁶Jonathan therefore made a covenant with the house of David: and the Lord required it at the hands of David’s enemies.

¹⁷And Jonathan swore again to David, because he loved him: for he loved him as his own soul.

¹⁸And Jonathan said to him: To morrow is the new moon, and thou wilt be missed:

¹⁹For thy seat will be empty till after to morrow. So thou shalt go down quickly, and come to the place where thou must be hid, on the day when it is lawful to work, and thou shalt remain beside the stone, which is called Ezel.

²⁰And I will shoot three arrows near it, and will shoot as if I were exercising myself at a mark.

²¹And I will send a boy, saying to him: Go and fetch me the arrows.

²²If I shall say to the boy: Behold the arrows are on this side of thee, take them up: come thou to me, because there is peace to thee, and there is no evil, as the Lord liveth. But if I shall speak thus to the boy: Behold the arrows are beyond thee: go in peace, for the Lord hath sent thee away.

²³And concerning the word which I and thou have spoken, the Lord be between thee and me forever.

²⁴So David was hid in the field, and the new moon came, and the king sat down to eat bread.

²⁵And when the king sat down upon his chair, (according to custom) which was beside the wall, Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, and David’s place appeared empty.

²⁶And Saul said nothing that day, for he thought it might have happened to him, that he was not clean, nor purified.

²⁷And when the second day after the new moon was come, David’s place appeared empty again. And Saul said to Jonathan, his son: Why cometh not the son of Isai to meat neither yesterday, nor to day?

²⁸And Jonathan answered Saul: He asked leave of me earnestly to go to Bethlehem.

²⁹And he said: Let me go, for there is a solemn sacrifice in the city, one of my brethren hath sent for me: and now if I have found favour in thy eyes, I will go quickly, and see my brethren. For this cause he came not to the king’s table.

³⁰Then Saul being angry against Jonathan, said to him: Thou son of a woman that is the ravisher of a man, do I not know that thou lovest the son of Isai to thy own confusion, and to the confusion of thy shameless mother?

³¹For as long as the son of Isai liveth upon earth, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Therefore now presently send, and fetch him to me: for he is the son of death.

³²And Jonathan answering Saul, his father, said: Why shall he die? What hath he done?

³³And Saul caught up a spear to strike him. And Jonathan understood that it was determined by his father to kill David.

³⁴So Jonathan rose from the table in great anger, and did not eat bread on the second day after the new moon. For he was grieved for David, because his father had put him to confusion.

³⁵And when the morning came, Jonathan went into the field according to the appointment with David, and a little boy with him.

³⁶And he said to his boy: Go, and fetch me the arrows which I shoot. And when the boy ran, he shot another arrow beyond the boy.

³⁷The boy therefore came to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot: and Jonathan cried after the boy, and said: Behold the arrow is there further beyond thee.

³⁸And Jonathan cried again after the boy, saying: Make haste speedily, stand not. And Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows, and brought them to his master:

³⁹And he knew not at all what was doing: for only…