^20:15Don’t ever cut off your loyalty to my family, not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth ^20:16and called David’s enemies to account.” So Jonathan made a covenant²² with the house of David.²³^20:17Jonathan once again took an oath with David, because he loved him. In fact Jonathan loved him as much as he did his own life.²⁴^20:18Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, for your seat will be empty. ^20:19On the third day²⁵ you should go down quickly²⁶ and come to the place where you hid yourself the day this all started.²⁷ Stay near the stone Ezel. ^20:20I will shoot three arrows near it, as though I were shooting at a target. ^20:21When I send a boy after them, I will say, “Go and find the arrows.” If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you;²⁸ get them,’ then come back. For as surely as the Lord lives, you will be safe and there will no problem. ^20:22But if I say to the boy, “Look, the arrows are on the other side of you,’²⁹ get away. For in that case the Lord has sent you away. ^20:23With regard to the matter that you and I discussed, the Lord is the witness between us forever!”³⁰

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Footnotes

22 Heb “cut.” The object of the verb (“covenant”) must be supplied.
23 The word order is different in the Hebrew text, which reads “and Jonathan cut with the house of David, and the Lord will seek from the hand of the enemies of David.” The translation assumes that the main clauses of the verse have been accidentally transposed in the course of transmission. The first part of the verse (as it stands in ) belongs with v. 17, while the second part of the verse actually continues v. 15.
24 Heb “for [with] the love of his [own] life he loved him.”
25 Heb “you will do [something] a third time.” The translation assumes an emendation of the verb from שִׁלַּשְׁתָּ (shillashta, “to do a third time”) to שִׁלִּישִׁית (shillishit, “[on the] third [day]”).
26 Heb “you must go down greatly.” See Judg 19:11 for the same idiom.
27 Heb “on the day of the deed.” This probably refers to the incident recorded in 19:2.
28 Heb “from you and here.”
29 Heb “from you and onward.”
30 Heb “the Lord [is] between me and between you forever.” The translation assumes that the original text read עֵד עַד־עוֹלָם (’ed ’ad-’olam), “a witness forever,” with the noun “a witness” accidentally falling out of the text by haplography. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (), .