1 Samuel 20:8–17

⁸As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant^w with you before the Lord. If I am guilty, then kill^x me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?”

⁹“Never!” Jonathan said. “If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you?”

¹⁰David asked, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”

¹¹“Come,” Jonathan said, “let’s go out into the field.” So they went there together.

¹²Then Jonathan said to David, “I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound^y 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? ¹³But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely,^z if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lord be with^a you as he has been with my father. ¹⁴But show me unfailing kindness^b like the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, ¹⁵and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family^c—not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”

¹⁶So Jonathan^d made a covenant^e with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord call David’s enemies to account.^f” ¹⁷And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath^g out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.