Samuel & King Saul

Deal 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.

And 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.

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

And 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,

Jonathan 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,

May 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.

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

Thou 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

If 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.

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

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

And 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.

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

And 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?

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

And 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.

Then 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?

For 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.

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