15. And do not cut off your loyal love from my family forever, not even when Yahweh exterminates each of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”
16. So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May Yahweh call the enemies of David to account.”
17. And Jonathan again made David swear an oath, because he loved him; for with the love of his soul he loved him.
18. Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, for your seat will stay empty.
19. On the third day you must go down quickly and go to the place where you hid yourself on the day all this started and remain beside the stone Ezel.
20. I will shoot three arrows to the side as if I were shooting at a target.
21. Then I will send word to my servant, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ If I clearly say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring it,’ then come, for it means peace for you. And there is no problem, as Yahweh lives.
22. But if I say this to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ go, for Yahweh has sent you away.
23. And as for the matter about which you and I spoke, look, Yahweh is between you and me forever.”
24. So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon came, the king was seated at the feast.
25. The king sat at his seat as before, the seat by the wall, and Jonathan got up, and Abner sat beside Saul, but David’s place was empty.
26. But Saul said nothing on that day, for he thought, “Something happened to him. He is not ceremonially clean; surely he is not clean.”
27. And then on the next day, the second day of the new moon, that David’s place was empty. So Saul asked Jonathan his son, “Why did the son of Jesse not come either yesterday or today to the feast?”
28. Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked permission from me to go up to Bethlehem.