8. You must be loyal to your servant, for you have made a covenant with your servant in the Lord’s name. If I am guilty, you yourself kill me! Why bother taking me to your father?”
9. Jonathan said, “Far be it from you to suggest this! If I were at all aware that my father had decided to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you about it?”
10. David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”
11. Jonathan said to David, “Come on. Let’s go out to the field.”When the two of them had gone out into the field,
12. Jonathan said to David, “The Lord God of Israel is my witness. I will feel out my father about this time the day after tomorrow. If he is favorably inclined toward David, will I not then send word to you and let you know?
13. But if my father intends to do you harm, may the Lord do all this and more to Jonathan, if I don’t let you know and send word to you so you can go safely on your way. May the Lord be with you, as he was with my father.
14. While I am still alive, extend to me the loyalty of the Lord, or else I will die!
15. Don’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
16. and called David’s enemies to account.” So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David.
17. Jonathan once again took an oath with David, because he loved him. In fact Jonathan loved him as much as he did his own life.
18. Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, for your seat will be empty.
19. On the third day you should go down quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself the day this all started. Stay near the stone Ezel.
20. I will shoot three arrows near it, as though I were shooting at a target.
21. When 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; get them,’ then come back. For as surely as the Lord lives, you will be safe and there will no problem.
22. But if I say to the boy, “Look, the arrows are on the other side of you,’ get away. For in that case the Lord has sent you away.
23. With regard to the matter that you and I discussed, the Lord is the witness between us forever!”
24. So David hid in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat down to eat his meal.
25. The king sat down in his usual place by the wall, with Jonathan opposite him and Abner at his side. But David’s place was vacant.
26. However, Saul said nothing about it that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to make him ceremonially unclean. Yes, he must be unclean.”