19. The day after tomorrow, towards evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel.
20. I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target.
21. Then I will send a boy and say, “Go, find the arrows.” If I say to him, “Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,” then come, because, as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe; there is no danger.
22. But if I say to the boy, “Look, the arrows are beyond you,” then you must go, because the Lord has sent you away.
23. And about the matter you and I discussed – remember, the Lord is witness between you and me for ever.’
24. So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon feast came, the king sat down to eat.
25. He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, and Abner sat next to Saul, but David’s place was empty.
26. Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, ‘Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean – surely he is unclean.’
27. But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, ‘Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?’
28. Jonathan answered, ‘David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem.
29. He said, “Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favour in your eyes, let me go to see my brothers.” That is why he has not come to the king’s table.’
30. Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, ‘You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you?