1 SamuelCapítulo 20

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David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and said, "What have I done? What is my guilt, and what is my sin against your father, that he is trying to take my life?"
Jonathan said to him, "Never! You will not die. Look, my father does nothing, great or small, without telling me. Why would he hide this from me? It isn't so."
But David swore again and said, "Your father knows perfectly well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, 'Jonathan must not know this, or he will be grieved.' Yet as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death."
Jonathan said to David, "Whatever you want, I will do for you."
David said to Jonathan, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and I am supposed to sit and eat with the king. Let me go, and I will hide in the field until the evening of the third day.
If your father misses me at all, say, 'David urgently begged my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because his whole clan is holding its yearly sacrifice there.'
If he says, 'Fine,' then your servant is safe. But if he flares up in anger, you will know he is set on doing me harm.
So show kindness to your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant with you before the LORD. If I am guilty of anything, then kill me yourself—why bring me to your father?"
Jonathan said, "Never! If I learn that my father is determined to harm you, I will surely tell you."
David asked Jonathan, "Who will let me know if your father answers you harshly?"
Jonathan said to David, "Come, let's go out to the field." So the two of them went out to the field.
Then Jonathan said to David, "By the LORD, the God of Israel: when I have sounded out my father, by this time tomorrow or the day after, if he is favorable toward you, I will surely send word and let you know.
But if my father intends to harm you, may the LORD deal with me severely if I do not let you know and send you safely on your way. May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father.
And as long as I live, show me the LORD's own faithful love; and if I die,
never cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth."
So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the LORD call David's enemies to account."
And Jonathan had David swear again, out of his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own life.
Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your place will be empty.
The day after tomorrow, go to the place where you hid before, and wait there by the stone Ezel.
I will shoot three arrows off to the side, as though I were shooting at a target.
Then I will send the boy: 'Go, find the arrows.' If I say to him, 'The arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,' then come, for it is safe for you—as surely as the LORD lives, there is no danger.
But if I say to the young man, 'The arrows are beyond you,' then go, for the LORD has sent you away.
And about the matter you and I have spoken of—the LORD is witness between you and me forever."
So David hid in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat down to eat.
He sat in his usual place by the wall. Jonathan rose, and Abner sat down beside Saul; but David's place was empty.
Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, "Something has happened to make him unclean—surely he is unclean."
But the next day, the second day of the month, David's place was empty again. So Saul asked his son Jonathan, "Why hasn't the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?"
Jonathan answered Saul, "David earnestly asked my permission to go to Bethlehem.
He said, 'Please let me go, because our family is holding a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.' That is why he has not come to the king's table."
Then Saul's anger flared up against 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?
As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be secure. Now send for him and bring him to me, for he must die!"
Jonathan answered his father Saul, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?"
At that Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him down—and Jonathan knew that his father was determined to kill David.
Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger. He ate no food that second day of the month, for he was grieved over David and over the way his father had disgraced him.
In the morning Jonathan went out to the field to meet David, and a young boy was with him.
He said to the boy, "Run and find the arrows I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
When the boy came to the place where Jonathan's arrow had fallen, Jonathan called after him, "Isn't the arrow beyond you?"
Then Jonathan called after the boy, "Hurry! Be quick! Don't stop!" And the boy picked up the arrows and came back to his master.
The boy knew nothing of all this; only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
Then Jonathan handed his weapons to the boy and told him, "Go, take them back to town."
When the boy had gone, David rose from his hiding place to the south, fell facedown on the ground, and bowed three times. Then they kissed each other and wept together—David wept the longest.
Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace. We have both sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, 'The LORD be between you and me, and between your descendants and mine, forever.'"