- 1 Samuel
- <
- 20
- >

20
Jonathan helped his brother-in-law David
1 After that, David ran away from the community called Nayoth in the town called Ramah. He went to Jonathan’s place and asked him, “What have I done? What wrong thing did I do? Why does your father keep on looking for me, to kill me?”
2 Jonathan answered, “No way. That is not true. He will not kill you. My father has not told me that he wants to do that. He always tells me what he is thinking. That’s his way. He does not tell lies to me.”
3 But David said, “Listen. Let God punish me if what I said is not true. Your father knows that you and I are close friends. We are also brothers-in-law. He might think like this, ‘I can’t tell my son. He might get upset.’ No, listen to me. God is listening, so I can’t tell lies. Today I might die.”
4 Jonathan said, “All right, if that’s the way you feel, tell me what I should do for you now.”
5 David said, “Tomorrow, people will come together for the new moon ceremony, as they always do. Lots of people will be at your father’s place to eat food together. He told me to come and eat with him there too. But for the first 2 nights I don’t want to be at the food table, but I will hide in the garden. Is that all right?* Numbers 28:11 6 If your father asks about me, tell him, ‘David asked me, “Is it all right for me to go to my home town, Bethlehem? Every year my family comes together there, to kill animals and burn them for God.” ’ 7 If he says, ‘All right,’ you will know that he will not hurt me. But if he gets angry, you will know that he wants to kill me.”
(We have not yet translated 20:8-23.)
24 So David went to hide in the garden.
The next day, lots of people came together at Saul’s place for the new moon ceremony. Saul sat down in his chair to eat. 25 His chair was near the wall as usual. Jonathan sat on the other side of the table. The boss soldier called Abner was also there, in the chair next to Saul. But David was not there. His chair was empty. 26 Saul noticed that he was not there, but he thought to himself, “Maybe something has happened to him, so he can’t eat at the ceremony?” (You see, God said that if something happened to somebody first, like maybe they touched a dead body, then they can’t eat at a special ceremony.) So Saul did not ask anybody about David.
27 The next day, David’s chair was still empty. So Saul asked Jonathan, “Why is David not here? And he was not here yesterday.”
28 Jonathan answered, and he told a lie like this, “David kept on asking me to let him go to Bethlehem. 29 He said, ‘Every year my family comes together there, to burn animals and give them to God. My older brother told me to come. So please, let me go to see my brothers.’ He told me that, and that’s why he can’t be here to eat food with you.”
30 Saul got very angry with his son, and he yelled at him like this, “You stupid fool. I know that you listen to David and not to me. That’s a shame job. You even shame your own mother. 31 If David is still alive, you can’t be boss in Israel after me. Send some men straight away, to grab David and bring him to me. He has got to die.”
32 Jonathan asked his father, “Why has he got to die? What wrong thing did he do?” 33 But as soon as Saul heard that, he suddenly threw his spear at his son. He meant to kill him dead, but he missed. So then Jonathan knew that his father really wanted to kill David.
34 Jonathan got wild and stood up and went outside. He was so upset that he did not eat anything all day. He was very sad that his father treated David so badly like that.
35 The next morning, he went out to the garden to meet with David.
(We have not yet translated 20:35b-41a.)
41 David came out from behind a rock. He got down on his knees 3 times to show respect to Jonathan, his face near the ground. They kissed each other and cried for each other. But David cried more than Jonathan. 42 Jonathan said, “Go carefully now. God will take care of you. You and I will be friends for ever. And God hears us whenever we talk like this. He will help your mob and my mob to live quietly for ever.” So David went away then, and Jonathan went back again to his home.

- 1 Samuel
- <
- 20
- >

*20:5 Numbers 28:11

© 2019 The Plain English Project