8Fighting broke out again. David went out and fought the Philistines. He inflicted a great defeat upon them and they fled before him. 9Then an evil spirit of the LORD came upon Saul while he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, and David was playing [the lyre]. 10Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he drove the spear into the wall. David fled and got away.
That night 11Saul sent messengers to David’s home to keep watch on him and to kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal told him, “Unless you run for your life tonight, you will be killed tomorrow.” 12Michal let David down from the window and he escaped and fled. 13Michal then took the household idol, laid it on the bed, and covered it with a cloth; and at its head she put a net of goat’s hair. 14Saul sent messengers to seize David; but she said, “He is sick.” 15Saul, however, sent back the messengers to see David for themselves. “Bring him up to me in the bed,” he ordered, “that he may be put to death.” 16When the messengers came, they found the household idol in the bed, with the net of goat’s hair at its head. 17Saul said to Michal, “Why did you play that trick on me and let my enemy get away safely?” “Because,” Michal answered Saul, “he said to me: ‘Help me get away or I’ll kill you.’ ”
18David made good his escape, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth. 19Saul was told that David was at Naioth in Ramah, 20and Saul sent messengers to seize David. Theya saw a band of prophets b-speaking in ecstasy,-b with Samuel standing by c-as their leader;-c and the spirit of God came upon Saul’s messengers and they too began to speak in ecstasy. 21When Saul was told about this, he sent other messen-gers; but they too spoke in ecstasy. Saul sent a third group of messengers; and they also spoke in ecstasy. 22So he himself went to Ramah. When he came to d-the great cistern at Secu,-d he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” and was told that they were at Naioth in Ramah. 23He was on his way there, to Naioth in Ramah, when the spirit of God came upon him too; and he walked on, speaking in ecstasy, until he reached Naioth in Ramah. 24Then he too stripped off his clothes and he too spoke in ecstasy before Samuel; and he lay naked all that day and all night. That is why people say, “Is Saul too among the prophets?”
20 David fled from Naioth in Ramah; he came to Jonathan and said, “What have I done, what is my crime and my guilt against your father, that he seeks my life?” 2He replied, “Heaven forbid! You shall not die. My father does not do anything, great or small, without disclosing it to me; why should my father conceal this matter from me? It cannot be!” 3David a-swore further,-a “Your father knows well that you are fond of me and has decided: Jonathan must not learn of this or he will be grieved. But, as the LORD lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.” 4Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want, I will do it for you.”
5David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I b-am to sit with the king at the meal. Instead, let-b me go and I will hide in the countryside until the thirdc evening. 6If your father notes my absence, you say, ‘David asked my permission to run down to his home town, Bethlehem, for the whole family has its annual sacrifice there.’ 7If he says ‘Good,’ your servant is safe; but if his anger flares up, know that he is resolved to do [me] harm. 8Deal faithfully with your servant, since you have taken your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you. And if I am guilty, kill me yourself, but don’t make me go back to your father.” 9Jonathan replied, “Don’t talk like that! If I learn that my father has resolved to kill you, I will surely tell you about it.” 10David said to Jon-athan, “Who will tell me ifd your father answers you harshly?” 11Jonathan said to David, “Let us go into the open”; and they both went out into the open.
12eThen Jonathan said to David, “By the LORD, the God of Israel! I will sound out my father at this time tomorrow, [or] on the third day; and if [his response] is favorable for David, I will send a message to you at once and disclose it to you. 13But if my father intends to do you harm, may the LORD do thus to Jonathan and more if I do [not] disclose it to you and send you off to escape unharmed. May the LORD be with you, as He used to be with my father. 14Nor shall you fail to show me the f-LORD’s faithfulness,-f while I am alive; nor, when I am dead, 15shall you ever discontinue your faithfulness to my house—not even after the LORD has wiped out every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth. 16Thus has Jonathan covenanted with the house of David; and may the LORD requite the enemies of David!”
17Jonathan, out of his love for David, adjuredg him again, for he loved him as himself. 18Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow will be the new moon; and you will be missed when your seat remains vacant.h 19So the day after tomorrow, go down i-all the way-i to the place where you hid j-the other time,-j and stay close to the Ezel stone. 20Now I will shoot three arrows to one side of it, as though I were shooting at a mark, 21and I will order the boy to go and find the arrows. If I call to the boy, ‘Hey! the arrows are on this side of you,’ be reassuredk and come, for you are safe and there is no danger—as the LORD lives! 22But if, instead, I call to the lad, ‘Hey! the arrows are beyond you,’ then leave, for the LORD has sent you away. 23As for the promise we made to each other,l may the LORD be [witness] between you and me forever.”
24David hid in the field. The new moon came, and the king sat down to partake of the meal. 25When the king took his usual place on the seat by the wall, Jonathan rosem and Abner sat down at Saul’s side; but David’s place remained vacant. 26That day, however, Saul said nothing. “It’s accidental,” he thought. n-“He must be unclean and not yet cleansed.”-n 27But on the day after the new moon, the second day, David’s place was vacant again. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why didn’t the son of Jesseo come to the meal yesterday or today?” 28Jonathan answered Saul, “David begged leave of me to go to Bethlehem. 29He said, ‘Please let me go, for we are going to have a family feast in our town and my brother has summoned me to it. Do me a favor, let me slip away to see my kinsmen.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”
30Saul flew into a rage against Jonathan. “You son of a perverse, re-bellious woman!” he shouted. “I know that you side with the son of Jesse—to your shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness! 31For as long as the son of Jesse lives on earth, neither you nor your kingship will be secure. Now then, have him brought to me, for he is marked for death.” 32But Jonathan spoke up and said to his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” 33At that, Saul threwp his spear at him to strike him down; and Jonathan realized that his father was deter-mined to do away with David. 34Jonathan rose from the table in a rage. He ate no food on the second day of the new moon, because he was grieved about David, and because his father had humiliated him.
35In the morning, Jonathan went out into the open for the meeting with David, accompanied by a young boy. 36He said to the boy, “Run ahead and find the arrows that I shoot.” And as the boy ran, he shot the arrows past him. 37When the boy came to the place where the arrows shot by Jonathan had fallen, Jonathan called out to the boy, “Hey, the arrows are beyond you!” 38And Jonathan called after the boy, “Quick, hurry up. Don’t stop!” So Jonathan’s boy gathered the arrows
