1 Samuel 20:4-17

4So Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you yourself desire, I will do it for you.”

5And David said to Jonathan, “Indeed tomorrow is the New Moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat. But let me go, that I may hide in the field until the third day at evening.

6If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked permission of me that he might run over to Bethlehem, his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’

7If he says thus: ‘It is well,’ your servant will be safe. But if he is very angry, be sure that evil is determined by him.

8Therefore you shall deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. Nevertheless, if there is iniquity in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father?”

9But Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! For if I knew certainly that evil was determined by my father to come upon you, then would I not tell you?”

10Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me, or what if your father answers you roughly?”

11And Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So both of them went out into the field.

12Then Jonathan said to David: “The Lord God of Israel is witness! When I have sounded out my father sometime tomorrow, or the third day, and indeed there is good toward David, and I do not send to you and tell you,

13may the Lord do so and much more to Jonathan. But if it pleases my father to do you evil, then I will report it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. And the Lord be with you as He has been with my father.

14And you shall not only show me the kindness of the Lord while I still live, that I may not die;

15but you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever, no, not when the Lord has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”

16So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “Let the Lord require it at the hand of David’s enemies.”

17Now Jonathan again caused David to vow, because he loved him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.