19. On the third day you will go quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand, and remain by the stone Ezel.
20. And I will shoot three arrows on the side of it, as though I shot at a mark.
21. And I will send a lad, saying, Go, find the arrows. If I expressly say to the lad, Look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them–then you are to come, for it is safe for you and there is no danger, as the Lord lives.
22. But if I say to the youth, Look, the arrows are beyond you–then go, for the Lord has sent you away.
23. And as touching the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever.
24. So David hid himself in the field, and when the New Moon [festival] came, the king sat down to eat food.
25. The king sat, as at other times, on his seat by the wall, and Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul's side, but David's place was empty.
26. Yet Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, Something has befallen him and he is not clean–surely he is not clean.
27. But on the morrow, the second day after the new moon, David's place was empty; and Saul said to Jonathan his son, Why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?