English Standard Version

1 Samuel 20:21-26 English Standard Version (ESV)

21. And behold, I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them,’ then you are to come, for, as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger.

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 for 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 came, the king sat down to eat food.

25. The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty.

26. Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean; surely he is not clean.”