20. I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target.
21. Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,’ then come, because, as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe; there is no danger.
22. But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, because the Lord has sent you away.
23. And about the matter you and I discussed—remember, the Lord is witness between you and me forever.”
24. So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon feast came, the king sat down to eat.
25. He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, and Abner sat next to Saul, but David’s place was empty.
26. Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, “Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.”
27. But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?”