1 Samuel 20:24-33
New Catholic Bible
24 David’s Absence. So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon celebration began and the king sat down to eat, 25 the king sat in his usual place by the wall. Jonathan sat facing him, and Abner was sitting by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. 26 Saul did not say anything that day, because he thought, “Something must have happened to him so that he is impure, surely he is unclean.”[a]
27 But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was still empty. Saul asked Jonathan, his son, “Why did the son of Jesse not come to eat yesterday nor today?” 28 Jonathan answered Saul, “David begged me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 29 He said to me, ‘Please let me go, for our family is offering a sacrifice in the city. My brother has told me to be there. If I have found favor with you, please, let me leave to go to see my brothers.’This is why he has not come to the king’s table.” 30 Saul became angry at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman. I knew that you sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and the shame of your mother’s nakedness. 31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives upon the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be stable. Send for him and bring him to me, for he must die.”[b] 32 Jonathan answered Saul, his father, saying, “Why must he die? What has he done?” 33 Saul cast a javelin at him to kill him. Jonathan thus knew that his father intended to kill David.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Samuel 20:26 The meal that accompanied the festival of the new moon involved a sacrifice to God and required ritual purification (see Ex 19:10, Lev 15:16, Num 19:11-22). Without such a cleansing, David could not participate.
- 1 Samuel 20:31 Saul continues to view David, son of Jesse, as the major impediment to the continuation of his dynasty. Jonathan, because of his love of God and David, bypasses any opportunity to prevent David from succeeding Saul (1 Sam 23:16-18).
