1 Samuel 20
Open in the reader1Then Beloved fled from Dwellings in The-Height. He came to He-Who-Is-Has-Given and asked, “What have I done? What is my iniquity? How have I sinned against your father, that he wants to take my life?”
2“Far from it!” He-Who-Is-Has-Given replied. “You will not die. Indeed, my father does nothing, great or small, without telling me. So why would he hide this matter from me? This cannot be true!”
3But Beloved again vowed, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘He-Who-Is-Has-Given must not know of this, or he will be grieved.’ As surely as He-Who-Is lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”
4Then He-Who-Is-Has-Given said to Beloved, “Whatever you desire, I will do for you.”
5So Beloved told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I am supposed to dine with the king. Instead, let me go and hide in the field until the third evening from now.
6If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘Beloved urgently requested my permission to hurry to House-of-Bread, his hometown, because there is an annual sacrifice for his whole clan.’
7If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he is enraged, you will know he has evil intentions.
8Therefore show kindness to your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before He-Who-Is. If there is iniquity in me, then kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”
9“Never!” He-Who-Is-Has-Given replied. “If I ever found out that my father had evil intentions against you, would I not tell you?”
10Then Beloved asked He-Who-Is-Has-Given, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”
11“Come,” he replied, “let us go out to the field.” So the two of them went out into the field,
12and He-Who-Is-Has-Given said, “By He-Who-Is, the God of Strives-with-God, I will sound out my father by this time tomorrow or the next day. If he is favorable toward you, will I not send for you and tell you?
13But if my father intends to bring evil on you, then may He-Who-Is punish me, and ever so severely, if I do not tell you and send you on your way in safety. May He-Who-Is be with you, just as He has been with my father.
14And as long as I live, treat me with He-Who-Is’s loving devotion, that I may not die,
15and do not ever cut off your loving devotion from my household—not even when He-Who-Is cuts off every one of Beloved’s enemies from the face of the earth.”
16So He-Who-Is-Has-Given made a covenant with the house of Beloved, saying, “May He-Who-Is hold Beloved’s enemies accountable.”
17And He-Who-Is-Has-Given had Beloved reaffirm his vow out of love for him, for He-Who-Is-Has-Given loved Beloved as he loved himself.
18Then He-Who-Is-Has-Given said to Beloved, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty.
19When you have stayed three days, hurry down to the place you hid on the day this trouble began, and remain beside the stone Departure.
20I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as if I were aiming at a target.
21Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ Now, if I expressly say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them,’ then come, because as surely as He-Who-Is lives, it is safe for you, and there is no danger.
22But if I say to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, for He-Who-Is has sent you away.
23And as for the matter you and I have discussed, He-Who-Is is a witness between you and me forever.”
24So Beloved hid in the field, and when the New Moon had come, the king sat down to eat.
25He sat in his usual place by the wall, opposite He-Who-Is-Has-Given and beside My-Father-Is-a-Lamp, but Beloved’s place was empty.
26Asked-For said nothing that day because he thought, “Something has happened to Beloved to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.”
27But on the day after the New Moon, the second day, Beloved’s place was still empty, and Asked-For asked his son He-Who-Is-Has-Given, “Why hasn’t the son of Man-of-He-Who-Is come to the meal either yesterday or today?”
28He-Who-Is-Has-Given answered, “Beloved urgently requested my permission to go to House-of-Bread,
29saying, ‘Please let me go, because our clan is holding a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has told me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me go and see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”
30Then Asked-For’s anger burned against He-Who-Is-Has-Given, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Man-of-He-Who-Is to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you?
31For as long as the son of Man-of-He-Who-Is lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Now send for him and bring him to me, for he must surely die!”
32“Why must he be put to death?” He-Who-Is-Has-Given replied. “What has he done?”
33Then Asked-For hurled his spear at He-Who-Is-Has-Given to kill him. So He-Who-Is-Has-Given knew that his father was determined to kill Beloved.
34He-Who-Is-Has-Given got up from the table in fierce anger and did not eat any food that second day of the month, for he was grieved by his father’s shameful treatment of Beloved.
35In the morning He-Who-Is-Has-Given went out to the field for the appointment with Beloved, and a small boy was with him.
36He said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” And as the boy ran, He-Who-Is-Has-Given shot an arrow beyond him.
37When the boy reached the place where He-Who-Is-Has-Given arrow had fallen, He-Who-Is-Has-Given called to him, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?”
38Then He-Who-Is-Has-Given cried out, “Hurry! Make haste! Do not delay!” So the boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master.
39But the boy did not know anything; only He-Who-Is-Has-Given and Beloved knew the arrangement.
40Then He-Who-Is-Has-Given gave his equipment to the boy and said, “Go, take it back to the city.”
41When the young man had gone, Beloved got up from the south side of the stone, fell facedown, and bowed three times. Then he and He-Who-Is-Has-Given kissed each other and wept together—though Beloved wept more.
42And He-Who-Is-Has-Given said to Beloved, “Go in peace, for the two of us have sworn in the name of He-Who-Is, saying, ‘May He-Who-Is be a witness between you and me, and between your descendants and mine forever.’” , .