5. Then David said to Jonathan: "Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I am accustomed to sit in a seat beside the king to eat. Therefore, permit me that I may be hidden in the field, until the evening of the third day.
6. If your father, looking around, will seek me, you shall respond to him: 'David asked me if he may hurry to Bethlehem, his own city. For there are solemn sacrifices in that place for all of his tribe together.'
7. If he will say, 'It is well,' then your servant will have peace. But if he will be angry, know that his malice has reached its height.
8. Therefore, show mercy to your servant. For you have brought me, your servant, into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is any iniquity in me, you may kill me, and you shall not lead me in to your father."
9. And Jonathan said: "May this be far from you. For certainly, if I ever realized that any wickedness was determined by my father against you, I would not be able to do anything other than report it to you."
10. And David responded to Jonathan, "Who will repeat it to me, if your father may perhaps answer you harshly about me?"
11. And Jonathan said to David, "Come, and let us go out into the field." And when they both had gone out into the field,
12. Jonathan said before David: "O Lord, God of Israel, if I will discover a decision by my father, tomorrow, or the day after, and if there will be anything good concerning David, and yet I do not immediately send to you and make it known to you,
13. may the Lord do these things to Jonathan, and may he add these other things. But if my father will have persevered in malice against you, I will reveal it to your ear, and I will send you away, so that you may go in peace, and so that the Lord may be with you, just as he was with my father.
14. And if I live, you shall show the mercy of the Lord to me. Yet truly, if I die,
15. you shall not take away your mercy from my house, even forever, when the Lord will have rooted out the enemies of David, each and every one of them, from the earth. May he take Jonathan from his house, and may the Lord require it from the hands of the enemies of David."
16. Therefore, Jonathan formed a covenant with the house of David. And the Lord required it from the hands of the enemies of David.
17. And Jonathan continued to swear to David, because he loved him. For he loved him like his own soul.
18. And Jonathan said to him: "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be sought.
19. For your seat will be empty until the day after tomorrow. Therefore, you shall descend quickly, and you shall go to the place where you are to be hidden, on a day when it is lawful to work, and you shall remain beside the stone that is called Ezel.
20. And I will shoot three arrows near it, and I will cast them as if I were practicing for myself toward a mark.
21. Also, I will send a boy, saying to him, 'Go and bring the arrows to me.'
22. If I will say to the boy, 'Behold, the arrows are before you, take them up,' you shall approach before me, because there is peace for you, and there is nothing evil, as the Lord lives. But if I will have spoken to the boy in this way, 'Behold, the arrows are away from you,' then you shall go away in peace, for the Lord has released you.
23. Now about the word that you and I have spoken, may the Lord be between you and me, even forever."