The Daily Audio Bible

Jonathan helps David

20 Then David ran away from Naioth at Ramah. He went to Jonathan and he asked him, ‘What bad things have I done? What have I done to hurt your father? Why is he trying to kill me?’

² Jonathan replied, ‘No. You will not die. My father tells me everything that he does, even the little things. So it is not true that he is trying to kill you. He would not hide this from me.’

³ But David answered, ‘Your father knows that you like me very much. He has decided that he will not tell you. He does not want to make you upset. I promise that my words are true, as truly as the Lord lives and you live. I know that I am very near to death.’

⁴ Jonathan said to David, ‘I will do anything that you want me to do for you.’

⁵ David said to Jonathan, ‘Tomorrow we have a special meal because of the new moon.^[a] I should go and eat this meal with the king. Instead, let me go and hide in the field. I will stay there until the third evening. ⁶ Your father may see that I am not at the meal. If he does, say to him, “David asked me to let him go to his home in Bethlehem. His family offer a sacrifice there at this time every year.” ⁷ Your father may say, “That is good.” If he says that, I will know that I am safe. But if he becomes very angry, we will know that he has decided to hurt me. ⁸ Jonathan, please show that you love me. The Lord knows about the promise that you made, to be my friend. If I am guilty of a sin, please kill me yourself. Do not let your father kill me.’

⁹ Jonathan said, ‘No, that will never happen! If I ever find out that my father wants to kill you, I will surely tell you.’

¹⁰ David asked Jonathan, ‘If your father answers you in an angry way, who will tell me?’ ¹¹ Jonathan said, ‘Come with me into the field.’ So they went there together.

¹² Then Jonathan said to David, ‘I make this promise to you, and the Lord, Israel's God, knows that it is true. Tomorrow or the next day I will find out what my father is thinking about you. If he is feeling friendly to you, I will send someone to tell you. ¹³ But if my father wants to hurt you, I will tell you clearly. I ask the Lord to punish me, if I do not tell you. I will help you to escape and be safe. I pray that the Lord will bless you, as he blessed my father. ¹⁴ While I am still alive, please be kind to me. Continue to love me, as the Lord loves his people. And if I die, ¹⁵ continue to be kind to my family. Even when the Lord removes every one of your enemies from the earth, do not forget about my family.’

¹⁶ So Jonathan made an agreement with David's family. He said, ‘I am asking the Lord to destroy all David's enemies.’ ¹⁷ Jonathan asked David to promise again that they would be friends. That was because Jonathan loved David as much as he loved his own life.

¹⁸ Then Jonathan said to David, ‘Tomorrow we will have the special meal because of the new moon. Nobody will be sitting in your seat, so people will know that you are not there. ¹⁹ The day after tomorrow, go back to the place where you hid the other time. Wait beside the rock called Ezel. ²⁰ I will shoot three arrows towards the rock to see where they go. ²¹ Then I will send a boy to find the arrows. If you are not in danger I will say to the boy, “The arrows are on this side of you. Come and bring them here.” That will mean that you are safe. You can then come out from the place where you are hiding. As surely as the Lord lives, I promise that you will not be in trouble. ²² But if I say to the boy, “Look, the arrows are beyond you,” you must run away. It will mean that the Lord has sent you away. ²³ But never forget the promise that we have made to each other. The Lord will make sure that we are faithful to each other.’

²⁴ So David hid in the field. At the time of the new moon, the king sat down to eat the special meal. ²⁵ He sat beside the wall in his usual place. Jonathan sat with his face towards him. Abner sat beside the king. David's seat was empty. ²⁶ Saul did not say anything about it that day. He thought, ‘Perhaps something has happened to David that has made him unclean. I am sure that is why he is not here.’^{[b] 27} The next day after the new moon, David's seat was still empty at the meal. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, ‘Why has Jesse's son not come to the meal? He did not come yesterday or today.’

²⁸ Jonathan answered, ‘David asked me very strongly to let him go to Bethlehem. ²⁹ He said, “Please let me go. My family is offering a sacrifice to God in the town. My brother told me that I must be there. If you agree as my friend, let me go to visit my brothers.” That is why David has not come to eat this meal with the king.’

³⁰ Saul became very angry with Jonathan. He said, ‘You stupid man! I see that you have turned against me! You have become a friend of that son of Jesse. You have brought shame on yourself. Your mother should be ashamed that she gave birth to you! ³¹ You will never rule as king while that son of Jesse is still alive. Send men to go and bring him to me now. He must die!’^[c]

³² Jonathan said to his father, King Saul, ‘Why must David die? What wrong thing has he done?’

³³ Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan and tried to kill him. So Jonathan knew that his father had decided to kill David. ³⁴ Jonathan was very angry. He got up from the table. He did not eat anything on that second day of the special meal. He was very upset because his father had insulted David.

³⁵ The next morning, Jonathan went out to the field to meet David. He took a young boy with him. ³⁶ He said to the boy, ‘I will shoot some arrows. You must run and find them.’ While the boy was running, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. ³⁷ The boy ran to the place where the arrow had reached. Jonathan shouted to him, ‘I think that the arrow is beyond you.’ ³⁸ Then he shouted, ‘Hurry now! Go quickly. Do not wait.’ The boy picked up the arrow and he brought it back to Jonathan. ³⁹ (The boy did not understand what this meant. Only Jonathan and David knew.) ⁴⁰ Then Jonathan gave his bow and arrows back to the boy. He said to the boy, ‘Go now and take these things back to the town.’

⁴¹ When the boy had left, David came out from beside the rock. He went down on his knees in front of Jonathan. He bent down on the ground three times. Then David and Jonathan kissed each other and they wept. David wept even more than Jonathan did.

⁴² Jonathan said to David, ‘Go now and God will keep you safe. We have promised each other in the Lord's name that we will always be friends. The Lord will watch us to make sure that we always keep this promise. He will watch our descendants too, for ever.’

Then David left. Jonathan returned to the town.

David goes to the town of Nob

21 David went to visit Ahimelech the priest. He lived in the town of Nob.^[d] Ahimelech shook with fear when he saw David. He asked David, ‘Why are you alone? Why is nobody with you?’^[e]

² David answered, ‘The king has asked me to do something special. He said to me, “Do not tell anyone where I have sent you. Do not say what I have told you to do.” So I have sent my soldiers to wait for me at a certain place. ³ Do you have anything to eat here? Give me five loaves of bread or anything else that you have.’

⁴ The priest answered David, ‘I do not have any ordinary bread that I can give to you. There is only the special holy bread. You can take it for your men to eat only if they have not had sex with women.’

⁵ David replied, ‘We have not been near women since we left our homes. The young men always keep themselves clean, even on ordinary journeys. So for today's important journey, they will certainly be clean.’

⁶ So the priest gave the holy bread to David because he did not have any other bread. This was the bread which had been on the table in the Lord's tent. The priest would take it from there each day and he would put hot, fresh bread in its place.

⁷ One of Saul's servants was there that day. His name was Doeg. He came from Edom. He was the leader of Saul's shepherds. He was staying in Nob to make offerings to the Lord.

⁸ David asked the priest, Ahimelech, ‘Is there any sword or spear here that I could take? The king sent me quickly to do an important job. So I left home without my sword or any other weapon.’

⁹ Ahimelech answered, ‘The sword of Goliath the Philistine is here. After you killed him in the valley of Elah, we kept the sword here. We covered it with a cloth and we put it behind the ephod. If you want it, you can take it. We do not have any other weapon except that one.’

David said, ‘Give it to me. There is no sword as good as that one.’

David goes to Gath

¹⁰ So on that day, David escaped from Saul. He went to Gath and he visited King Achish there. ¹¹ The servants of King Achish said to him, ‘This man is David, the king of his country! The people sing this song about him when they dance:

¹² David thought carefully about what King Achish's servants were saying. It caused him to be very afraid of Achish, king of Gath. ¹³ So when David was with them, he pretended to be crazy. He made marks with his fingers on the doors of the city's gate. He let water run out of his mouth and go down his beard.

¹⁴ King Achish said to his servants, ‘Look at this man! He is completely crazy! Why did you bring him to me? ¹⁵ I have enough fools around me already. I do not need to see this crazy man as well. Keep him away from my house.’

Jesus makes a blind man able to see

9 While Jesus was walking along, he saw a certain man. This man had been blind since he was born. ² Jesus' disciples asked him, ‘Teacher, why was this man blind when he was born? Was it because he himself did something wrong? Or was it because his parents did something wrong?’ ³ Jesus answered, ‘It was not because either this man or his parents did something wrong. It happened so that God could show his great work in this man. ⁴ While it is still day, we must continue to work. God has sent me and we must do his work. We must work now because it will be night soon. Then nobody can work. ⁵ While I am still here in the world, I am the world's light.’

⁶ When Jesus had finished speaking, he spat on the ground. He mixed it with dirt on the ground so that he made mud. Then he put some of the mud on the eyes of the blind man. ⁷ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and wash in the Siloam pool.’ (The name Siloam means ‘Sent’.) So the man went there and he washed himself. When he returned, now he could see.

⁸ People began to talk about him. Some of these people lived near him. Others had seen him when he was asking for money. They said, ‘This is the man who sat here. He asked people to give him money. Isn't that right?’ ⁹ Some people said, ‘Yes, it is him.’ But other people said, ‘No, it is someone who seems to be like him.’ But the man himself said, ‘I am that man.’

¹⁰ They asked him, ‘How did your eyes now become able to see?’ ¹¹ He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made some mud. He put the mud on my eyes. Then he sent me to wash in the Siloam pool. So I went there and I washed. Then I could see.’

¹² They asked him, ‘Where is this man?’ He replied, ‘I do not know.’

The Pharisees talk to the man who had been blind

¹³ The people brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. ¹⁴ It was a Jewish day of rest when Jesus had done this miracle. He had used mud to make the man's eyes able to see. ¹⁵ So the Pharisees asked the man again, ‘How did you become able to see?’ The man replied, ‘Jesus put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I can see.’

¹⁶ So some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man Jesus cannot have come from God. He does not obey the rules about our day of rest.’ But other Pharisees said, ‘Nobody who is bad could do great things like this!’ So they did not agree with each other. ¹⁷ The Pharisees spoke again to the man who had been blind. They said to him, ‘What do you yourself say about this man? It was your eyes he has now made able to see.’ The man replied, ‘He is a prophet.’

¹⁸ The Jewish leaders still did not believe that the man had really been blind. They did not want to believe that he had now become able to see. So they told the man's parents to come to them. ¹⁹ They asked the parents, ‘Is this your son? You say, “When he was born, he was blind.” But now he can see. How did this happen?’ ²⁰ The parents replied, ‘We know that this is our son. And when he was born, he was blind. We know that, too. ²¹ But we do not know how he can see now. We do not know who made his eyes able to see. Ask him. He is old enough to answer you for himself!’ ²² The man's parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders did not want anyone to say that Jesus was the Messiah. They would not let anyone like that belong to their meeting places. ²³ That is why the man's parents said, ‘Ask him. He is old enough.’

²⁴ So the leaders again spoke to the man who had been blind. They said to him, ‘In front of God, promise that you will speak only true things. We know that this man Jesus does not obey God.’ ²⁵ The man replied, ‘I do not know whether he obeys God or not. But I do know one thing: I was blind and now I can see.’ ²⁶ Then they asked him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he make your eyes able to see?’ ²⁷ He answered them, ‘I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Maybe you want to become his disciples too!’ ²⁸ Then the leaders were very angry with him. They shouted at him, ‘No, it is you! You are that man's disciple. But we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹ We know that God spoke to Moses. But who is this man? We do not even know where he comes from.’

³⁰ The man answered, ‘That is a very strange thing! You do not know where this man comes from. But he is the one who made my eyes able to see. ³¹ We know that God does not listen to people who do not obey him. But he does listen to good people who do what he wants them to do. ³² Nobody has ever made the eyes of a blind man able to see, if that man had been blind when he was born. Since the world began, that has never happened! ³³ So this man Jesus must have come from God. Unless he came from God, he could not do anything like that.’

³⁴ The Jewish leaders answered him, ‘Since the day that you were born, you have never obeyed God's laws. You cannot teach us anything!’ And they threw him out of the meeting place.

People who do not believe in God are like blind people

³⁵ Jesus heard that the Jewish leaders had thrown the man out. So he went and he found the man. Jesus asked him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ³⁶ The man answered, ‘Sir, please tell me who he is. Then I can believe in him.’ ³⁷ Jesus said to him, ‘You have already seen him. It is me, the one who is talking to you now.’ ³⁸ Then the man said, ‘Lord, now I believe.’ He bent down on his knees and he worshipped Jesus.

³⁹ Then Jesus said, ‘I came into this world to judge people. Then people who know that they are blind will be able to see. And people who think they can see will become blind.’ ⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees who were there with him heard this. They asked Jesus, ‘Do you mean that we are also blind?’ ⁴¹ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, God would not punish you for the wrong things you have done. But you say that you can see. You do wrong things with your eyes open, so God will punish you as guilty people.’

Hallelujah, God helps weak people^[a]

Hallelujah, God does great things^[b]