1 Samuel 18:3

⁸Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you; but if there is iniquity in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father?”

⁹Jonathan said, “Far be it from you; for if I should at all know that evil were determined by my father to come on you, then wouldn’t I tell you that?”

¹⁰Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?”

¹¹Jonathan said to David, “Come! Let’s go out into the field.” They both went out into the field. ¹²Jonathan said to David, “By the LORD, the God of Israel, when I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there is good toward David, won’t I then send to you and disclose it to you? ¹³The LORD do so to Jonathan and more also, should it please my father to do you evil, if I don’t disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in peace. May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father. ¹⁴You shall not only show me the loving kindness of the LORD while I still live, that I not die; ¹⁵but you shall also not cut off your kindness from my house forever, no, not when the LORD has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the surface of the earth.” ¹⁶So Jonathan made a covenant with David’s house, saying, “The LORD will require it at the hand of David’s enemies.”

¹⁷Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

⁴²Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have both sworn in the LORD’s name, saying, ‘The LORD is between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’” He arose and departed; and Jonathan went into the city.

⁷But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

¹David said, “Is there yet any who is left of Saul’s house, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” ²There was of Saul’s house a servant whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David; and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” He said, “I am your servant.”

³The king said, “Is there not yet any of Saul’s house, that I may show the kindness of God to him?” Ziba said to the king, “Jonathan still has a son, who is lame in his feet.”

¹⁸They both made a covenant before the LORD. Then David stayed in the woods and Jonathan went to his house.