撒母耳記上20:1-42

 

20:1 大衛從拉瑪的拿約逃跑，來到約拿單那裡，對他說：「我做了甚麼？有甚麼罪孽呢？在你父親面前犯了甚麼罪，他竟尋索我的性命呢？」
20:2 約拿單回答說：「斷然不是！你必不致死。我父做事，無論大小，沒有不叫我知道的。怎麼獨有這事隱瞞我呢？決不如此。」
20:3 大衛又起誓說：「你父親準知我在你眼前蒙恩。他心裡說，不如不叫約拿單知道，恐怕他愁煩。我指著永生的耶和華，又敢在你面前起誓，我離死不過一步。」
20:4 約拿單對大衛說：「你心裡所求的，我必為你成就。」
20:5 大衛對約拿單說：「明日是初一，我當與王同席，求你容我去藏在田野，直到第三日晚上。
20:6 你父親若見我不在席上，你就說：『大衛切求我許他回本城伯利恆去，因為他全家在那裡獻年祭。』
20:7 你父親若說好，僕人就平安了；他若發怒，你就知道他決意要害我。
20:8 求你施恩與僕人，因你在耶和華面前曾與僕人結盟。我若有罪，不如你自己殺我，何必將我交給你父親呢？」
20:9 約拿單說：「斷無此事！我若知道我父親決意害你，我豈不告訴你呢？」
20:10 大衛對約拿單說：「你父親若用厲言回答你，誰來告訴我呢？」
20:11 約拿單對大衛說：「你我且往田野去。」二人就往田野去了。
20:12 約拿單對大衛說：「願耶和華─以色列的上帝為證。明日約在這時候，或第三日，我探我父親的意思，若向你有好意，我豈不打發人告訴你嗎？
20:13 我父親若有意害你，我不告訴你使你平平安安地走，願耶和華重重地降罰與我。願耶和華與你同在，如同從前與我父親同在一樣。
20:14 你要照耶和華的慈愛恩待我，不但我活著的時候免我死亡，
20:15 就是我死後，耶和華從地上剪除你仇敵的時候，你也永不可向我家絕了恩惠。」
20:16 於是約拿單與大衛家結盟，說：「願耶和華藉大衛的仇敵追討背約的罪。」
20:17 約拿單因愛大衛如同愛自己的性命，就使他再起誓。
20:18 約拿單對他說：「明日是初一，你的座位空設，人必理會你不在那裡。
20:19 你等三日，就要速速下去，到你從前遇事所藏的地方，在以色磐石那裡等候。
20:20 我要向磐石旁邊射三箭，如同射箭靶一樣。
20:21 我要打發童子，說：『去把箭找來。』我若對童子說：『箭在後頭，把箭拿來』，你就可以回來；我指著永生的耶和華起誓，你必平安無事。
20:22 我若對童子說：『箭在前頭』，你就要去，因為是耶和華打發你去的。
20:23 至於你我今日所說的話，有耶和華在你我中間為證，直到永遠。」
20:24 大衛就去藏在田野。到了初一日，王坐席要吃飯。
20:25 王照常坐在靠牆的位上，約拿單侍立，押尼珥坐在掃羅旁邊，大衛的座位空設。
20:26 然而這日掃羅沒有說甚麼，他想大衛遇事，偶染不潔，他必定是不潔。
20:27 初二日大衛的座位還空設。掃羅問他兒子約拿單說：「耶西的兒子為何昨日、今日沒有來吃飯呢？」
20:28 約拿單回答掃羅說：「大衛切求我容他往伯利恆去。
20:29 他說：『求你容我去，因為我家在城裡有獻祭的事；我長兄吩咐我去。如今我若在你眼前蒙恩，求你容我去見我的弟兄』；所以大衛沒有赴王的席。」
20:30 掃羅向約拿單發怒，對他說：「你這頑梗背逆之婦人所生的，我豈不知道你喜悅耶西的兒子，自取羞辱，以致你母親露體蒙羞嗎？
20:31 耶西的兒子若在世間活著，你和你的國位必站立不住。現在你要打發人去，將他捉拿交給我；他是該死的。」
20:32 約拿單對父親掃羅說：「他為甚麼該死呢？他做了甚麼呢？」
20:33 掃羅向約拿單掄槍要刺他，約拿單就知道他父親決意要殺大衛。
20:34 於是約拿單氣忿忿地從席上起來，在這初二日沒有吃飯。他因見父親羞辱大衛，就為大衛愁煩。
20:35 次日早晨，約拿單按著與大衛約會的時候出到田野，有一個童子跟隨。
20:36 約拿單對童子說：「你跑去，把我所射的箭找來。」童子跑去，約拿單就把箭射在童子前頭。
20:37 童子到了約拿單落箭之地，約拿單呼叫童子說：「箭不是在你前頭嗎？」
20:38 約拿單又呼叫童子說：「速速地去，不要遲延！」童子就拾起箭來，回到主人那裡。
20:39 童子卻不知道這是甚麼意思，只有約拿單和大衛知道。
20:40 約拿單將弓箭交給童子，吩咐說：「你拿到城裡去。」
20:41 童子一去，大衛就從磐石的南邊出來，俯伏在地，拜了三拜；二人親嘴，彼此哭泣，大衛哭得更慟。
20:42 約拿單對大衛說：「我們二人曾指著耶和華的名起誓說：『願耶和華在你我中間，並你我後裔中間為證，直到永遠。』如今你平平安安地去吧！」大衛就起身走了；約拿單也回城裡去了。

 

 Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?”

² “Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!”

³ But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.”

⁴ Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.”

⁵ So David said, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. ⁶ If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.’ ⁷ If he says, ‘Very well,’ then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me. ⁸ As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?”

⁹ “Never!” Jonathan said. “If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you?”

¹⁰ David asked, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”

¹¹ “Come,” Jonathan said, “let’s go out into the field.” So they went there together.

¹² Then Jonathan said to David, “I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? ¹³ But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. ¹⁴ But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, ¹⁵ and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”

¹⁶ So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord call David’s enemies to account.” ¹⁷ And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.

¹⁸ Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon feast. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. ¹⁹ The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. ²⁰ I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. ²¹ Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,’ then come, because, as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe; there is no danger. ²² But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, because the Lord has sent you away. ²³ And about the matter you and I discussed—remember, the Lord is witness between you and me forever.”

²⁴ So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon feast came, the king sat down to eat. ²⁵ He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan,^[a] and Abner sat next to Saul, but David’s place was empty. ²⁶ Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, “Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.” ²⁷ But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?”

²⁸ Jonathan answered, “David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. ²⁹ He said, ‘Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”

³⁰ Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? ³¹ As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!”

³² “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. ³³ But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.

³⁴ Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the feast he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David.

³⁵ In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him, ³⁶ and he said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. ³⁷ When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” ³⁸ Then he shouted, “Hurry! Go quickly! Don’t stop!” The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. ³⁹ (The boy knew nothing about all this; only Jonathan and David knew.) ⁴⁰ Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, “Go, carry them back to town.”

⁴¹ After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most.

⁴² Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.

 

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    掃羅要殺大衛的事，約拿單竟然不知道！但是上帝為了拯救大衛，透過他和約拿單結盟，彼此裡應外合，好使大衛在適當的時間可以離開掃羅的身邊，不受掃羅的傷害。

 

    掃羅和大衛之間已經夠難解了，卻又加入了掃羅的兒子也是大衛的盟友，這是不是讓讀者感到這些關係很難解呢？這些人是互為親戚，因為大衛也是掃羅的女婿，卻為了權力彼此糾結，讓我們看見權力的可怕！

 

    其實人生在世，常常被權利和利益所轄制，於是就產生「有錢有勢」這些觀念來影響人，這是罪進入人的生命中，造成人敗壞的結果，使人失去真正的自由，唯有透過基督的救贖，讓人清楚人生的目的，才不會受到這些轄制！

 

    而我們如何能尋找到人生的意義呢？就是《韋斯敏斯德小要理問答》的第一問所說：「人的主要目的就是榮耀上帝，永遠以祂為樂。」而在第二問也說到：「上帝的道，載於新舊兩約聖經，就是唯一的準則，指教我們怎樣榮耀上帝，以他為樂。」

 

    也因為這樣，我們清楚自己是上帝所救贖的兒女，就要好好閱讀聖經，使我們清楚如何活出上帝兒女的樣式，成為一個倚靠上帝的恩典來榮耀上帝的人，發揮我們生命的意義！在真理之中，獲得真正的自由！