If your father misses me at all, then say, David earnestly asked permission of me to run to Bethlehem his city — David scripts Jonathan's speech (*im ye'arod avi et rachamta*, if your father misses me), asking him to lie on David's behalf, to provide a cover story for David's absence. The *Bethlehem iro* (Bethlehem his city) returns David imaginatively to his home, the pastoral origins he must now flee. David's request that Jonathan lie suggests his willingness to involve his friend in deception, to bind him more deeply in shared transgression.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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