1 Samuel 20:21
“Behold, I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ If I tell the boy, ‘Behold, the arrows are on this side of you. Take them;’ then come; for there is peace to you and no danger, as Yahweh lives.”
What does 1 Samuel 20:21 mean?
David and Jonathan have made a secret agreement: Jonathan will find out whether King Saul intends to kill David, and then signal the answer using a seemingly innocent archery practice. If the arrows are close by, it means things are safe and David can stay; if Jonathan has to tell the boy to search far away, it's David's signal to flee for his life. This verse shows Jonathan explaining his part of the plan, speaking it aloud almost like a prayer ("as Yahweh lives"), which suggests how seriously both men took this dangerous moment. What's touching here is that Jonathan is risking his own safety to protect his best friend, using nothing but a coded message about arrow locations to communicate across the distance that will soon separate them.