1 Samuel 20:24-26

New Catholic Bible

²⁴ David’s Absence. So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon celebration began and the king sat down to eat, ²⁵ the king sat in his usual place by the wall. Jonathan sat facing him, and Abner was sitting by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. ²⁶ Saul did not say anything that day, because he thought, “Something must have happened to him so that he is impure, surely he is unclean.”^[a]