Jonathan, be loyal to me, your servant. You have made an agreement with me before the Lord. If I am guilty, you may kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?”
When Israel knew he soon would die, he called his son Joseph to him and said to him, “If you love me, put your hand under my leg. Promise me you will not bury me in Egypt.
Absalom said to Joab, “I sent a message to you, asking you to come here. I wanted to send you to the king to ask him why he brought me home from Geshur. It would have been better for me to stay there! Now let me see the king. If I have sinned, he can put me to death!”
David went out to meet them and said to them, “If you have come peacefully to help me, I welcome you. Join me. But if you have come to turn me over to my enemies, even though I have done nothing wrong, the God of our ancestors will see this and punish you.”
If I have done something wrong and the law says I must die, I do not ask to be saved from death. But if these charges are not true, then no one can give me to them. I want Caesar to hear my case!”
The men agreed and said, “It will be our lives for your lives if you don’t tell anyone what we are doing. When the Lord gives us the land, we will be kind and true to you.”
But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back home, each of you to your own mother’s house. May the Lord be as kind to you as you have been to me and my sons who are now dead.