David and Jonathan, a wonderful friendship
20
📚And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said to Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my wickedness, and what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?” 20:1 The event recorded in 1 Sam 19:24 gave David the opportunity to escape to his friend.⚜
2 📚And he said to him, “God forbid! You will not die. Look, my father will do nothing either great or small without telling me, and why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so”.
20:2 Jonathan’s loyalty to his father made him try to think the best of him. In spite of what Saul had said to him (1 Sam 19:1), he could not believe that his father could have such evil intentions against David.⚜
3 📚And David again solemnly swore, saying, “Your father certainly knows that I have found favour in your eyes, and he says, ‘Don’t let Jonathan know this, or he will be grieved.’ But as surely as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death”.
4 Then said Jonathan to David, “I will do for you whatever your soul desires”.
5 📚And David said to Jonathan, “Look, tomorrow is the new moon 📖, and I should not fail to sit down to eat with the king. But let me go, so I can hide myself in the field until evening of the third day. 6 📚If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave from me so he could run to his city Bethlehem, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’
20:6 Apparently once a year families came together to observe a new moon festival.⚜
7 📚If he speaks like this, ‘It is well’, your servant will be safe. But if he becomes very angry, then be sure that he is set on evil. 8 📚Therefore you shall deal kindly with your servant. For you have brought your servant into a covenant 📖 of the LORD with you. However, if there is any iniquity in me, kill me yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?”
9 📚And Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! For if I knew for a fact that my father was set on bringing evil on you, then would I not tell you about it?”
10 📚Then said David to Jonathan, “Who well tell me? Or what if your father answers you roughly?”
11 And Jonathan said to David, “Come, and let us go out into the field”. And both of them went out into the field.
12 📚And Jonathan said to David, “The LORD God of Israel be witness! When I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or on the third day, and see that the situation is good for David, then if I do not send word to you, and tell it to you, 13 📚the LORD do harm and much more to Jonathan. But if it pleases my father to do you harm, then I will tell you about it and send you away, so that you may go in peace. And may the LORD be with you, as he has been with my father. 14 📚And you shall not only show me the kindness of the LORD while I am still alive, so that I do not die, 15 📚but also you shall never cut off your kindness from my household; no, not when the LORD has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth”.
20:13-15 Jonathan recognized that one day David would be king. See 1 Sam 23:16-17. It was not uncommon in ancient times for kings come newly to the throne to kill all who could be rivals (1 Kings 15:29; 1 Kings 16:11; 2 Kings 10:7; 2 Kings 11:1).⚜
16 📚So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD demand an account at the hand of David’s enemies”.
20:16 If the first covenant was one of friendship (v 42), this was one of allegiance to the future king.⚜
17 📚And Jonathan had David take an oath again, because he loved him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
18 📚Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 📚And when you have stayed here three days, then you must go down quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself on the day of the incident, and remain by the stone Ezel. 20 And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark. 21 📚And, look, I will send a lad, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I plainly say to the lad, ‘See, the arrows are on this side of you; pick them up’, then you come; for there is peace for you, and no harm, as sure as the LORD lives. 22 📚But if I say this to the young man: ‘See, the arrows are beyond you’, go your way, for the LORD is sending you away. 23 📚And as for the matter which you and I have spoken about 📖, look, the LORD is witness between you and me forever”.
24 📚So David hid himself in the field. And when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. 25 📚And the king sat on his chair, as at other times, the chair by the wall. And Jonathan got up, and Abner sat down at Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. 26 📚Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean, surely he is not clean 📖”. 27 📚And it happened on the next day, which was the second day of the month, that David’s place was empty. And Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has not the son of Jesse come to eat, either yesterday or today?”
28 📚And Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave from me to go to Bethlehem. 29 📚And he said, ‘Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has ordered me to be there. And now, if I have found favour in your eyes, please let me go and see my brothers.’ Therefore he has not come to the king’s table”.
30 📚Then Saul’s anger 📖 burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of the perverse rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 31 📚For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Therefore now send and bring him to me; for he shall surely die”.
32 📚And Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, “Why should he be killed? What has he done?”
20:32 Envy and hatred do not need good reasons to kill. Compare Matt 27:22-23.⚜
33 📚And Saul hurled a javelin at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to kill David.
34 📚So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food on the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, because his father had dishonoured him.
35 📚And it came about in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a small lad was with him. 36 📚And he said to his lad, “Run, find now the arrows which I am about to shoot”. And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
20:36 Verses 20-22.⚜
37 📚And when the lad went to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried out after the lad and said, “Is not the arrow beyond you?” 38 📚And Jonathan cried out after the lad, “Hurry! Be quick! Don’t stop!” And Jonathan’s lad gathered up the arrows and came to his master. 39 But the lad did not know anything; only Jonathan and David knew the matter. 40 And Jonathan gave his weapons to his lad, and said to him, “Go, carry them to the city”.
41 📚As soon as the lad had gone, David arose from the south side of the place, and prostrated himself to the ground and bowed 📖 down three times. And they kissed one another and wept together, but David’s grief was greater.
42 📚And Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for both of us have sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD is a witness between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring forever.’ ” And he arose and departed 📖; and Jonathan went into the city.