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1 Samuel

1 Samuelchapter 20

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David and Jonathan — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

A.What have I done? A covenant renewed out in the fieldvv. 1-11

1 Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my iniquity? How have I sinned against your father, that he wants to take my life?” 2 “Far from it!” Jonathan replied. “You will not die. Indeed, my father does nothing, great or small, without telling me. So why would he hide this matter from me? This cannot be true!” 3 But David again vowed, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or he will be grieved.’ As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.” 4 Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you desire, I will do for you.” 5 So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I am supposed to dine with the king. Instead, let me go and hide in the field until the third evening from now. 6 If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David urgently requested my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because there is an annual sacrifice for his whole clan.’ 7 If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he is enraged, you will know he has evil intentions. 8 Therefore deal faithfully with your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the LORD. If there is iniquity in me, then kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?” 9 “Never!” Jonathan replied. “If I ever found out that my father had evil intentions against you, would I not tell you?” 10 Then David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?” 11 “Come,” he replied, “let us go out to the field.” So the two of them went out into the field,

B.The sign of the arrows agreed onvv. 12-23

12 and Jonathan said, “By the LORD, the God of Israel, I will sound out my father by this time tomorrow or the next day. If he is favorable toward you, will I not send for you and tell you? 13 But if my father intends to bring evil on you, then may the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if I do not tell you and send you on your way in safety. May the LORD be with you, just as He has been with my father. 14 And as long as I live, treat me with the LORD’s loving devotion, that I may not die, 15 and do not ever cut off your loving devotion from my household—not even when the LORD cuts off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.” 16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD hold David’s enemies accountable.” 17 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his vow out of love for him, for Jonathan loved David as he loved himself. 18 Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed if your seat is empty. 19 When you have stayed three days, hurry down to the place you hid on the day this trouble began, and remain beside the stone Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as if I were aiming at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ Now, if I expressly say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them,’ then come, because as surely as the LORD lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, for the LORD has sent you away. 23 And as for the matter you and I have discussed, the LORD is a witness between you and me forever.”

C.An empty seat at the new moon feastvv. 24-34

24 So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon had come, the king sat down to eat. 25 He sat in his usual place by the wall, opposite Jonathan and beside Abner, but David’s place was empty. 26 Saul said nothing that day because he thought, “Something has happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.” 27 But on the day after the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today?” 28 Jonathan answered, “David urgently requested my permission to go to Bethlehem, 29 saying, ‘Please let me go, because our clan is holding a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has told me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me go and see my brothers.’ That is why he did not come to the king’s table.” 30 Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the disgrace of the mother who bore you? 31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingship shall be established. Now send for him and bring him to me, for he must surely die!” 32 “Why must he be put to death?” Jonathan replied. “What has he done?” 33 Then Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan to kill him; so Jonathan knew that his father was determined to kill David. 34 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger and did not eat any food that second day of the month, for he was grieved by his father’s shameful treatment of David.

D.The lad sent home; two friends part weepingvv. 35-42

35 In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for the appointment with David, and a small boy was with him. 36 He said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows I shoot.” And as the boy ran, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy reached the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called to him, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” 38 Then Jonathan cried out, “Hurry! Make haste! Do not delay!” So the boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. 39 But the boy did not know anything; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement. 40 Then Jonathan gave his equipment to the boy and said, “Go, take it back to the city.” 41 When the young man had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone, fell facedown, and bowed three times. Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and wept together—though David wept more. 42 And Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for the two of us have sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘May the LORD be a witness between you and me, and between your descendants and mine forever.’” Then David got up and departed, and Jonathan went back into the city.

Commentary on this chapter: read the Exposition
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Chapter summary

The friendship carries the plot.

Read the rest, the context and the outline ▾

The friendship carries the plot. David asks what he has done; Jonathan cannot believe his father hides such a thing from him. They set a test at the new moon feast and swear a covenant that outlives them both (cut not off thy kindness from my house for ever), with arrows in the field as the signal. Saul's rage at the empty seat exposes everything: as long as the son of Jesse liveth, thy kingdom shall not be established. He casts the spear at his own heir. The friends kiss and weep, David the most, parting on the words: Jehovah be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed, for ever.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary and John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament.

Context

History · Samuel, Nathan, Gad — 1 Samuel overview

  • A. 1–11 What have I done? A covenant renewed out in the field
  • B. 12–23 The sign of the arrows agreed on
  • C. 24–34 An empty seat at the new moon feast
  • D. 35–42 The lad sent home; two friends part weeping
Top cross-references8 chapters ▾
  • 1 Samuel 2013 verses
    • 1 Samuel 20:5So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I am supposed to dine with the king. Instead, let me go and hide in the field until the third evening from now.
    • 1 Samuel 20:6If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David urgently requested my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because there is an annual sacrifice for his whole clan.’
    • 1 Samuel 20:7If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he is enraged, you will know he has evil intentions.
    • 1 Samuel 20:8Therefore deal faithfully with your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the LORD. If there is iniquity in me, then kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”
    • 1 Samuel 20:14And as long as I live, treat me with the LORD’s loving devotion, that I may not die,
    • 1 Samuel 20:18Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed if your seat is empty.
    • Read 1 Samuel 20: 7 more there →
  • 1 Samuel 196 verses
    • 1 Samuel 19:2so he warned David, saying, “My father Saul intends to kill you. Be on your guard in the morning; find a secret place and hide there.
    • 1 Samuel 19:5He took his life in his hands when he struck down the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, so why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?”
    • 1 Samuel 19:6Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan and swore an oath: “As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death.”
    • 1 Samuel 19:9But as Saul was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, a spirit of distress from the LORD came upon him. While David was playing the harp,
    • 1 Samuel 19:10Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear. But the spear struck the wall and David eluded him, ran away, and escaped that night.
    • 1 Samuel 19:15But Saul sent the messengers back to see David and told them, “Bring him up to me in his bed so I can kill him.”
    • Read 1 Samuel 19 →
  • 1 Samuel 183 verses
    • 1 Samuel 18:1After David had finished speaking with Saul, the souls of Jonathan and David were knit together, and Jonathan loved him as himself.
    • 1 Samuel 18:3Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.
    • 1 Samuel 18:11and he hurled it, thinking, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice.
    • Read 1 Samuel 18 →
  • 1 Samuel 173 verses
    • 1 Samuel 17:28Now when David’s oldest brother Eliab heard him speaking to the men, his anger burned against David. “Why have you come down here?” he asked. “And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and wickedness of heart—you have come down to see the battle!”
    • 1 Samuel 17:37David added, “The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” “Go,” said Saul, “and may the LORD be with you.”
    • 1 Samuel 17:58“Whose son are you, young man?” asked Saul. “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem,” David replied.
    • Read 1 Samuel 17 →
4 more chapters this one speaks with
  • 2 Samuel 93 verses
    • 2 Samuel 9:1Then David asked, “Is there anyone left from the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for the sake of Jonathan?”
    • 2 Samuel 9:3So the king asked, “Is there anyone left of Saul’s family to whom I can show the kindness of God?” Ziba answered, “There is still Jonathan’s son, who is lame in both feet.”
    • 2 Samuel 9:6And when Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he fell facedown in reverence. Then David said, “Mephibosheth!” “I am your servant,” he replied.
    • Read 2 Samuel 9 →
  • 1 Samuel 92 verses
    • 1 Samuel 9:12“Yes, he is ahead of you,” they answered. “Hurry now, for today he has come to the city because the people have a sacrifice on the high place.
    • 1 Samuel 9:15Now on the day before Saul’s arrival, the LORD had revealed to Samuel,
    • Read 1 Samuel 9 →
  • 1 Samuel 252 verses
    • 1 Samuel 25:17Now consider carefully what you must do, because disaster looms over our master and all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that nobody can speak to him!”
    • 1 Samuel 25:22May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one of Nabal’s men survive until morning.”
    • Read 1 Samuel 25 →
  • Proverbs 182 verses

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.