Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Samuel 20:1 - 20:1

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Samuel 20:1 - 20:1


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

After the occurrence which had taken place at Naioth, David fled thence and met with Jonathan, to whom he poured out his heart.

(Note: According to Ewald and Thenius, this chapter was not written by the author of the previous one, but was borrowed from an earlier source, and 1Sa 20:1 was inserted by the compiler to connect the two together. But the principal reason for this conjecture - namely, that David could never have thought of sitting at the royal table again after what had taken place, and that Saul would still less have expected him to come - is overthrown by the simple suggestion, that all that Saul had hitherto attempted against David, according to 1Sa 19:8., had been done in fits of insanity (cf. 1Sa 19:9.), which had passed away again; so that it formed no criterion by which to judge of Saul's actual feelings towards David when he was in a state of mental sanity.)

Though he had been delivered for the moment from the death which threatened him, through the marvellous influence of the divine inspiration of the prophets upon Saul and his messengers, he could not find in this any lasting protection from the plots of his mortal enemy. He therefore sought for his friend Jonathan, and complained to him, “What have I done? what is my crime, my sin before thy father, that he seeks my life?”

1Sa 20:2

Jonathan endeavoured to pacify him: “Far be it! thou shalt not die: behold, my father does nothing great or small (i.e., not the smallest thing; cf. 1Sa 25:36 and Num 22:18) that he does not reveal to me; why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so.” The לֹו after הִנֵּה stands for לֹא: the Chethibh עָשָׂה is probably to be preferred to the Keri יַעֲשֶׂה, and to be understood in this sense: “My father has (hitherto) done nothing at all, which he has not told to me.” This answer of Jonathan does not presuppose that he knew nothing of the occurrences described in 1 Samuel 19:9-24, although it is possible enough that he might not have been with his father just at that time; but it is easily explained from the fact that Saul had made the fresh attack upon David's life in a state of madness, in which he was no longer master of himself; so that it could not be inferred with certainty from this that he would still plot against David's life in a state of clear consciousness. Hitherto Saul had no doubt talked over all his plans and undertakings with Jonathan, but he had not uttered a single word to him about his deadly hatred, or his intention of killing David; so that Jonathan might really have regarded his previous attacks upon David's life as nothing more than symptoms of temporary aberration of mind.

1Sa 20:3

But David had looked deeper into Saul's heart. He replied with an oath (“he sware again,” i.e., a second time), “Thy father knoweth that I have found favour in thine eyes (i.e., that thou art attached to me); and thinketh Jonathan shall not know this, lest he be grieved. But truly, as surely as Jehovah liveth, and thy soul liveth, there is hardly a step (lit. about a step) between me and death.” כִּי introduces the substance of the oath, as in 1Sa 14:44, etc.

1Sa 20:4-5

When Jonathan answered, “What thy soul saith, will I do to thee,” i.e., fulfil every wish, David made this request, “Behold, to-morrow is new moon, and I ought to sit and eat with the king: let me go, that I may conceal myself in the field (i.e., in the open air) till the third evening.” This request implies that Saul gave a feast at the new moon, and therefore that the new moon was not merely a religious festival, according to the law in Num 10:10; Num 28:11-15, but that it was kept as a civil festival also, and in the latter character for two days; as we may infer both from the fact that David reckoned to the third evening, i.e., the evening of the third day from the day then present, and therefore proposed to hide himself on the new moon's day and the day following, and also still more clearly from 1Sa 20:12, 1Sa 20:27, and 1Sa 20:34, where Saul is said to have expected David at table on the day after the new moon. We cannot, indeed, conclude from this that there was a religious festival of two days' duration; nor does it follow, that because Saul supposed that David might have absented himself on the first day on account of Levitical uncleanness (1Sa 20:26), therefore the royal feast was a sacrificial meal. It was evidently contrary to social propriety to take part in a public feast in a state of Levitical uncleanness, even though it is not expressly forbidden in the law.

1Sa 20:6

“If thy father should miss me, then say, David hath asked permission of me to hasten to Bethlehem, his native town; for there is a yearly sacrifice for the whole family there.” This ground of excuse shows that families and households were accustomed to keep united sacrificial feasts once a year. According to the law in Deu 12:5., they ought to have been kept at the tabernacle; but at this time, when the central sanctuary had fallen into disuse, they were held in different places, wherever there were altars of Jehovah - as, for example, at Bethlehem (cf. 1Sa 16:2.). We see from these words that David did not look upon prevarication as a sin.

1Sa 20:7

“If thy father says, It is well, there is peace to thy servant (i.e., he cherishes no murderous thoughts against me); but if he be very wroth, know that evil is determined by him.” כָּלָה, to be completed; hence to be firmly and unalterably determined (cf. 1Sa 25:17; Est 7:7). Seb. Schmidt infers from the closing words that the fact was certain enough to David, but not to Jonathan. Thenius, on the other hand, observes much more correctly, that “it is perfectly obvious from this that David was not quite clear as to Saul's intentions,” though he upsets his own previous assertion, that after what David had gone through, he could never think of sitting again at the king's table as he had done before.

1Sa 20:8

David made sure that Jonathan would grant this request on account of his friendship, as he had brought him into a covenant of Jehovah with himself. David calls the covenant of friendship with Jonathan (1Sa 18:3) a covenant of Jehovah, because he had made it with a solemn invocation of Jehovah. But in order to make quite sure of the fulfilment of his request on the part of Jonathan, David added, “But if there is a fault in me, do thou kill me (אַתָּה used to strengthen the suffix); for why wilt thou bring me to thy father?” sc., that he may put me to death.

1Sa 20:9

Jonathan replied, “This be far from thee!” sc., that I should kill thee, or deliver thee up to my father. חָלִילָה points back to what precedes, as in 1Sa 20:2. “But (כִּי after a previous negative assertion) if I certainly discover that evil is determined by my father to come upon thee, and I do not tell it thee,” sc., “may God do so to me,” etc. The words are to be understood as an asseveration on oath, in which the formula of an oath is to be supplied in thought. This view is apparently a more correct one, on account of the cop. ו before לֹא, than to take the last clause as a question, “Shall I not tell it thee?”

1Sa 20:10

To this friendly assurance David replied, “Who will tell me?” sc., how thy father expresses himself concerning me; “or what will thy father answer thee roughly?” sc., if thou shouldst attempt to do it thyself. This is the correct explanation given by De Wette and Maurer. Gesenius and Thenius, on the contrary, take אֹו in the sense of “if perchance.” But this is evidently incorrect; for even though there are certain passages in which אֹו may be so rendered, it is only where some other case is supposed, and therefore the meaning or still lies at the foundation. These questions of David were suggested by a correct estimate of the circumstances, namely, that Saul's suspicions would leave him to the conclusion that there was some understanding between Jonathan and David, and that he would take steps in consequence to prevent Jonathan from making David acquainted with the result of his conversation with Saul.

1Sa 20:11

Before replying to these questions, Jonathan asked David to go with him to the field, that they might there fix upon the sign by which he would let him know, in a way in which no one could suspect, what was the state of his father's mind.