Chapter Overview
Summary
1 Samuel 20 is the Jonathan-and-David covenant-deepening: David's testing of Saul's intentions via the New Moon feast, Jonathan's arrow-code signal, Saul's murderous outburst against Jonathan, and the tearful farewell between the two friends. The chapter contains one of the Bible's most emotionally-intense male-friendship scenes (vv. 41–42). Jonathan's covenant — extending not only between himself and David but also between their descendants — becomes the structural-theological basis for David's later kindness to Mephibosheth (2 Sam 9).
Notable Variants
The 'covenant of the LORD' at 20:8 whose terms govern the rest of the narrative; Saul's insult 'son of a twisted, rebellious woman' at 20:30 as the Hebrew Bible's harshest father-son insult; the Jonathan-David farewell-kiss-and-weeping at 20:41.
Structural Notes
LXX 1 Samuel 20 has 42 verses matching MT.
David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came to Jonathan. He said, "What have I done? What is my guilt? What is my offense against your father, that he is hunting my life?"
David's flight to Jonathan tracks MT.
Jonathan said to him, "Never! You will not die. My father does nothing — whether large or small — without uncovering it to my ear. Why would my father hide this from me? It is not true."
Jonathan's reassurance tracks MT. Jonathan's denial — 'my father does nothing without telling me' — will be proven tragically wrong.
David swore again and said, "Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, so he has said to himself, 'Jonathan must not know about this, or he will be devastated.' But as the LORD lives, and as your own life endures — there is barely a step between me and death."
David's realistic assessment tracks MT.
Jonathan said to David, "Whatever you want — I will do it for you."
Jonathan's commitment tracks MT.
David said to Jonathan, "Tomorrow is the New Moon, and I am expected to sit with the king to eat. But let me go, and I will hide in the open country until the evening of the third day.
The New Moon feast-testing plan tracks MT. The New Moon (Rosh Chodesh) was a major celebration with obligatory royal-court attendance.
If your father misses me at all, say: 'David urgently asked my permission to run to Bethlehem, his hometown, because the whole clan has a yearly sacrifice there.'
The Bethlehem-sacrifice cover-story tracks MT.
If he says, 'Good' — then your servant is safe. But if he flares with anger, know that he has fully decided on harm."
The test-of-Saul's-reaction plan tracks MT.
Show faithful love to your servant, because you brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself — why would you hand me over to your father?"
Masoretic (WLC)
וְעָשִׂיתָ חֶסֶד עַל־עַבְדֶּךָ כִּי בִּבְרִית יְהוָה הֵבֵאתָ אֶת־עַבְדְּךָ עִמָּךְ
Show faithful love to your servant, because you brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you
Septuagint (LXX)
καὶ ποιήσεις ἔλεος μετὰ τοῦ δούλου σου ὅτι εἰσήγαγες εἰς διαθήκην κυρίου τὸν δοῦλόν σου μετὰ σεαυτοῦ
Show mercy to your servant, because you brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you
'Covenant of the LORD' (diathēkē kyriou) — the Jonathan-David friendship is framed as a covenant with divine witness, not merely a personal agreement. This is the Hebrew Bible's clearest affirmation of covenant-level human friendship.
Hesed / eleos — 'faithful love, covenant-loyalty' — is the Hebrew Bible's central relational-covenant term. David's plea to Jonathan for hesed is the plea for loyalty-that-endures-regardless.
The 'covenant of the LORD' extends beyond the two friends to their descendants (vv. 14–16, 42) — prefiguring 2 Samuel 9 where David restores Jonathan's crippled son Mephibosheth.
Jonathan said, "Never! If I learn for certain that my father has decided to bring harm against you, would I not tell you?"
Jonathan's commitment to warn tracks MT.
David said to Jonathan, "Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?"
David's question about communication tracks MT.
Jonathan said to David, "Come, let us go out to the open country." And the two of them went out to the open country.
Moving to the field tracks MT.
Jonathan said to David, "By the LORD, the God of Israel — when I have sounded out my father by this time tomorrow or the day after, if things look favorable for David and I do not send word to you and uncover it to your ear —
Jonathan's LORD-the-God-of-Israel oath tracks MT.
— then may the LORD do thus to Jonathan and even more! But if my father intends harm against you, I will uncover it to your ear and send you away so you can go in safety. May the LORD be with you as he was with my father."
The 'may the LORD be with you as he was with my father' benediction tracks MT. Jonathan explicitly recognizes that the Lord's presence has transferred from Saul to David — a recognition of the 16:13–14 Spirit-transfer.
"And if I am still alive — will you not show me the faithful love of the LORD, so that I do not die?
'Show me the faithful love of the LORD' tracks MT. Jonathan secures posterity-protection.
And do not ever cut off your faithful love from my household — not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth."
'Never cut off faithful love from my household' tracks MT. The promise is perpetual: David's kindness must extend to Jonathan's descendants (fulfilled 2 Sam 9, Mephibosheth).
So Jonathan cut a covenant with the house of David: "May the LORD call it to account from the hand of David's enemies."
The covenant with 'the house of David' tracks MT — formalizing the perpetual dynasty-friendship.
Jonathan again made David swear by his love for him, because he loved him as he loved his own life.
The love-oath repetition tracks MT.
Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty.
New Moon-feast explanation tracks MT.
On the third day go down quickly and come to the place where you hid on the day of the incident, and wait beside the stone Ezel.
Meeting place — the stone Ezel — tracks MT.
I will shoot three arrows to the side, as if aiming at a target.
Three-arrows-to-the-side target-practice tracks MT.
Then I will send a boy, saying, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I say clearly to the boy, 'The arrows are on this side of you — pick them up,' then come out, because it is safe for you and there is nothing wrong, as the LORD lives.
Arrow-code: 'arrows on this side' = safe tracks MT.
But if I say to the young man, 'The arrows are beyond you' — then go, because the LORD has sent you away.
Arrow-code: 'arrows beyond you' = flee tracks MT.
As for the matter we have spoken of, you and I — the LORD stands between me and you forever."
'The LORD stands between me and you forever' tracks MT — the final covenantal seal.
David hid in the open country. When the New Moon came, the king sat down at the meal to eat.
David's hiding and the king's sitting at the meal track MT.
The king sat in his seat as usual — the seat by the wall. Jonathan stood, and Abner sat at Saul's side. But David's place was empty.
The empty David-place at the table tracks MT.
Saul said nothing that day, because he thought, "Something must have happened to him — he is not ritually pure. He must be unclean."
Saul's assumption of ritual-uncleanness tracks MT. Day-one silence is charitable — Saul finds a plausible reason.
On the second day after the New Moon, David's place was still empty. Saul said to Jonathan his son, "Why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today?"
Day-two absence — the crisis — tracks MT.
Jonathan answered Saul, "David urgently asked my permission to go to Bethlehem.
Jonathan's cover-story tracks MT.
He said, 'Let me go, please, because our clan has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has ordered me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me slip away and see my brothers.' That is why he has not come to the king's table."
Continued cover-story tracks MT.
Saul's anger blazed against Jonathan. He said to him, "You son of a twisted, 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?
Masoretic (WLC)
בֶּן־נַעֲוַת הַמַּרְדּוּת
You son of a twisted, rebellious woman!
Septuagint (LXX)
υἱὲ κορασίων αὐτομολούντων
Son of rebellious girls!
One of the Hebrew Bible's most famous insults. MT literally 'son of the perverted rebellion' — likely a euphemism or calque for a stronger expression. The LXX paraphrases as 'son of deserting girls' — softening the Hebrew force.
Saul's insult attacks Jonathan's mother (rather than Jonathan himself) — the public-shame dimension was maximum in a tribal-honor culture. The verbal-violence signals Saul's complete breakdown of family and royal boundaries.
For as long as the son of Jesse is alive on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send for him and bring him to me, because he is a dead man."
'Neither you nor your kingdom will be established' tracks MT. Saul articulates clearly the dynastic stakes: David alive = Jonathan's heir-ship lost.
Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?"
Jonathan's defense of David tracks MT.
Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him down. Then Jonathan knew that his father was fully determined to kill David.
Saul's spear-throw at his own son tracks MT. The third spear-throw of the narrative (two at David previously). Saul's willingness to kill his own son confirms his complete fall.
Jonathan rose from the table burning with anger. He did not eat any food on that second day of the New Moon, because he was grieved for David and because his father had humiliated him.
Jonathan's fast tracks MT. The shame — 'his father had disgraced him' — is the honor-culture reversal.
In the morning, Jonathan went out to the open country at the time appointed with David, and a small boy was with him.
Morning-field appointment tracks MT.
He said to his boy, "Run — find the arrows I am about to shoot." The boy ran, and Jonathan shot an arrow past him.
Arrow-shot tracks MT.
When the boy reached the place where Jonathan's arrow had landed, Jonathan called out after the boy, "Isn't the arrow beyond you — farther out?"
The code-signal 'beyond you' — the flee-message — tracks MT.
Jonathan called after the boy, "Hurry! Be quick! Do not stop!" Jonathan's boy gathered the arrows and came back to his master.
Continued urgency tracks MT.
The boy knew nothing at all. Only Jonathan and David knew what was happening.
The boy's ignorance tracks MT.
Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy who served him and said, "Go, take these back to the city."
Jonathan's sending the boy back tracks MT.
As soon as the boy was gone, David rose from beside the south side and fell on his face to the ground. He bowed three times. Then they kissed each other and wept together, until David wept uncontrollably.
David's rising and triple bow; mutual kiss and weeping track MT. One of the Hebrew Bible's most emotionally-intimate male-friendship scenes. David 'wept the more' — the narrative aside emphasizing David's grief.
Jonathan said to David, "Go in safety. What the two of us have sworn in the name of the LORD stands firm: 'The LORD will be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants, forever.'" Then David got up and left, and Jonathan went back into the city.
Final oath — 'the LORD will be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever' tracks MT. The covenantal-perpetuity foreshadows 2 Samuel 9 and the Mephibosheth-rescue narrative.