1 Samuel 20:13

20:11-23 Jonathan faithfully promises that he would let David know how he found his father affected towards him. It will be kindness to ourselves and to ours, to secure an interest in those whom God favours, and to make his friends ours. True friendship rests on a firm basis, and is able to silence ambition, self-love, and undue regard for others. But who can fully understand the love of Jesus, who gave himself as a sacrifice for rebellious, polluted sinners! how great then ought to be the force and effects of our love to him, to his cause, and his people!

The Lord do so and much more to Jonathan,.... Recompense evil more than can be thought of and expressed, should he neglect to inform David of the good disposition of Saul unto him: but if it please my father to do thee evil; if he seems determined upon it to take away thy life: then I will show it thee; not by a messenger, by whom it would not be safe to communicate it, lest by that means Saul would know where he was, and come and slay him; but Jonathan would come himself, and acquaint him with it: and send thee away, that thou mayest go in peace; give him leave, and advise him to depart, and provide for his own safety, adding his blessing on him, and prayer for him: and the Lord be with thee, as he hath been with my father; in the beginning of his reign, giving him counsel and advice in all things, and victory over his enemies, succeeding and prospering him in whatsoever he engaged in; the Targum is,"the Word of the Lord be for thy help, &c.'' Jonathan seemed to be fully apprized that David was to succeed in the kingdom.

22 . unto the enemies of David ] In the usual oath-formula the swearer invokes divine vengeance upon himself ( 1 Samuel 20:13 ), or upon the person adjured ( 1 Samuel 3:17 ). And so the Sept. here; “So God do to David.” “The enemies of David” may possibly be an euphemism, introduced by a corrector who was unwilling to let David invoke vengeance upon himself for an oath which he afterwards broke. Comp. the note on 1 Samuel 20:16 . if I leave … any , &c.] David vows that he will exterminate the family and not leave a single man alive. Cp. Deuteronomy 20:13 . 1 Samuel 25:22

The new moon, or beginning of each month, was celebrated with especial sacrifices and blowing of trumpets (marginal references.) The feast was kept with great solemnity as "a day of gladness," and we may presume that the "peace offerings" offered on the occasion furnished the tables of those that offered.

The Lord give thee that honour and success in all thy affairs which he hath given to my father. Jonathan undoubtedly knew of Samuel’s final and irrevocable sentence of Saul’s rejection from the kingdom, and of the substitution of some other person after God’s own heart in his stead; and that David was this person he might strongly suspect, (that which even Saul suspected,) both from his eminent piety, and wisdom, and valour, and universal worth, and from the great things which God had done, both by him and for him, in preserving and advancing him by such unusual methods; and it is most likely that Jonathan did ask David about it, and that David did faithfully inform him of the whole truth, as may be gathered both from the words here following, and from 1 Samuel 23:17 . And that the knowledge hereof did not raise jealousy, and envy, and rage in him, who was the next heir of the crown, as it did in his father, must be ascribed to Jonathan’s piety towards God, to whose disposal he cheerfully submitted himself, and to his sincere friendship to David, in whose happiness he rejoiced as in his own.

1Sa 20:11-23. Their Covenant Renewed by Oath. 11. Jonathan said to David, Come, let us go into the field—The private dialogue, which is here detailed at full length, presents a most beautiful exhibition of these two amiable and noble-minded friends. Jonathan was led, in the circumstances, to be the chief speaker. The strength of his attachment, his pure disinterestedness, his warm piety, his invocation to God (consisting of a prayer and a solemn oath combined), the calm and full expression he gave of his conviction that his own family were, by the divine will, to be disinherited, and David elevated to the possession of the throne, the covenant entered into with David on behalf of his descendants, and the imprecation (1Sa 20:16) denounced on any of them who should violate his part of the conditions, the reiteration of this covenant on both sides (1Sa 20:17) to make it indissoluble—all this indicates such a power of mutual affection, such magnetic attractiveness in the character of David, such susceptibility and elevation of feeling in the heart of Jonathan, that this interview for dramatic interest and moral beauty stands unrivalled in the records of human friendship.

In the field, where they were both entirely free from observation, Jonathan first of all renewed his covenant with David, by vowing to him on oath that he would give him information of his father's feelings towards him ( 1 Samuel 20:12 , 1 Samuel 20:13 ); and then entreated him, with a certain presentiment that David would one day be king, even then to maintain his love towards him and his family for ever ( 1 Samuel 20:14-16 ); and lastly, he made David swear again concerning his love ( 1 Samuel 20:17 ), and then gave him the sign by which he would communicate the promised information ( 1 Samuel 20:18-23 ). 1 Samuel 20:12-15 1 Samuel 20:12 and 1 Samuel 20:13 are connected. Jonathan commences with a solemn invocation of God: "Jehovah, God of Israel!" and thus introduces his oath. We have neither to supply "Jehovah is witness," nor "as truly as Jehovah liveth," as some have suggested. "When I inquire of my father about this time to-morrow, the day after to-morrow (a concise mode of saying 'to-morrow or the day after'), and behold it is (stands) well for David, and then I do not send to thee and make it known to thee, Jehovah shall do so to Jonathan," etc. ("The Lord do so," etc., the ordinary formula used in an oath: see 1 Samuel 14:44).

The other case is then added without an adversative particle: "If it should please my father evil against thee (lit. as regards evil), "I will make it known to thee, and let thee go, that thou mayest go in peace; and Jehovah be with thee, as He has been with my father." In this wish there is expressed the presentiment that David would one day occupy that place in Israel which Saul occupied then, i.e., the throne. - In 1 Samuel 20:14 and 1 Samuel 20:15 the Masoretic text gives no appropriate meaning. Luther's rendering, in which he follows the Rabbins and takes the first ולא (1 Samuel 20:14) by itself, and then completes the sentence from the context ("but if I do it not, show me no mercy, because I live, not even if I die"), contains indeed a certain permissible sense when considered in itself; but it is hardly reconcilable with what follows, "and do not tear away thy compassion for ever from my house." The request that he would show no compassion to him (Jonathan) even if he died, and yet would not withdraw his compassion from his house for ever, contains an antithesis which would have been expressed most clearly and unambiguously in the words themselves, if this had been really what Jonathan intended to say.

CHAPTER 13 2Sa 13:1-5. Amnon Loves Tamar. 1. Tamar—daughter of David by Maachah (2Sa 3:3).Ammon loveth his sister Tamar; ravisheth her; then hateth and driveth her away, 2 Samuel 13:1-19. Absalom entertaineth and revengeth her with Amnon’s death, 2 Samuel 13:20-29. David is grieved: Absalom fleeth to Geshur, 2 Samuel 13:30-39. A fair sister; his sister by father and mother: see 2 Samuel 3:3.