seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
1 Samuel 20:1 Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?”
2 “Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!”
3 But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.”
4 Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.”
5 So David said, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. 6 If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.’ 7 If he says, ‘Very well,’ then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me. 8 As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?”
9 “Never!” Jonathan said. “If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you?”
10 David asked, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”
11 “Come,” Jonathan said, “let’s go out into the field.” So they went there together.
12 Then Jonathan said to David, “I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? 13 But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. 14 But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, 15 and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family—not even when the Lord has cut 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 call David’s enemies to account.” 17 And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.
18 Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon feast. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy and say, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,’ then come, because, as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe; there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then you must go, because the Lord has sent you away. 23 And about the matter you and I discussed—remember, the Lord is witness between you and me forever.”
And as they used to say at the end of the old Buck Rodgers TV show.... "Tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story"
Here's the link to the commentary I use.If there is iniquity in me: Again, David seems somewhat shaken by the fact that Jonathan did not tell him about the attempted arrest at Naioth. David is asking Jonathan, “Am I in the wrong here? Are you still behind me?” Essentially, David says “If you really are working for your father and agree with him that I deserve to die, then just kill me now.”
You shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever: Jonathan was aware of the political dynamic between the family of David and the family of Jonathan. In those days when one royal house replaced another it was common for the new royal house to kill all the potential rulers from the old royal house. Jonathan knew that one day David and his descendants would rule over Israel and he wanted a promise that David and his descendants will not kill or mistreat the descendants of Jonathan.
Nope I couldn't do it. I couldn't put the whole chapter in one day. This chapter is too long to be one day. This is the first part of the chapter.
Jonathan was sure Saul didn't mean to kill David. After all, in the last chapter Saul made an oath that David would not be put to death.
Jonathan believed his father. After all, the penalty for breaking an oath was death.
Jonathan would talk to his dad, and let David know how the conversation went.
Jonathan couldn't just go straight to David. That would be too dangerous, if Saul was really trying to kill David.
So... Jonathan and David came up with a plan.
David was to sit behind the target and let Jonathan fire off three arrows in his direction.
The deal was... if Saul was indeed trying to kill David, Jonathan was going to let him know.
If the arrows fell short of the target, David could go back to his music at the palace.
If the arrows went behind the target, and David, then David knew Saul was out to get him.
Jonathan would put this plan into action the next day.
Some family history:
Jonathan was from the tribe of Benjamin, Rachel's youngest baby. Benjamin was Joseph's [coat of many colors] baby brother.
David was from the tribe of Judah, Leah's fourth born son. Judah was part of the plot to kill Joseph, but wound up selling Joseph into slavery instead of putting him in a pit to die.
Rachel and Leah were sisters married to Jacob.
Jonathan and David were cousins!
Judah saved Joseph's life. Now Jonathan is going to return the favor... right?
The cousins formed an alliance.
