1 Samuel 14:6

14:6 Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “Come on, let’s go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised men. Perhaps the Lord will intervene ¹  for us. Nothing can prevent the Lord from delivering, whether by many or by a few.”

1 Samuel 19:4

19:4 So Jonathan spoke on David’s behalf ²  to his father Saul. He said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David, for he has not sinned against you. On the contrary, his actions have been very beneficial ³  for you.

1 Samuel 20:1

Jonathan Seeks to Protect David

20:1 David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and asked, ⁴  “What have I done? What is my offense? ⁵  How have I sinned before your father? For he is seeking my life!”

1 Samuel 20:3

20:3 Taking an oath, David again ⁶  said, “Your father is very much aware of the fact ⁷  that I have found favor with you, and he has thought, ⁸  ‘Don’t let Jonathan know about this, or he will be upset.’ But as surely as the Lord lives and you live, there is about one step between me and death!”

1 Samuel 20:5

20:5 David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I am certainly expected to join the king for a meal. ⁹  You must send me away so I can hide in the field until the third evening from now.

1 Samuel 20:9

20:9 Jonathan said, “Far be it from you to suggest this! If I were at all aware that my father had decided to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you about it?”

1 Samuel 20:12-13

20:12 Jonathan said to David, “The Lord God of Israel is my witness. ¹⁰  I will feel out my father about this time the day after tomorrow. If he is favorably inclined toward David, will I not then send word to you and let you know? ¹¹  20:13 But if my father intends to do you harm, may the Lord do all this and more to Jonathan, if I don’t let you know ¹²  and send word to you so you can go safely on your way. ¹³  May the Lord be with you, as he was with my father.

1 Samuel 20:27

20:27 But the next morning, the second day of the new moon, David’s place was still vacant. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has Jesse’s son not come to the meal yesterday or today?”

1 Samuel 20:30

20:30 Saul became angry with Jonathan ¹⁴  and said to him, “You stupid traitor! ¹⁵  Don’t I realize that to your own disgrace and to the disgrace of your mother’s nakedness you have chosen this son of Jesse?

1 Samuel 20:34

20:34 Jonathan got up from the table enraged. He did not eat any food on that second day of the new moon, for he was upset that his father had humiliated David. ¹⁶ 

[14:6]  ¹ tn Heb “act.”

[19:4]  ² tn Heb “spoke good with respect to David.”

[19:4]  ³ tn Heb “good.”

[20:1]  ³ tn Heb “and he came and said before Jonathan.”

[20:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “What is my guilt?”

[20:3]  ⁴ tc The LXX and the Syriac Peshitta lack the word “again.”

[20:3]  ⁵ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

[20:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “said,” that is, to himself. So also in v. 25.

[20:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “and I must surely sit with the king to eat.” The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

[20:12]  ⁶ tc The Hebrew text has simply “the Lord God of Israel.” On the basis of the Syriac version, many reconstruct the text to read “[is] my witness,” which may have fallen out of the text by homoioarcton (an error which is entirely possible if עֵד, ’ed, “witness,” immediately followed ַָדוִד, “David,” in the original text).

[20:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “and uncover your ear.”

[20:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “uncover your ear.”

[20:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “in peace.”

[20:30]  ⁸ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss include the words “his son” here.

[20:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “son of a perverse woman of rebelliousness.” But such an overly literal and domesticated translation of the Hebrew expression fails to capture the force of Saul’s unrestrained reaction. Saul, now incensed and enraged over Jonathan’s liaison with David, is actually hurling very coarse and emotionally charged words at his son. The translation of this phrase suggested by Koehler and Baumgartner is “bastard of a wayward woman” (HALOT 796 s.v. עוה), but this is not an expression commonly used in English. A better English approximation of the sentiments expressed here by the Hebrew phrase would be “You stupid son of a bitch!” However, sensitivity to the various public formats in which the Bible is read aloud has led to a less startling English rendering which focuses on the semantic value of Saul’s utterance (i.e., the behavior of his own son Jonathan, which he viewed as both a personal and a political betrayal [= “traitor”]). But this concession should not obscure the fact that Saul is full of bitterness and frustration. That he would address his son Jonathan with such language, not to mention his apparent readiness even to kill his own son over this friendship with David (v. 33), indicates something of the extreme depth of Saul’s jealousy and hatred of David.

[20:34]  ⁹ tn Heb “for he was upset concerning David for his father had humiliated him.” The referent of the pronoun “him” is not entirely clear, but the phrase “concerning David” suggests that it refers to David, rather than Jonathan.