1 Samuel 20:31-42

20:31 For as long as ¹  this son of Jesse is alive on the earth, you and your kingdom will not be established. Now, send some men ²  and bring him to me. For he is as good as dead!” ³ 

20:32 Jonathan responded to his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” 20:33 Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan ⁴  in order to strike him down. So Jonathan was convinced ⁵  that his father had decided to kill David. 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. ⁶ 

20:35 The next morning Jonathan, along with a young servant, went out to the field to meet David. 20:36 He said to his servant, “Run, find the arrows that I am about to shoot.” As the servant ran, Jonathan ⁷  shot the arrow beyond him. 20:37 When the servant came to the place where Jonathan had shot the arrow, Jonathan called out to ⁸  the servant, “Isn’t the arrow further beyond you?” 20:38 Jonathan called out to the servant, “Hurry! Go faster! Don’t delay!” Jonathan’s servant retrieved the arrow and came back to his master. 20:39 (Now the servant did not understand any of this. Only Jonathan and David knew what was going on.) ⁹  20:40 Then Jonathan gave his equipment to the servant who was with him. He said to him, “Go, take these things back to the city.”

20:41 When the servant had left, David got up from beside the mound, ¹⁰  knelt ¹¹  with his face to the ground, and bowed three times. Then they kissed each other and they both wept, especially David. 20:42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for the two of us have sworn together in the name of the Lord saying, ‘The Lord will be between me and you and between my descendants and your descendants forever.’”

David Goes to Nob

(21:1)

¹² Then David ¹³  got up and left, while Jonathan went back to the city.

[20:31]  ¹ tn Heb “all the days that.”

[20:31]  ² tn The words “some men” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[20:31]  ³ tn Heb “a son of death.”

[20:33]  ⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jonathan) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:33]  ⁵ tn Heb “knew.”

[20:34]  ⁶ 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.

[20:36]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jonathan) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:37]  ⁸ tn Heb “called after” (also in v. 38).

[20:39]  ⁹ tn Heb “knew the matter.”

[20:41]  ¹⁰ tc The translation follows the LXX in reading “the mound,” rather than the MT’s “the south.” It is hard to see what meaning the MT reading “from beside the south” would have as it stands, since such a location lacks specificity. The NIV treats it as an elliptical expression, rendering the phrase as “from the south side of the stone (rock NCV).” This is perhaps possible, but it seems better to follow the LXX rather than the MT here.

[20:41]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fell.”

[20:42]  ¹² sn Beginning with 20:42b, the verse numbers through 21:15 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 20:42b ET = 21:1 HT, 21:1 ET = 21:2 HT, 21:2 ET = 21:3 HT, etc., through 21:15 ET = 21:16 HT. With 22:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[20:42]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.