1Sa 20:12-17 | KD | STEP | and 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 ). 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 and the Masoretic text gives no appropriate meaning. Luther’s rendering, in which he follows the Rabbins and takes the first ולא ( ) 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. De Wette’s rendering gives a still more striking contradiction: “ But let not (Jehovah be with thee) if I still live, and thou showest not the love of Jehovah to me, that I do not, and thou withdrawest not thy love from my house for ever .” There is really no other course open than to follow the Syriac and Arabic, as Maurer, Thenius, and Ewald have done, and change the ולא in the first two clauses in into ולוּ or ולא, according to the analogy of the form לוּא ( ), and to render the passage thus: “And mayest thou, if I still live, mayest thou show to me the favour of the Lord, and not if I do, not withdraw thy favour from my house for ever, not even (ולא) when Jehovah shall cut off the enemies of David, every one from the face of the earth!” “ The favour of Jehovah ” is favour such as Jehovah shall cut off,” etc., shows very clearly Jonathan’s conviction that Jehovah would give to David a victory over all his enemies.

‏ 1 Samuel 20:12-17

1Sa 20:12-15 1Sa 20:12 and 1Sa 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 1Sa 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 1Sa 20:14 and 1Sa 20:15 the Masoretic text gives no appropriate meaning. Luther’s rendering, in which he follows the Rabbins and takes the first ולא (1Sa 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. De Wette’s rendering gives a still more striking contradiction: “But let not (Jehovah be with thee) if I still live, and thou showest not the love of Jehovah to me, that I do not, and thou withdrawest not thy love from my house for ever.” There is really no other course open than to follow the Syriac and Arabic, as Maurer, Thenius, and Ewald have done, and change the ולא in the first two clauses in 1Sa 20:14 into ולוּ or ולא, according to the analogy of the form לוּא (1Sa 14:30), and to render the passage thus: “And mayest thou, if I still live, mayest thou show to me the favour of the Lord, and not if I do, not withdraw thy favour from my house for ever, not even (ולא) when Jehovah shall cut off the enemies of David, every one from the face of the earth!” “The favour of Jehovah” is favour such as Jehovah shall cut off,” etc., shows very clearly Jonathan’s conviction that Jehovah would give to David a victory over all his enemies. 1Sa 20:16

Thus Jonathan concluded a covenant with the house of David, namely, by bringing David to promise kindness to his family for ever. The word בּרית must be supplied in thought to יכרת, as in 1Sa 22:8 and 2Ch 7:18. “And Jehovah required it (what Jonathan had predicted) at the hand of David’s enemies.” Understood in this manner, the second clause contains a remark of the historian himself, namely, that Jonathan’s words were really fulfilled in due time. The traditional rendering of וּבקּשׁ as a relative preterite, with אמר understood, “and said, Let Jehovah take vengeance,” is not only precluded by the harshness of the introduction of the word “saying,” but still more by the fact, that if אמר (saying) is introduced between the copula vav and the verb בּקּשׁ, the perfect cannot stand for the optative בּקּשׁ, as in Jos 22:23. 1Sa 20:17

“And Jonathan adjured David again by his love to him, because he loved him as his own soul” (cf. 1Sa 18:1, 1Sa 18:3); i.e., he once more implored David most earnestly with an oath to show favour to him and his house.