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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
19:1-20:42 Saul's Attempts to Kill David. Saul moves from trying to use the Philistines to kill David to actually ordering him killed. Jonathan brings about one reconciliation (and there may have been another one after ch. 19), but David finally flees the court permanently.
19:4 Jonathan appeals to Saul the king on the basis of a king's obligation to do justice (see 25:31).
19:5 took his life in his hand. I.e., risked his life (see also 28:21; Judg. 12:3).
19:10 he struck the spear into the wall. David came close to losing his life, but "the Lord was with him" (see 18:12). David fled and escaped also in 19:12, 18. See note on Acts 9:25.
19:13 The image (Hb. terapim) here was of human size and shape; contrast Laban's household gods in Gen. 31:19, 34-35.
19:14 He is sick was apparently a lie, since David had fled. The biblical historians often record such actions without any explicit moral evaluation.
19:18 Naioth may refer to a shepherds' camp. The prophetic fraternities of Israel lived in such settlements.
19:20-21 They also prophesied (twice in these verses) probably implies that Saul's messengers uttered words of prayer and praise to God as well as admonition and rebuke to each other, under the influence of the Spirit of God. Their aggressive intent was humbled before the Lord's anointed king. See also 2 Kings 1:9-15, where another king sends messengers three times in vain. Some interpreters also see parallels in 1 Kings 8:10-11 and 2 Chron. 5:14.
19:23-24 he too prophesied before Samuel. The earlier question of 10:12, "Who is their father?" is answered by Samuel's presence as "head" over the prophets (cf. 19:20). As three groups of messengers sent by Saul to take David succumb to prophesying (vv. 20-21), the Spirit of God came on Saul to take away his self-control and turn his hostility to prophetic praise. Even the will of the king is subject to the Lord's will. And he too stripped off his clothes. The aggressive, angry king is humbled, even comically humiliated, before the power of the Lord, against whom he vainly strives. For the second time, background is provided for the old proverb (see note on 10:11-12), "Is Saul also among the prophets?" In the earlier context (10:11-12) Saul was being established as king. In ch. 19, he openly seeks to kill the Lord's anointed (v. 1), and the throne, like his clothes, is beginning to be stripped from him.
20:1 It seems that before Saul had arrived in Naioth, David had come there. After that David fled from Naioth and went back to Gibeah, and things settled down. Then he came . . . before Jonathan. Hence, it could be interpreted: "Now David had fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came before Jonathan and said. . . ."
20:3 David vowed again. Perhaps a reference to v. 1, since the triplet of rhetorical questions in v. 1 ("What . . . ? What . . . ? What . . . ?") may resemble an oath. Another possibility is that David's earlier oath is unrecorded.
20:5 The new moon was the day of the new appearance of the crescent moon in the western sky at sunset, marking the beginning of the month in the lunar calendar. It was one of the principal festivals (see Num. 10:10; 1 Chron. 23:31; Isa. 1:14; Ezek. 46:3; etc.). It seems that the king, as head of the clan, presided over his household's celebration of the festival. It was often impossible to predict the exact day when the new moon would become visible, so it may be that the feast was held on the first possible day, and if the moon did not appear on that day, the feast was held on the second day as well (1 Sam. 20:27). Hence, David proposed meeting on the "third day."
20:13 The Lord do so to Jonathan and more also is an oath formula (see note on 3:17). as he has been with my father. The past tense may show that Jonathan recognizes that the Lord has left Saul.
20:15 my house. I.e., "my offspring"; see v. 42 and 2 Samuel 9, where David fulfills his "kindness" to Jonathan's son Mephibosheth.
20:22 if I say to the youth, "Look, the arrows are beyond you." To any other observer, Jonathan would appear to be shouting to the young man who had run to retrieve the arrows. But David, in hiding, would also hear the words and know they had another meaning, a warning to flee from Saul.
20:26 Because the feast involved sacrifices, one had to be clean in order to participate.
20:29 My brother presumably refers to David's eldest brother, Eliab (17:28). It reflects a system of family leadership passing to the eldest son; his father Jesse had already retired (see 17:12; cf. Laban's role in Gen. 24:50).
20:30 to the shame of your mother's nakedness. The emphasis is on the disgrace or shame that Saul thinks Jonathan has brought to himself and his family.
20:31 neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. This was true, but Jonathan had already come to terms with it (vv. 14-15). Saul took for granted that kingship was hereditary, though there was no divine justification for his doing so.
