Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
Chapter 20. Synopsis of the Chapter
David, complaining to Jonathan of his father’s unjust hatred toward him, renews and confirms with him a covenant on certain terms; wherefore Jonathan, verse 18, promises him that he will sound his father’s mind toward him, and will signify by arrows his love or hatred. Accordingly, verse 28, he excuses David before his father; but the father, blazing out against him, makes ready his spear; whence, verse 36, Jonathan, as agreed, signifies to David by the arrows his father’s implacable hatred, and, embracing him with tears, sends him away in peace.
1. And David fled from Naioth, which is in Ramatha, and coming spoke before Jonathan: What have I done? what is my iniquity, and what is my sin against thy father, that he seeketh my life? 2. And he said to him: God forbid, thou shalt not die: for my father will do nothing, great or small, without first telling me: has my father then hidden this word only from me? It shall not be so. 3. And David swore again. And he said: Thy father knoweth well that I have found grace in thy eyes, and he will say: Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be sad. But indeed, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but one step (as I may say) between me and death. 4. And Jonathan said to David: Whatsoever thy soul shall say to me, I will do for thee. 5. And David said to Jonathan: Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I am accustomed to sit beside the king to eat; let me go then, that I may hide myself in the field till the evening of the third day. 6. If thy father look back and ask for me, thou shalt answer him: David asked me that he might go quickly to Bethlehem, his city; because there are solemn sacrifices there for all his tribe. 7. If he shall say: It is well; thy servant shall have peace: but if he be angry, know that his malice is complete. 8. Deal mercifully, therefore, with thy servant; for thou hast brought me thy servant into a covenant of the Lord with thee. But if there be any iniquity in me, do thou kill me, and bring me not in to thy father. 9. And Jonathan said: Far be this from thee; for it cannot be that if I certainly knew that my father’s malice against thee were complete, I should not tell thee. 10. And David answered Jonathan: Who shall tell me, if perhaps thy father answer thee harshly concerning me? 11. And Jonathan said to David: Come, and let us go out into the field. And when they were both gone out into the field, 12. Jonathan said to David: O Lord God of Israel, if I shall search out my father’s mind tomorrow or the day after, and there be anything good towards David, and I send not immediately to thee, and make it known to thee; 13. the Lord do so and so to Jonathan, and add more. But if my father’s malice against thee continue, I will uncover thy ear, and will send thee away that thou mayest go in peace, and the Lord be with thee as he hath been with my father. 14. And if I live, thou shalt show me the kindness of the Lord; but if I die, 15. thou shalt not take away thy kindness from my house for ever, even when the Lord shall have cut off the enemies of David, every one of them, from the earth; let him take Jonathan away from his house, and let the Lord require it at the hand of David’s enemies. 16. So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, and the Lord required it at the hand of David’s enemies. 17. And Jonathan went on to adjure David, because he loved him; for he loved him as his own soul. 18. And Jonathan said to him: Tomorrow is the new moon, and thou shalt be missed; 19. for thy seat will be looked for until the day after. Thou shalt therefore go down quickly, and come to the place where thou must be hidden on the day when it is lawful to work, and thou shalt sit beside the stone that is called Ezel. 20. And I will shoot three arrows by the side of it, and will cast them as if I were practising at a mark. 21. I will send a boy also, saying to him: Go and bring me the arrows. 22. If I say to the boy: Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee, take them up; then come thou to me, for there is peace to thee, and there is no harm, as the Lord liveth: but if I speak thus to the boy: Behold, the arrows are beyond thee, go in peace, for the Lord hath sent thee away. 23. And as for the word which thou and I have spoken, the Lord be between thee and me for ever. 24. So David was hid in the field, and the new moon came, and the king sat down to eat bread. 25. And when the king sat on his seat (according to custom), which was by the wall, Jonathan rose up, and Abner sat at Saul’s side, and David’s place appeared empty. 26. And Saul said nothing that day: for he thought that perhaps it had befallen him that he was not clean, nor purified. 27. And when the second day after the new moon was come, David’s place again appeared empty, and Saul said to Jonathan his son: Why cometh not the son of Isai to eat, neither yesterday nor today? 28. And Jonathan answered Saul: He earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem, 29. and said: Let me go, for there is a solemn sacrifice in the city, one of my brethren hath sent for me: and now if I have found favour in thy eyes, I will go quickly, and see my brethren. For this cause he came not to the king’s table. 30. Then Saul, being angry with Jonathan, said to him: Thou son of a woman that willingly runs after a man, do I not know that thou lovest the son of Isai, to thy own confusion, and to the confusion of thy shameful mother? 31. For all the days that the son of Isai shall live upon the earth, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Therefore send now, and fetch him to me, for he is the child of death. 32. And Jonathan answering Saul his father, said: Why shall he die? what hath he done? 33. And Saul caught up a spear to strike him. And Jonathan understood that it was determined by his father to kill David. 34. So Jonathan rose from the table in great anger, and did not eat bread on the second day of the new moon. For he was grieved for David, because his father had put him to confusion. 35. And when the morning came, Jonathan went out into the field according to the appointment with David, and a little boy with him, 36. and he said to his boy: Go, and fetch me the arrows which I shoot. And when the boy ran, he shot another arrow beyond the boy. 37. So the boy came to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot; and Jonathan cried after the boy’s back, and said: Behold, the arrow is there, farther beyond thee. 38. And Jonathan cried again after the boy’s back, saying: Make haste quickly, stand not. And Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows, and brought them to his master; 39. and he knew nothing at all of what was being done ; for only Jonathan and David knew the matter. 40. Jonathan therefore gave his weapons to the boy, and said to him: Go, and carry them into the city. 41. And when the boy was gone, David rose out of the place that looked towards the south, and falling on his face to the ground, he adored three times, and kissing one another, they wept together, but David more. 42. And Jonathan said to David: Go in peace; and let all that we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord be firm, saying: The Lord be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever. 43. And David arose and went his way; and Jonathan also went into the city.
3. THERE IS BUT ONE STEP (AS I MAY SAY) BETWEEN ME AND DEATH,—as though to say: I am near to death; death prepared by thy father is upon me; only the opportunity of carrying out my slaying is lacking to him; he seeks it, and once given it he will certainly kill me. So death presses upon the sick and the old, so that they seem to be separated from it by only a single step or pace. So sailors at sea are but a hand’s breadth, or as the poet says, “four fingers,” from death: for the rim of the ship rises above the sea only a hand’s breadth, and if the surging sea passes over it, it will sink the ship with its crew. So every man is distant from death by one step: for if he is seized by fever or plague, he will die; nay, a single drop of water or phlegm running down into the throat at night will suffocate him, as we have seen happen to many. And this is the life, so frail, so uncertain, so short, that mortals gape after, and toil as though it were always to last, to procure for it riches, honours, pleasures without end. O how narrow are the bounds of mortals, O how narrow the minds of mortals! “O ye sons of men, how long will you love vanity, and seek after lying?” Why do you not despise this present life, so deceitful, and aspire to the future one, blessed and eternal?