Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
5. 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.—The “new moon” (Kalends) was the first day of the month, which among the Hebrews was not properly a feast, yet was notable for sacrifices; and it was called in Hebrew Chodesh, that is, the renewal of the moon and of the month, in Greek neomenia, in Latin novilunium; for the Hebrews had lunar months, and so the new moon, or the first day of the new moon and of the lunation, was the first day of the month, as I said on Numbers 28:11, where I gave the reasons for this; wherefore on that day they offered sacrifice and then held a banquet with friends. For this reason David, as the king’s son-in-law, was accustomed on that day to sit at Saul’s table; but because he had found him so hostile to himself, he did not dare approach him, lest he be struck again by his spear. He says therefore to Jonathan, in order that he may sound his father’s mind toward him, that he will meanwhile lie hid, in changed dress, in the neighbouring field, to await Jonathan’s answer until the third day; so that if on the first day of the Kalends Jonathan has no opportunity to deal with his father about David, he may watch for one on the second, and on the third day signify the same to him, so that if he sees his father softened and his hatred laid aside, he may come to his table; but if not, he may provide for his safety by flight.
The Chaldee says that it was the Kalends of the second month, namely April, and the day of the intercalation, on which accordingly the Pasch began; so that David, thus sought by Saul to be put to death, was a type of Christ, put to death by the Jews at the Pasch, but rising gloriously from death on the third day. So too the Romans held the Kalends of their months as solemn. “For the Kalends,” says Macrobius, book 1 of the Saturnalia, chapter 16, at the end, “were so called because on them the Pontiff, having called (calata) the people to the Capitol, announced how many days remained from the Kalends to the Nones, and proclaimed the fifth day by saying the word kalo five times, the seventh by repeating it seven times.” The Greeks also celebrated the festival called neomenia, as Turnebus attests, book 3, chapter 4.
8. BECAUSE THOU HAST BROUGHT THY SERVANT INTO A COVENANT OF THE LORD WITH THEE.—“Covenant of the Lord” he calls a covenant made before the Lord, and with the name of the Lord interposed in the oath of the covenant. It is likewise one ratified out of regard for God, reverence and love. David says this to prick Jonathan’s mind more sharply to keep the covenant, and, in accordance with it, to give him help with his father, as one who will be rendering that help not only to David but also to God, as though promised to him.
BUT IF THERE BE ANY INIQUITY IN ME, DO THOU KILL ME,—lest he, burning with his inveterate hatred, rage against me and torture me cruelly; as though to say: Let me die rather by a friendly hand than by an enemy’s. So Phaedra in Seneca says to her Hippolytus: “I too much desire to die by the hands of one I love.” Similarly David says here: If I cannot escape death, if I must die, I prefer to fall kindly by thy friendly hand than to be tortured by the hostile and cruel vengeance of an enemy. David knew that Jonathan, being a friend, would by no means do this; but he uses this phrase for pathos, to wring Jonathan’s heart and drive him to plead his cause with his father seriously and effectively. So Abulensis. For lovers are accustomed so to sharpen the love of those who love them by goading it. Similarly the Japanese cut down with their own hand their kinsmen or friends condemned to death by the king, lest it be done by an enemy or an executioner; for they think that infamous and disgraceful to themselves.
9. THAT MY FATHER’S MALICE AGAINST THEE WAS COMPLETE—to persecute and kill.
12. O LORD GOD OF ISRAEL,—understand: chastise and avenge me, if I break the faith given to my David, for Jonathan, from the heat of disturbed love, speaks brokenly and in interrupted fashion, as lovers do. For he invokes God and does not complete the sentence, but by an enallage of person turns his mind and speech from God to David, so beloved of him, saying:
AND I SEND NOT IMMEDIATELY TO THEE (O my David! Then he completes the sense, saying:) THE LORD DO SO AND SO TO JONATHAN, AND ADD MORE,—as though to say: May he afflict me with such and such penalties, and add more, and heap penalties upon penalties.
13. I WILL UNCOVER THY EAR,—as though to say: I will tell thee in secret, but with certainty, as if into thy ear.
AND THE LORD BE WITH THEE, AS HE HATH BEEN WITH MY FATHER,—that as he raised him from a humble and lowly state to the kingdom and loaded him with so many victories, so he may do for thee also. For Jonathan here tacitly prophesies the kingdom to David. Hear St. Jerome here in the Traditions: “The Lord be with thee as he hath been with my father, that is, may he make thy kingdom exalted, as he made my father’s kingdom exalted. And if I live, thou shalt show me the kindness of the Lord; that is, that I may be second in thy kingdom; and if I die, thou shalt not take away thy kindness from my house for ever.”
So too Angelomus, Lyranus, Abulensis and Vatablus, and that it is so is plain from the fact that Jonathan says to David, chapter 23, verse 17: “And thou shalt reign over Israel, and I shall be next to thee, and Saul my father also knoweth this.”
14. AND IF I LIVE, THOU SHALT SHOW ME THE KINDNESS OF THE LORD,—that is, before the Lord, a kindness promised me by thee in the covenant, with the name of the Lord interposed, chapter 18, verse 3; for so he called it “a covenant of the Lord,” verse 8. Others: “of the Lord,” that is, pleasing and acceptable to the Lord, says Pagninus. Or rather “of the Lord,” that is, great and notable, such as the Lord is wont to show to his faithful ones and friends: for the things that are the Lord’s are great. So they are called “cedars of God” and “mountains of God,” that is, great and lofty. So Vatablus, Sanchez and others.
Moreover the Hebrew here is involved and obscure, and is variously rendered by various translators; but you may render it best thus, reading the Hebrew lo, that is “and not,” which is repeated three times, not assertively but interrogatively, in this way: And not, that is, and wilt thou not, while I am yet living, living, wilt thou not, I say, show me the kindness of the Lord? And wilt thou not, if I die, cut off thy kindness from my house? As though to say: Thou wilt certainly show it, and wilt not cut it off, as our version clearly renders it. The Septuagint seem to interpret thus, who for lo, “and not,” render “and if,” that is, “is it not so?” If, however, you prefer to read it assertively, understanding “only” after lo, translate word for word with Pagninus and Vatablus: And not only while I am yet living wilt thou show me the kindness of the Lord, that I die not; but also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever, nor (even then) when the Lord shall have cut off David’s enemies; which sense is in fact the same as the former; and the Vulgate translator renders both clearly.
15. LET HIM TAKE JONATHAN AWAY FROM HIS HOUSE.—These words of verse 15 are not in the Hebrew, but are in the Septuagint and the Roman Latin texts. The sense is, as though to say: If I Jonathan shall be faithless and a covenant-breaker to thee, O David, I pray that God punish me, and take away and overthrow my family and posterity, and that God require, that is, judge, avenge and take vengeance on David’s enemies, and consequently on me and mine, if I show myself his enemy against the covenant made with him. So Abulensis. For Jonathan swears with an oath of imprecation that he will keep the faith given to David.