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a Heb took the teraphim
b Meaning of Heb uncertain
c Heb the teraphim
d Meaning of Heb uncertain
e Meaning of Heb uncertain
f Gk reads to the well of the threshing floor on the bare height
19.1–7 After learning that Saul is plotting to kill David, Jonathan intervenes and persuades his father to spare David’s life.
19.8–17 Despite his oath in v. 6, Saul resumes his plans to kill David, but with Michal’s help David is able to escape.
19.9–10 See 18.10–11, where a duplicate of this incident has been added, probably secondarily, to the story.
19.12 Perhaps Michal’s house, like Rahab’s (Josh 2.15), was built into the city wall, so that by letting David down through the window she made it possible for him to escape the city without risking the gate.
19.13 The idol, or teraphim, Michal uses to simulate her sleeping husband is a household god like those Rachel steals from Laban in Gen 31.19. The same word is rendered idolatry in 15.23.
19.17 Michal lies to her father, claiming that David threatened her life.
19.18–24 This episode is almost certainly a secondary addition to the story. It was obviously unknown to the author of the statement in 15.35 that Samuel would not see Saul again alive, and it offers an alternate explanation of the saying Is Saul also among the prophets? (see note on 10.11).
19.18 Ramah of Benjamin, here apparently confused with Samuel’s hometown of Ramathaim (see 1.1, 19), was only a few miles north of Gibeah. Naioth, “encampments,” possibly camps where groups of prophets lived communally.
19.20–21 Each group of Saul’s messengers is caught up in the contagious prophetic frenzy (see 10.5) as soon as it arrives.
19.22 Secu, unknown. The Septuagint reading (see text note b) may be correct, especially since both threshing floors (Hos 9.1) and bare heights (Jer 3.2) were customary places of religious ritual.
19.24 By stripping off his clothes and lying naked Saul is indulging in another form of ecstatic behavior (see 10.5).
1 SAMUEL 20
The Friendship of David and Jonathan
1David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came before Jonathan and said, “What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin against your father that he is trying to take my life?” 2He said to him, “Far from it! You shall not die. My father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me; and why should my father hide this from me? Never!” 3But David also swore, “Your father knows well that you like me; and he thinks, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, or he will be grieved.’ But truly, as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.” 4Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.” 5David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at the meal; but let me go, so that I may hide in the field until the third evening. 6If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city; for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’ 7If he says, ‘Good!’ it will be well with your servant; but if he is angry, then know that evil has been determined by him. 8Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a sacred covenanta with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?” 9Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! If I knew that it was decided by my father that evil should come upon you, would I not tell you?” 10Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?” 11Jonathan replied to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So they both went out into the field.
12Jonathan said to David, “By the LORD, the God of Israel! When I have sounded out my father, about this time tomorrow, or on the third day, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you? 13But if my father intends to do you harm, the LORD do so to Jonathan, and more also, if I do not disclose it to you, and send you away, so that you may go in safety. May the LORD be with you, as he has been with my father. 14If I am still alive, show me the faithful love of the LORD; but if I die,b 15never cut off your faithful love from my house, even if the LORD were to cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” 16Thus Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD seek out the enemies of David.” 17Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him; for he loved him as he loved his own life.
18Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon; you will be missed, because your place will be empty. 19On the day after tomorrow, you shall go a long way down; go to the place where you hid yourself earlier, and remain beside the stone there.c 20I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark. 21Then I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you, collect them,’ then you are to come, for, as the LORD lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. 22But if I say to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go; for the LORD has sent you away. 23As for the matter about which you and I have spoken, the LORD is witnessd between you and me forever.”
24So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat at the feast to eat. 25The king sat upon his seat, as at other times, upon the seat by the wall. Jonathan stood, while Abner sat by Saul’s side; but David’s place was empty.
26Saul did not say anything that day; for he thought, “Something has befallen him; he is not clean, surely he is not clean.” 27But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David’s place was empty. And Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to the feast, either yesterday or today?” 28Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem; 29he said, ‘Let me go; for our family is holding a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your sight, let me get away, and see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king’s table.”
30Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan. He said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 31For as long as the son of Jesse lives upon the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.” 32Then Jonathan answered his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” 33But Saul threw his spear at him to strike him; so Jonathan knew that it was the decision of his father to put David to death. 34Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food on the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, and because his father had disgraced him.
35In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him was a little boy. 36He said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows that I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called after the boy and said, “Is the arrow not beyond you?” 38Jonathan called after the boy, “Hurry, be quick, do not linger.” So Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. 39But the boy knew nothing; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement. 40Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said to him, “Go and carry them to the city.” 41As soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heape and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He bowed three times, and they kissed each other, and wept with each other; David wept the more.f 42Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since both of us have sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD shall be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants, forever.’” He got up and left; and Jonathan went into the city.g
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a Heb a covenant of the LORD
b Meaning of Heb uncertain
&n
bsp; c Meaning of Heb uncertain
d Gk: Heb lacks witness
e Gk: Heb from beside the south
f Vg: Meaning of Heb uncertain
g This sentence is 21.1 in Heb
20.1–42 David goes to Jonathan to ask his help again. Jonathan finds it hard to believe that Saul is really plotting to take David’s life, but after an elaborate investigation he finds that it is true and passes the word to David.
20.5 The new moon was celebrated with special offerings (see Num 28.11–15) and a festival lasting at least three days.
20.8 The sacred covenant that binds Jonathan to David is mentioned in 18.3.
20.10 Jonathan’s answer to David’s question is found in vv. 18–23.
20.16 Thus Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, probably originally, “And if the name of Jonathan is cut off from the house of David.” The enemies of David, probably a scribal euphemism; in the original version Jonathan invoked the Lord’s punishment on David himself, but in view of Jonathan’s fate a scribe inserted “the enemies of” to protect David from the curse.
20.17 That Jonathan loved David as he loved his own life is an indication not only of personal affection but also of political loyalty; it evokes the traditional language of ancient Near Eastern fealty oaths (see also 18.1, 3).
20.26 David’s absence on the first day does not arouse Saul’s suspicion, because he assumes that David is not clean, i.e., that some minor accident has rendered David ritually ineligible to participate in the festival of the new moon (v. 5).
20.30 By calling Jonathan the son of a perverse, rebellious woman Saul means to brand Jonathan as genetically disloyal, but the choice of words points the insult at Jonathan’s mother. His mother’s nakedness refers euphemistically to her genitals, which are shamed by her having given birth to Jonathan.
20.31 Saul reminds Jonathan that David stands between him and the throne.
20.42 Jonathan again reminds David of the covenantal oath that binds them together (see 18.3; 20.5).
1 SAMUEL 21a
David and the Holy Bread
1David came to Nob to the priest Ahimelech. Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2David said to the priest Ahimelech, “The king has charged me with a matter, and said to me, ‘No one must know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointmentb with the young men for such and such a place. 3Now then, what have you at hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4The priest answered David, “I have no ordinary bread at hand, only holy bread—provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5David answered the priest, “Indeed women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition; the vessels of the young men are holy even when it is a common journey; how much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6So the priest gave him the holy bread; for there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the LORD, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.
7Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds.
8David said to Ahimelech, “Is there no spear or sword here with you? I did not bring my sword or my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” 9The priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you will take that, take it, for there is none here except that one.” David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”
David Flees to Gath
10David rose and fled that day from Saul; he went to King Achish of Gath. 11The servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,
‘Saul has killed his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?”
12David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of King Achish of Gath. 13So he changed his behavior before them; he pretended to be mad when in their presence.c He scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard. 14Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? 15Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”
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a Ch 21.2 in Heb
b Q Ms Vg Compare Gk: Meaning of MT uncertain
c Heb in their hands
21.1–9 David requests provisions from Ahimelech, the chief priest of Nob. Although he is suspicious, Ahimelech is persuaded by David’s dissembling assurances to give him bread and a sword.
21.1 Nob, called the city of the priests in 22.19, was near Gibeah in Benjamin (see Neh 11.31–32; Isa 10.32); it seems to have been the seat of the house of Eli after the fall of Shiloh (see 1.3; 2.31–33; 4.4, 17). Ahimelech, the great-grandson of Eli and chief priest at Nob, is the son of Ahitub (22.9) and the brother of Ahijah (14.3); his anxiety at seeing David alone is probably caused by a suspicion that he is harboring a refugee.
21.2 David’s facile lie is intended to allay the priest’s concern; the young men are David’s usual retinue of soldiers.
21.3–6 David solicits food and receives the ceremonial bread used in the rites of the shrine of Nob; this incident is cited in the NT as an instance of an excusable violation of ritual rules (see Mt 12.3–4; Mk 2.25–26; Lk 6.3–4).
21.4 Although Ahimelech has no ordinary bread, he does have holy bread (see v. 6); but he will make this available to David’s men only if they meet the ritual qualification of abstinence from sexual activity (cf. Ex 19.15).
21.5 David insists that his troops routinely maintain ritual purity when on active duty; vessels, if the text is sound, is probably a euphemism.
21.6 For the bread of the Presence, see Ex 25.30; Lev 24.5–9.
21.7 Doeg, probably a mercenary from Edom (see 14.47), will inform on David and Ahimelech (22.9–10) and serve as the executioner of the priests of Nob (22.18–19); his title, chief of Saul’s shepherds, is doubtful; many scholars prefer “chief of Saul’s guard” on the basis of 22.17. Detained before the LORD, found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, suggests some kind of ritual confinement at the shrine.
21.9 For the sword of Goliath, see 17.54; here it is kept behind an ephod, a term that usually designates a priestly garment (see 2.18; 14.3) but sometimes seems to denote an idol or some similar cultic object (see Ex 32.2–4; Judg 8.27).
21.10–15 This episode, probably a late addition to the story, anticipates David’s subsequent decision to expatriate and live among the Philistines (see 27.1).
21.10 David later serves as a mercenary of King Achish (see chs. 28–30), whose west Anatolian name is probably the same as that of Anchises of Troy, the father of Aeneas. Gath. See note on 5.8.
21.11 Why David is called king of the land is not known; perhaps it simply means that he is a powerful and successful military leader. What is clear is that the Philistines recognize him. This puts him in danger, and he feigns madness to protect himself.
1 SAMUEL 22
David and His Followers at Adullam
1David left there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; when his brothers and all his father’s house heard of it, they went down there to him. 2Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Those who were with him numbered about four hundred.
3David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab. He said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother comea to you, until I know what God will do for me.” 4He left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. 5Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not remain in the stronghold; leave, and go into the land of Judah.” So David left, and went into the forest of Hereth.
Saul Slaughters the Priests at Nob
6Saul heard that David and those who were with him had been located. Saul was sitting at Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the height, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him. 7Saul said to his servants who stood around him, “Hear now, you Benjaminites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? 8Is that why all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Jesse, none of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as he is doing today.” 9Doeg the Edomite, who was in charge of Saul’s servants, answered, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech son of Ahitub; 10he inquired of the LORD for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
11The king sent for the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub and for all his father’s house, the priests who were at Nob; and all of them came to the king. 12Saul said, “Listen now, son of Ahitub.” He answered, “Here I am, my lord.” 13Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, by giving him bread and a sword, and by inquiring of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as he is doing today?”
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