Chapter Twenty

David and Jonathan. The second flight of David from Gibeah of Benjamin.

1 Samuel 20:5. And David said to Jonathan: Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should sit with the king at table; but let me go, and I will hide in the field until the evening of the third day. New moon—a festival of the new moon (Num 10:10).

1 Samuel 20:6. If your father asks about me, you shall say: “David earnestly asked permission of me to go to his city Bethlehem; for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family. “There is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family”: see note to 1 Sam 7:9.

1 Samuel 20:8. And you show kindness to your servant, for you have taken your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you, and if there is any guilt in me, then kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father? “For you have taken your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you”: see 1 Sam 18:1-4.

1 Samuel 20:26. And Saul said nothing that day, for he thought: It is a chance happening, David is unclean, he has not purified himself. “Unclean,” that is, in a state of some purification of himself according to the law (see Lev 11:1;Num 5:1 and others).

1 Samuel 20:40. And Jonathan gave his weapons to his servant who was with him, and said to him: Go, carry them into the city. “Into the city”—Gibeah of Benjamin.