Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 20:17
And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
17. caused David to swear again, because, &c.] Jonathan exacted another oath beside that implied in 1Sa 20:16, because the intensity of his love impelled him to bind David by the strongest possible obligation. The Sept. however reads: “And Jonathan swore yet again to David.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1Sa 20:17
And Jonathan caused David to swear again because he loved him.
Love plighting troth
I. Now, first, great love desires to bind itself to the beloved one. And, first of all, remember that Jesus bound Himself to His people by covenant bonds.
2. Then, next, Jesus would have us bound to Him on our part. This kind of bond can never be all on one side, for true friendship leads to mutual love.
II. Great love desires renewed pledges from its object: Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
1. It was not out, of distrust, but by reason of a sort of sacred jealousy, that Jonathan caused David to swear again. Our Saviour is as jealous of us as His Father is; the immeasurable greatness of the love of Jesus Christ to us moves Him to feel an infinite jealousy of us.
2. This is the only return we can make for His love.
3. It is for our highest benefit that we should do this. Our love is often so feeble and cold that it needs to be stirred up again.
4. We are often tempted and allured by other loves, and are apt, to lend a listening ear to the charmers fascinating voice.
5. It is for our benefit that we should often renew our pledges of love to our Lord, because we cannot be happy unless we are wholly taken up with love to Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
He loved him as he loved his own soul.
True friendship
I. true friendship reports itself by practical sympathy in times of distress.
1. This friendship was truly unselfish.
2. This friendship was truly generous. David was a shepherd boy, Jonathan the kings son.
3. This friendship was truly practical.
4. This friendship was truly reciprocal. David loved Jonathan as fervently as Jonathan loved David..
II. True friendship reports itself by solemn compacts in times of distress. And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
1. This covenant was formed in a reverent spirit. Jonathan appeals to God to witness his sincerity, to judge his motive, and to prosper his friend.
2. This covenant was submitted to a severe test.
3. This covenant was confirmed by an affectionate parting. (J. T. Woodhouse.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Heb. And Jonathan added or proceeded to make David swear, i.e. having himself sworn to David, or adjured David, in the foregoing verse, he here requires Davids oath to him, by way of restipulation or confirmation.
Because he loved him; because he had a true friendship for David, he desired that the covenant might be inviolably observed through all their generations.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Jonathan caused David to swear again,…. Or Jonathan added to make David swears u; having sworn himself to make a covenant of friendship with David and his family, he moved and insisted on it, that David should swear to keep covenant with him, and his family:
because he loved him; it was not so much for the good and safety of his offspring that he made this motion, and was so desirous of renewing and enlarging his covenant with David, as it was his strong love and affection for him; being on that account desirous that there might be the strictest friendship imaginable retained between the two families; or he made him swear by his love to him, as some understand it, which is not so likely; the former sense is better, for he himself sware by the Lord, 1Sa 20:12;
for he loved him as his own soul; or “with the love of his soul” w; with the most cordial affection, with a truly hearty and sincere love, see 1Sa 18:1.
u “et addidit”, Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus; so the Tigurine version. w “secundum dilectionem animae suae”, Pagninus; “amore sui ipsius”, Junius & Tremellius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(17) And Jonathan caused David to swear again.Throughout this touching interview it is the prince who appears as the suppliant for the outlaws ruture kind offices. Jonathanlooking forward with absolute certainty to the day when his persecuted friend would be on the throne, and he in his gravedreaded for his own fatherless children the fate which too probably awaited them, it having been in all ages a common custom in the East, when the dynasty was violently changed, to put to death the children and near relations of the former king.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 20:17 And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
Ver. 17. And Jonathan caused David to swear again, ] i.e., He required the like oath of him which he had made, that there might be a sure and steadfast league with him whom he so dearly loved. a
a Willet.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
And Jonathan caused David to swear again. Septuagint reads “And again Jonathan sware unto David”. soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
a Friend at Court
1Sa 20:17-29
Jonathan most have been strongly tempted to ally himself with his friend, that they might face the world together; but he clung loyally to his fathers fortunes, though he knew that he was courting failure and overthrow. At the same time he stood nobly forth at the banquet in defense of his friend. What a rebuke for some of us! The Prince of the kings of the earth is not ashamed to call us brethren, but alas, how often we shrink from acknowledging and confessing Him when in company which refuses to own His supremacy. We are silent when His honor is flouted, we flinch before the rising storm; if we do not take sides against Him, we at least do not speak up on His behalf. Such cowards are we in spite of our covenants!
Sauls jealousy broke out with volcanic vehemence. The king and father abused his son with vile epithets, such as are still employed by Orientals. He demanded Davids instant execution, and ended by seeking to take Jonathans life. Truly it may be said of him, as was afterward said of Judas-Satan had entered into him. Be watchful not to give the smallest foothold to the devil.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
because he loved him: or, by his love toward him
for he loved: 1Sa 18:1, 1Sa 18:3, Deu 13:6, 2Sa 1:26, Pro 18:24
Reciprocal: Gen 21:23 – swear Gen 24:3 – swear Gen 26:31 – sware Jos 2:12 – swear 2Sa 21:7 – because Pro 17:17 – General Jer 40:9 – sware
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
MY FAMILIAR FRIEND
He loved David as his own soul.
1Sa 20:17
With a feeling of relief we turn to the main line of thought in the Lesson, David and Jonathan. Jonathan said unto David, Come, and let us go out into the field. This was characteristic of him. He loved the open air and field sports. He delighted in archery. He had a passion for adventure, and was never so happy as when away from the court engaged in some perilous raid upon the Philistines. Jonathan felt more at home in the field than in the house. It has been said with truth that no heart is utterly base which retains a love for the pure country. The free and fearless nature of Jonathan turned instinctively to the field as the sailor turns to the sea.
As the two friends talk together we may study Jonathans character.
I mention four traitshis frankness, his trustfulness, his affection, his piety.
I. Although he fell in with the scheme which David devised to deceive the king, yet such plotting was foreign to his disposition.If I knew certainly that evil were determined by my father to come upon thee, then would I not tell thee? He appeals to his own reputation for honesty. Every one feels an affection for the frank, outspoken man. It is the schemer who rouses our suspicions and puts us on our guard.
II. With this frankness we notice in Jonathan a fine trustfulness.He believed in David, he tried hard to believe in Saul. My father will do nothing, either great or small, but that he will show it me. Do not cherish the opposite spirit. Do not harbour mistrust. The fact is that the confiding nature sees the best side of any character, because that side is opened to him. The man who changed his house every rent-day because he could never find neighbours that agreed with him, discovered at last that our neighbours are what we make them. The man who trusts no one is the man whom no one trusts. Christ knew what was in man, and yet He revealed to man better things in human nature than Pilate or Herod dreamed of. Trust others and you make them respect themselves. Treat every man as a thief, and your road through life shall be like that which went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, only without the good Samaritan.
III. The next trait in Jonathan to be noted is his affection.Dean Stanley says of the friendship of Jonathan and David that it is the first Biblical instance of such a dear companionship as was common in Greece, and has been since in Christendom imitated, but never surpassed, in modern works of fiction. It is the love of Jonathan that is most emphasised. The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Springing up when first the two met, and continuing unbroken during Davids disfavour with Saul, it never ceased. On the death of the gallant young prince, David cried, I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful. To the end of his own life David cared for and cherished Jonathans family. The nobleness of this friendship on the part of Sauls son lies in the fact that David supplanted him in his royal succession. He is the finest illustration of human magnanimity. Christ Himself, in His self-forgetting love for us, is foreshadowed by Jonathan.
IV. So, last of all, we mention his piety.It was with a patriots prayer to the Lord God of Israel that Jonathan vowed to be true to the persecuted hero, and with words of solemn farewell that he covenanted with him. The Lord be with thee as He hath been with my father. A deep substratum of genuine piety underlies all Jonathans actions. It is love of God that makes him love his country and run desperate odds to rescue it from the Philistines, and love David and stand between him and the misguided kings frenzied anger, yes, and love even Saul also. This was hardest of all. It was easy for a soldier to fight like a hero for his country. It was easy to such a heart as that of Jonathan to beat true to such a heart as that of David. But we have not perhaps done justice to the love of the son for his father, always present at table, always his companion, regardless of bitter taunts and flashing javelins. So has God loved us. Even when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Illustrations
(1)I had a friend that loved me;
I was his soul: he lived not but in me.
We were so closed within each others breasts,
The rivets were not found that joined us first,
That do not reach us yet: we were so mixed,
As meeting streams; but to ourselves were lost.
We were one mass: we could not give or take
But from the same; for he was I, I he.
Return my better half, and give me all myself,
For thou art all.
If I have any joy when thou art absent,
I grudge it to myself: methinks I rob
Thee of thy part.
(2) How enduring Jonathans friendship was. It lasted through storm and strain right to the end. Can you recall any great instances of broken friendship? There are not a few narrated in our histories. There is that between Pope Innocent the Third and Otho, for instance; the imperial crown was on the head of Otho, and almost from that moment the Emperor and the Pope were implacable enemies (Milman, V, 234). And there was that between Queen Elizabeth and Essex, that ended, for the gay Earl, upon the block. But the friendship of Jonathan and David never broke. No jeopardy, no change of place or circumstance impaired it.
God keeps a niche
In heaven to hold our idols! and albeit
He break them to our faces, and denied
That our close kisses should impair their white,
I know we shall behold them raised, complete
The dust shook from their beautyglorified,
New Memnons singing in the great God-Light.
(3) In his great essay, Lord Bacon shows that nothing can ever take the place of friendship. Men so need the offices of a friend that at every risk they will have one. It is often perilous, Bacon points out, for those in exalted station to have friends, for the disclosure of the heart (which is of the essence of friendship) may afford subtle temptations to betrayal; yet recognising that, and furthermore possessing every good thing that the world could give, men have not been able to do without a friend. The principal offices of friendship, Bacon continues, are three. It eases the heart, affording it an outlet without which it is not like to prosper. It illuminates the mind, for, as iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend (Pro 27:17). And a friend does for us in many instances, and in ways that occasion no offence, what we cannot do for ourselves. All this is true of that immortal friendship which forms the subject of our present lesson. It was an infinite solace to the heart of David. It helped him to be a poet and a king. And in times of peril it afforded him that succour without which his life would have been forfeit.