government from him, or at any rate after his death from his son. “Now send and fetch him to me, for he is a child of death,” i.e., he has deserved to die, and shall be put to death.
Verses 32-34
When Jonathan replied, “My father, why shall he die? what has he done?” Saul was so enraged that he hurled his javelin at Jonathan (cf. 1Sa 18:11). Thus Jonathan saw that his father had firmly resolved to put David to death, and rose up from the table in fierce anger, and did not eat that day; for he was grieved concerning David, because his father had done him shame. כּלה is a substantive in the sense of unalterable resolution, like the verb in 1Sa 20:9. השּׁני בּיום־החדשׁ, on the second day of the new moon or month.
The next morning Jonathan made David acquainted with what had occurred, by means of the sign agreed upon with David. The account of this, and of the meeting between Jonathan and David which followed, is given very concisely, only the main points being touched upon. In the morning (after what had occurred) Jonathan went to the field, דּוד למועד, either “at the time agreed upon with David,” or “to the meeting with David,” or perhaps better still, “according to the appointment (agreement) with David,” and a small boy with him.
Verse 36
To the latter he said, namely as soon as they had come to the field, Run, get the arrows which I shoot. The boy ran, and he shot off the arrows, “to go out beyond him,” i.e., so that the arrows flew farther than the boy had run. The form חצי for חץ only occurs in connection with disjunctive accents; beside the present chapter (1Sa 20:36, 1Sa 20:37, 1Sa 20:38, Chethibh) we find it again in 2Ki 9:24. The singular is used here with indefinite generality, as the historian did not consider it necessary to mention expressly, after what he had previously written, that Jonathan shot off three arrows one after another.
Verses 37-39
When the boy came to the place of the shot arrow (i.e., to the place to which the arrow had flown), Jonathan called after him, “See, the arrow is (lies) away from thee, farther off;” and again, “Quickly, haste, do not stand still,” that he might not see David, who was somewhere near; and the boy picked up the arrow and came to his lord. The Chethibh החצי is evidently the original reading, and the singular is to be understood as in 1Sa 20:37; the Keri החצּים is an emendation, according to the meaning of the words. The writer here introduces the remark in 1Sa 20:39,
