So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD hold David’s enemies accountable.”
Parallel translations
- WEB So Jonathan made a covenant with David’s house, saying, “Yahweh will require it at the hand of David’s enemies.”
- KJV So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David’s enemies.
- NKJV So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “Let the Lord require it at the hand of David’s enemies.”
- NASB So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord demand it from the hands of David’s enemies.”
- NLT So Jonathan made a solemn pact with David, saying, “May the Lord destroy all your enemies!”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jonathan makes a covenant with David's house, invoking the Lord to hold David's enemies accountable.
Overview
Jonathan formally ratifies a covenant binding David's house, calling on the Lord to require it of David's enemies. The covenant is sealed before God as guarantor. This sworn bond between the two houses governs the rest of their relationship and finds its fulfillment in David's later faithfulness to Jonathan's heir.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- 1 Sam 25:22May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one of Nabal’s men survive until morning.”
- 1 Sam 18:3Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.
- 1 Sam 31:2The Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons, and they killed Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.
- 2 Sam 4:7–8They had entered the house while Ish-bosheth was lying on his bed, and having stabbed and killed him, they beheaded him, took his head, and traveled all night by way of the Arabah.
- Gen 15:18On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—
- 2 Sam 21:8But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, as well as the five sons whom Merab daughter of Saul had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
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Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 20:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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