So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David’s enemies.
Parallel translations
- WEB So Jonathan made a covenant with David’s house, saying, “Yahweh will require it at the hand of David’s enemies.”
- BSB So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD hold David’s enemies accountable.”
- 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 25:22So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.
- 1 Sam 18:3Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.
- 1 Sam 31:2And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchishua, Saul’s sons.
- 2 Sam 4:7–8For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, and they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and gat them away through the plain all night.
- Gen 15:18In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
- 2 Sam 21:8But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the 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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