So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord demand it from the hands 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.”
- 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.
- 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.”
- 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 25:22God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that belongs to him by the morning light so much as one who urinates on a wall.”
- 1 Sam 18:3Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.
- 1 Sam 31:2The Philistines overtook Saul and on his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.
- 2 Sam 4:7–8Now when they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him, killed him, beheaded him, and took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night.
- Gen 15:18In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I have given this land to your offspring, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
- 2 Sam 21:8But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to 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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