1 Samuel 20:1

THE FINAL BREAK BETWEEN SAUL AND DAVID;

DAVID FLEES FROM NAIROTH TO JONATHAN

"Then David fled from Nairoth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father that he seeks my life"? And he said to him, "Far from it! You shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me; and why should my father hide this from me? It is not so." But David replied, "Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he thinks, `Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.' But truly, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death."

It is a mystery to this writer why certain critical commentators reject this chapter as "unhistorical,"[1] declaring that, "It cannot be reconciled with the story of Michal ... It is hard to see where this incident can be made to fit in."[2]

All such "difficulties" in the acceptance of this chapter are due to the failure of writers to understand the situation. Note the following:

(1) David was the son-in-law of King Saul, having recently married his daughter Michal.

(2) David was an honored member of the king's court and, at this point in time, he had not been formally expelled.

(3) He was even expected to sit at the king's table in the approaching feast of the new moon.

(4) The king had recently sworn in a solemn oath that David should not die.

(5) David was uncertain whether he was indeed committed to life as a fugitive and an outlaw, or if Saul's violent attempt to take his life might be attributed to a sudden fit of madness, and from which a reconciliation through the aid of Jonathan might be arranged, as upon a similar previous occasion.

(6) Besides all this, a visitation from God himself had frustrated Saul's expedition to Nairoth. That visitation had overtones of prophecy connected with it; and, near the beginning of Saul's career, such an experience had resulted in Saul's being turned, "into another man" (1 Samuel 10:6). David had every right to hope that a similar change in Saul's life might have been effected by this new prophetic experience.

(7) "David is still a court member and would be acting very improperly if he absented himself at the approaching festival without permission."[3]

(8) Finally, the loving arms of his wife Michal awaited him in their home on the city wall.

Any writer who finds it "difficult" to understand why David would have returned to Gibeah in the light of these circumstances has simply failed to read his Bible.

"He (David) fled from Nairoth" (1 Samuel 20:1). "While Saul lay bound by his trance at Nairoth, David, escaped to the court and got to speak with Jonathan."[4]

"What have I done? What is my guilt? What is my sin?" (1 Samuel 20:1). Saul had made no formal charge whatever against David; he had given no reason whatever to support his reasons for trying to kill David; and it was most natural that, in this circumstance, David should have attempted to find out what lay behind Saul's violent behavior.

"Far from it! ... It is not so" (1 Samuel 20:2). Jonathan simply could not believe that his father was trying to kill David after that solemn oath which the king had sworn that David should not die (1 Samuel 19:6). As one of the king's chief advisers, Jonathan felt sure that he would have been informed of any such intention on the part of his father.

"There is but a step between me and death" (1 Samuel 20:3). David reinforced his words with a double oath, and provided Jonathan with the real reason why he had not been taken into the king's confidence in the matter of his decision to kill David. That reason was the king's knowledge that Jonathan, through his friendship for David, would not have approved of it.