What Does 1 Samuel 20:11 Mean?
And Jonathan said to David, Go, and let us go out into the field. And the two of them went out into the field.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Jonathan said unto David, Come, and let us go out into the field. And they went out both of them into the field.THE KEY
The one named “YHWH has given” invites the one named “beloved” into open ground, so the meeting itself reads as a gift of presence.
THE MEANING
Here, an invitation becomes physical: one person says “Come,” and both move into open space. Closeness is shared presence, made real by movement they take together. Their names deepen the scene: Jonathan carries “YHWH has given,” and David carries “beloved.”
THE ROOT
יְהוֹנָתָן
Yehonatan
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
Give, set, place.
The name Yehonatan (יְהוֹנָתָן, “YHWH has given”) carries natan (נתן, “give, set, place”). Here, Jonathan’s invitation gives David shared space and presence, shading the scene with the name’s meaning.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This root is carried in Jonathan’s name; his invitation makes its sense of giving tangible as an offered meeting.
mattan: Gift.
מַתָּן
This related word makes the giving in Jonathan’s name sound like a gift of presence shared with David.
דָּוִד
David
GROWS FROM
דוד
dōd
Beloved or lover; the related noun also has a kinship sense of uncle.
The name David (דָּוִד, “beloved”) is associated with dōd (דּוֹד, “beloved/lover”). The name makes belovedness part of the scene itself, as Jonathan addresses David and draws him into shared space.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved or lover; also a kinship term for an uncle.
דּוֹד
This is the word-family associated with David’s name, bringing the quality of belovedness into the invitation.
dōdîm: Loves or caresses, as in Song of Songs 1:2.
דּוֹדִים
This branch gives the root an intimate, relational range that echoes the closeness of the meeting.
לְכָה
lekhah
GROWS FROM
הלך
halakh
Go, walk, move along a way.
The imperative lekhah (לְכָה, “come/go”) comes from halakh (הלך, “go/walk”), a word of movement. The verse then shifts to yatsa (יצא, “go out”) twice, the proposal and its completion, so the invitation becomes a shared departure.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: Go or walk.
הָלַךְ
This is the movement carried by Jonathan’s “Come,” a bodily invitation rather than an abstract idea.
hit'hallēkh: Walk about or move through a place; also conduct oneself.
הִתְהַלֵּךְ
This form extends the root from a single step to a way of moving, while this verse keeps the movement concrete.
holikh: Lead or cause to go.
הוֹלִיךְ
Jonathan initiates the movement with an invitation, and the verse stresses that both of them go.
THE PATTERN
An invitation becomes an encounter when it draws someone into shared space.
And the LORD said to Moses, Come up to me into the mountain, and be there, and I will give you tablets of stone, and instruction, and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.He said to them, Come and see. They came and saw where he stayed, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.And he said to them, Come away by yourselves into an empty place, and rest a while, for many were coming and going, and they did not have a well-timed moment even to eat.THE THREAD
And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David into the thicket, and strengthened his hand in God.The word lekhah (לְכָה, “come/go”) here and vayelekh (וַיֵּלֶךְ, “he went”) in 1 Samuel 23:16 share halakh (הלך, “go/walk”). The invitation becomes concrete as Jonathan goes to David and strengthens him in God.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us