What Does 1 Samuel 20:16 Mean?
So Jonathan cut a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD seek it from the hand of David's enemies.
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
So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David’s enemies.THE KEY
The covenant is “cut” with David’s house, and the LORD is asked to seek an answer from the hand of David’s enemies.
THE MEANING
This verse gives a bond a longer reach than a private promise: Jonathan binds himself to David’s house, a line that continues beyond one person. The LORD is invoked to seek an answer from the hand of David’s enemies, placing loyalty and accountability within the same covenant.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a promise of loyalty ends with the individual: Jonathan’s covenant is made with David’s house, so its reach is wider than David alone.
THE ROOT
כָּרַת בְּרִית
karat berit
GROWS FROM
כרת
k-r-t
To cut or sever; the phrase “cut a covenant” is the Hebrew expression for making a covenant.
“cut a covenant” in this verse is karat berit. The English phrase “made a covenant” carries the image of cutting: this bond is made with a decisive, binding act. The same root also describes being cut off, holding the seriousness of a bond and its breach in the same word family.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: To cut a covenant
כָּרַת בְּרִית
This is the expression behind Jonathan’s act: covenant is pictured as a bond made through a decisive cut.
karet: Being cut off
כָּרֵת
The shared root gives the covenant’s binding force an edge: severing is also present in the word family.
בִּקֵּשׁ
biqqēsh
GROWS FROM
בקש
b-q-sh
To seek, search for, or ask for.
The action behind “require” is baqash, to seek or ask for: the verse pictures the LORD seeking an answer from the enemies’ hand. The word lets accountability carry the motion of a search.
ALSO GROWS
biqqēsh: Sought or asked for
בִּקֵּשׁ
This is the verb in the verse, giving “require” the additional shade of actively seeking an answer.
mevuqqāsh: Sought after or desired
מְבֻקָּשׁ
This related form shows the root’s movement toward what is being sought.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved.
David’s name carries the sense of “beloved.” The covenant is made with David’s house, so the personal bond reaches into the household and continuing line named after him.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved; also a close relative such as an uncle
דּוֹד
This related word carries the beloved sense found in David’s name.
dōdîm: Loves or expressions of love
דּוֹדִים
The plural form extends the same word family into the language of affection.
THE PATTERN
A covenant carries present loyalty forward, binding a promise to a household and those who come after.
On that day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the oath of the LORD that was between them, David and Jonathan the son of Saul.Now the God of wholeness, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the covenant of the ages,THE THREAD
On that day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.Genesis uses the same Hebrew covenant expression, “cut a covenant” (karat berit), so the verb here carries the same binding force. There, the covenant names land and descendants; here, Jonathan binds himself to David’s house and calls the LORD to seek an answer from its enemies.
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