What Does 1 Samuel 20:42 Mean in the King James?
And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the LORD, saying, The LORD be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever. And he arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Peace here is a bond that remains whole through parting and reaches into the lives of descendants.
THE MEANING
The verse holds departure and enduring promise together: leaving does not by itself cancel the bond. The oath is spoken in the LORD’s shem (שֵׁם, shem: name as nature), grounding the pledged relation in the character it invokes and extending it to both lines of descendants. The peace here is wholeness carried through distance, not proof that sorrow or danger is absent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that parting must end a bond: the departure is real, yet the promise reaches beyond the two who speak it.
THE ROOT
נִשְׁבַּעְנוּ
nishba'nu
GROWS FROM
שׁבע
sh-b-ʿ
To swear an oath; the same consonantal form also appears in the word for seven.
“sworn” in this verse is nishba'nu. The verb for swearing shares its form with שֶׁבַע (sheva, seven), a word family traditionally linked with oath and solemn completeness. Here, the repeated language of both of us and between me and thee makes the pledge mutual, and its reach extends to both lines of descendants.
ALSO GROWS
sheva: Seven
שֶׁבַע
Its shared form links the oath with a traditional sense of a pledge made complete and solemn.
shevuah: Oath
שְׁבוּעָה
This noun names the binding pledge expressed by the verb sworn.
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; to make whole.
“peace” in this verse is shalom. Shalom grows from a root that also speaks of wholeness and making good what is owed. The word holds more than a quiet parting: the relationship remains intact even as David leaves.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the wholeness within Jonathan’s farewell audible.
shillem: Repay, make good what is owed
שִׁלֵּם
This branch shows the root’s connection to restoring what is due, adding relational integrity to the word peace.
זַרְעֲךָ
zar'acha
GROWS FROM
זרע
z-r-ʿ
To sow; seed or offspring.
The Hebrew word names both seed and descendants, joining what is planted with the generations that grow from it. The promise reaches beyond the two who part because the word itself carries their lines forward.
ALSO GROWS
zaraʿ: To sow
זָרַע
The verb reveals the action held inside the image of seed: what is planted continues beyond the moment of planting.
zeraʿ: Seed, offspring
זֶרַע
The same word names both the seed and the descendants promised between Jonathan and David.
THE PATTERN
A sworn bond can remain active across separation and extend into a family line.
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,THE THREAD
Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba; because there they sware both of them.The Hebrew root שׁבע (shaba, swear an oath) underlies both sware and sworn, and both verses describe a mutual pledge. In Genesis the oath gives a place its name; here the pledge carries peace into both lines of descendants.
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