Bible Strands
1 Samuel 20:16
So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD hold David’s enemies accountable.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jonathan addresses David during their clandestine meeting, formalizing their alliance as Saul’s pursuit of David reaches its peak.
The words — וַיִּכְרֹת (va/yi.kh.rot) signifies the formal act of cutting or establishing a covenant, and וּבִקֵּשׁ (u/vi.kesh) means he will require or hold accountable.
The thread — Jonathan’s covenant action directly continues the pact recorded in 1 Samuel 18:3 and operates within the same biblical framework of sworn divine guarantee seen in Genesis 15:18.
Why it lands — The verse first states Jonathan’s spoken invocation that Yahweh hold David’s enemies accountable, then records the mutual vow of loyalty between the two men. It requires a reader to recognize that binding human loyalty is grounded in a shared appeal to divine justice and remembrance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
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.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 25:22 May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one male belonging to Nabal survive until morning.”
- 1 Samuel 18:3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.
- Genesis 15:18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—
- 1 Samuel 31:2 The Philistines hotly pursued Saul and his sons, and they killed Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.
- 2 Samuel 4:7 They had entered the house while Ish-bosheth was lying on his bed, and having stabbed and killed him, they beheaded him, took his head, and traveled all night by way of the Arabah.
- 2 Samuel 21:8 But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, as well as the five sons whom Merab daughter of Saul had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.