Bible Strands
1 Samuel 20:29
saying, ‘Please let me go, because our clan is holding a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has told me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me go and see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jonathan reports David’s excuse to Saul after David fails to appear at the king’s New Moon feast. The speech occurs during a tense confrontation where Saul has already turned hostile toward his son.
The words — שַלֵּךְ (sha.le.Che./ni) literally means “let go” or “send away,” paired with נָא (na') for urgent pleading. זֶבַח (ze.Vach) and מִשְׁפָּחָה (mish.pa.Chah) specify the claimed reason as a clan sacrifice.
The thread — The excuse invokes a brother and a family gathering, mirroring the familial friction recorded in 1 Samuel 17:28 where Eliab confronts David.
Why it lands — The text records David’s fabricated excuse to escape Saul’s lethal jealousy. It asks the reader to observe how survival instinct drives the faithful to manipulate truth when facing unchecked political violence.
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
And he said, Let me go, I pray thee; for our family hath a sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he hath commanded me to be there: and now, if I have found favour in thine eyes, let me get away, I pray thee, and see my brethren. Therefore he cometh not unto the king’s table.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 17:28 Now when David’s oldest brother Eliab heard him speaking to the men, his anger burned against David. “Why have you come down here?” he asked. “And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and wickedness of heart—you have come down to see the battle!”