Bible Strands
1 Samuel 20:34
Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger and did not eat any food that second day of the month, for he was grieved by his father’s shameful treatment of David.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jonathan acts alone at the royal table immediately after his father Saul attempts to kill him with a spear. He withdraws from the feast on the second day of the new moon to process his realization that Saul intends to kill David.
The words — The Hebrew בְּחֹרִי אָף (becho'ri af) literally translates to "in the heat of anger," describing Jonathan's sudden emotional rupture. His refusal to eat (וְלֹא אָכַל) physically manifests his grief over Saul's treatment of David.
The thread — This verse intersects with Mark 3:5, where Jesus views people with anger and sorrow at hardened hearts, and Ephesians 4:26, which commands believers to be angry yet not sin. It also echoes the universal human frailty noted in Ecclesiastes 7:20 regarding righteous people who still sin.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that righteous grief over injustice can manifest in raw, unfiltered emotion without requiring immediate justification. It asks the reader to observe how loyalty to God's anointed can fracture family ties when authority turns destructive.
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 arose from the table in fierce anger, and did eat no meat the second day of the month: for he was grieved for David, because his father had done him shame.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 7:20 Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
- Mark 3:5 Jesus looked around at them with anger and sorrow at their hardness of heart. Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored.
- Ephesians 4:26 “Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger,