Bible Strands
1 Samuel 20:5
So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I am supposed to dine with the king. Instead, let me go and hide in the field until the third evening from now.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David speaks to Jonathan, stating that tomorrow is the New Moon feast and requesting permission to conceal himself in the field until the third evening.
The words — The Hebrew חֹדֶשׁ (chodesh) marks the monthly festival, and מָחָר (machar) fixes the timeline to tomorrow.
The thread — This New Moon observance corresponds to the monthly offerings in Numbers 28:11 and the appointed feasts in Numbers 10:10, while the concealment request follows the earlier warning in 1 Samuel 19:2.
Why it lands — The text records David’s stated plan to avoid the king’s table and Jonathan’s proposed cover story, requiring the reader to track the immediate political danger and the mechanics of royal protocol.
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 David said unto Jonathan, Behold, to morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even.
Cross-references
- Numbers 10:10 And on your joyous occasions, your appointed feasts, and the beginning of each month, you are to blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and peace offerings to serve as a reminder for you before your God. I am the LORD your God.”
- Numbers 28:11 At the beginning of every month, you are to present to the LORD a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old, all unblemished,
- 1 Samuel 19:2 so he warned David, saying, “My father Saul intends to kill you. Be on your guard in the morning; find a secret place and hide there.
- Psalms 81:3 Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and at the full moon on the day of our Feast.
- 1 Samuel 20:6 If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David urgently requested my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because there is an annual sacrifice for his whole clan.’
- 1 Samuel 20:19 When you have stayed three days, hurry down to the place you hid on the day this trouble began, and remain beside the stone Ezel.
- Psalms 55:12 For it is not an enemy who insults me; that I could endure. It is not a foe who rises against me; from him I could hide.
- Proverbs 22:3 The prudent see danger and take cover, but the simple keep going and suffer the consequences.
- John 8:59 At this, they picked up stones to throw at Him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple area.
- Acts 17:14 The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea.