Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 20:14

"And thou shalt not only while yet I live show me the lovingkindness of Jehovah, that I die not;" — 1 Samuel 20:14 (ASV)

And thou shalt not only while yet I live shew me the kindness of the Lord, that I die not. — The Hebrew of this and the next verse is again very confused, abrupt, and ungrammatical, but this is evidently to be attributed to the violent emotion of the speaker.

We have, doubtless (as suggested above), David’s own report of what took place. The words of his dead friend had, no doubt, impressed themselves with a sad accuracy on his heart.

The Syriac and Arabic renderings have been followed by Maurer, Ewald, Keil, Lange, and others, who change v’lo (“and not”) in the first two clauses of 1 Samuel 20:14 into the interjection v’lu (meaning “O that,” or “would that”).

They render them: And mayest thou, if I still live, show to me the favour of the Lord, and if I die, not withdraw thy favour from my house forever, not even when Jehovah shall cut off the enemies of David, every one from the face of the earth.

The last words, when Jehovah shall cut off, tell us with striking clearness how thoroughly Jonathan was convinced that in the end David’s cause, as the cause of their God, would surely triumph.

Mournfully, he anticipated his father’s downfall and his own premature death. In full view of this, he pleaded for his friend's commitment on behalf of his own children—though his friend would probably become an exile and outlaw within a few hours.

He foresaw that before many years passed, his children would be landless, homeless orphans.