Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 20:9

"And Jonathan said, Far be it from thee; for if I should at all know that evil were determined by my father to come upon thee, then would not I tell it thee?" — 1 Samuel 20:9 (ASV)

Far be it from you. —Vulgate, absit hoc a te. This strong expression bears emphatic testimony to Jonathan’s implicit belief in his loved friend’s stainless loyalty. He indignantly refuses to take his life, or even to allow that life to be touched by his father. The sentences here are broken; the one that follows is left, in the Hebrew, incomplete. They reveal the agitation and deep feeling of the chivalrous, indignant speaker.