Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 23:17

"And he said unto him, Fear not; for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth." — 1 Samuel 23:17 (ASV)

And I shall be next unto thee. — To us—who read a few pages further in the record of these times how this same generous, loving friend found a grave on Mount Gilboa instead of a home with David, whom he admired with such ungrudging admiration—these words of Jonathan possess a pathetic interest of their own. That brave, romantic career was nearly over when he met David for the last time in the woods of Ziph.

As far as we can judge, if Jonathan had lived, he would have certainly ceded any rights he had to the throne of his father Saul in favour of David, unlike that other comparatively unknown son of Saul, Ishbosheth, who set himself up as a rival claimant to the son of Jesse. But his generosity was not to be exposed to any such severe test, and David was spared the presence of such a rival as the gallant and gifted Jonathan would undoubtedly have been to him.

And that also Saul my father knoweth. — It is very likely by this time that the circumstance of Samuel’s mysterious anointing of the son of Jesse years before at Bethlehem had become known to Saul. Now that David had been openly proclaimed a public enemy, and the king had repeatedly and openly sought his life, there was no reason for any concealment. No doubt, by this time very many in Israel looked on him as the anointed successor of Saul. The covenant alluded to in the next verse was, of course, the old covenant of eternal friendship which they had made when they parted outside Gibeah at the New Moon feast, as we find related at length in 1 Samuel 20.

After this meeting, David never looked on Jonathan’s face again in life.

“Oh, heart of fire! misjudged by willful man,
You flower of Jesse’s race!
What woe was yours when you and Jonathan
Last greeted face to face!
He doomed to die, you on us to impress
The portent of a blood-stained holiness.”

Lyra Apostolica.