John Gill Commentary 1 Samuel 20

And David fled from Naioth in Ramah
While Saul was prophesying, or lay in a trance there:

and came ;
to Gibeah, where Saul dwelt, and had his palace, and kept his court:

and said before Jonathan ;
whom he found there, and for whose sake he thither fled to have his advice, and to use his interest with his father, and be his friend at court:

what have I done? what [is] mine iniquity? and what [is] my sin before
your father, that he seeks my life ?
surely, as if he should say, I must have been guilty of some very great crime, and yet I am not sensible of it; can you tell me what it is that has so provoked your father, that nothing will satisfy him but the taking away of my life, which he seeks to do?

And he said unto him, God forbid, you shall not die
He could not believe his father had any such intention; and that if he discovered anything of that kind, it was only when he was in a frenzy, and a melancholy disorder had seized him; and that David had nothing to fear on that head, and that he would secure him from all danger in that respect; the thing was too gross and detestable to be credited:

behold, my father will do nothing, either great or small, but that he
will show it me ;
such an interest had he in him, and in his favour, being his son and heir to his crown, and having done many warlike exploits, which had the more endeared him to him, that he made him privy to all his secret designs, and took his opinion in all matters of moment and importance:

and why should my father hide this thing from me ?
his design of taking away the life of David, if he had really formed one:

it [is] not [so] ;
Jonathan concluded, from his ignorance of it, there was nothing in it, and that it was only a surmise of David's; and yet it is strange that Jonathan should know nothing of the messengers being sent to David's house to take him, and of others sent to Naioth after him, and of Saul's going there himself with such a design; and if he did know anything of the matter, he made the best of it to David, partly to allay his fears, and partly that his father might not appear so black and vile as he really was.

And David swore moreover, and said
To assure Jonathan of the truth of it, that he did most certainly seek after his life, of which, as he had no doubt himself, by an oath he endeavoured to remove any that might be in Jonathan, who was not willing to believe his father could be guilty of so foul a crime:

your father certainly knows that I have found grace in your eyes :
that he was high in his favour, that he had a great value for him, and he had a large share in his love and friendship, and that was the reason why he hid from him his base intentions:

and he says, let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved ;
as he would be, both for the evil his father would be guilty of, and the danger David, his beloved friend, would be in:

but truly, [as] the Lord lives, and [as] your soul lives, [there is]
but a step between me and death ;
as appeared by his casting a javelin at him, (1 Samuel 18:11) , sending messengers to his own house to slay him, (1 Samuel 19:11) , and others to Naioth to seize him, (1 Samuel 19:20) , and coming himself thither with an intention to kill him, (1 Samuel 19:22 1 Samuel 19:23) .

And in each of these instances he had a narrow escape for his life; and this he declared in the most solemn manner by an oath, for the confirmation of the truth of it to Jonathan.

Then said Jonathan unto David
Now giving credit to what he had said, and in order to comfort and support him under the apprehensions he had of danger:

whatsoever your soul desireth, I will even do [it] for thee ;
for the preservation of his life, by speaking to his father on his behalf, endeavouring to dissuade him from his evil intentions, or by hiding and concealing him in some obscure place, that he might not execute his evil designs upon him, or by any method he could point out to him.

And David said to Jonathan
Moved that the following method might be taken as a trial of the disposition of Saul's mind towards David:

behold, tomorrow [is] the new moon ;
the first day of the month, which was kept solemnly with burnt offerings and peace offerings, see (Numbers 10:10) (28:11) . Some say ^F18 this feast was not kept for the new moon, but because it was the day of the feast of trumpets or the first day of the new year, which fell together on that day; the calends, or first day of the month, was with the Heathens sacred to deity ^F19 , in imitation of the Jews:

and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat ;
it had been usual for him at such a time to sit at table with the king; next to him, as Jarchi interprets it, either as his son-in-law, or as one of his princes; the custom being for the king, and his family and nobles, to eat together on that day upon the peace offerings; and it was the duty of David to attend at that time, and it might be expected he would:

but let me go ;
he asked [leave] of Jonathan, who had power in his father's absence to grant it, he not being yet returned from Naioth:

that I may hide myself in the fields, to the third [day] at even ;
or until the time of the evening of the third day, as the Targum, which was the evening of the second day of the month; for that was the third from that evening they were discoursing together, as Ben Gersom observes;

the fields he proposed to hide himself in were near to Gibeah, and he doubtless meant some cave in those fields, where he might be, and not be seen by men; though it cannot be thought that he remained, or proposed to remain, in such a place during that time, where he would be in want of food, but that he would abide incognito among his friends somewhere or another, until the festival was over.

FOOTNOTES:

• F18: Weemse's Expos. Ceremon. Law, c. 22. p. 100, 101.
• F19: Macrob. Saturnal. l. 1. c. 15. Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 3. c. 18. in fine.