1 Samuel 20:18

Then Jonathan said to David, To morrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) Thou shalt be missed.—Well then, resumes Jonathan—after the passionate conclusion of the solemn covenant betwixt the friends—the last trial shall be as you propose. At the State banquet of my father tomorrow your seat, as agreed upon, will be empty, then you and I—when King Saul misses you—will know the worst.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:11-23 Jonathan faithfully promises that he would let David know how he found his father affected towards him. It will be kindness to ourselves and to ours, to secure an interest in those whom God favours, and to make his friends ours. True friendship rests on a firm basis, and is able to silence ambition, self-love, and undue regard for others. But who can fully understand the love of Jesus, who gave himself as a sacrifice for rebellious, polluted sinners! how great then ought to be the force and effects of our love to him, to his cause, and his people!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The general meaning is: Jonathan had a presentiment, doubtless from God, that David would be established upon the throne. By God's mercy he had the comfort, which he well deserved, of knowing that his own posterity would receive kindness at David's hand (see the marginal references).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

1Sa 20:11-23. Their Covenant Renewed by Oath.

11. Jonathan said to David, Come, let us go into the field—The private dialogue, which is here detailed at full length, presents a most beautiful exhibition of these two amiable and noble-minded friends. Jonathan was led, in the circumstances, to be the chief speaker. The strength of his attachment, his pure disinterestedness, his warm piety, his invocation to God (consisting of a prayer and a solemn oath combined), the calm and full expression he gave of his conviction that his own family were, by the divine will, to be disinherited, and David elevated to the possession of the throne, the covenant entered into with David on behalf of his descendants, and the imprecation (1Sa 20:16) denounced on any of them who should violate his part of the conditions, the reiteration of this covenant on both sides (1Sa 20:17) to make it indissoluble—all this indicates such a power of mutual affection, such magnetic attractiveness in the character of David, such susceptibility and elevation of feeling in the heart of Jonathan, that this interview for dramatic interest and moral beauty stands unrivalled in the records of human friendship.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thy seat, i.e. the place where David used to sit at meals with Saul. See 1 Samuel 20:25.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then Jonathan said to David, tomorrow is the new moon,.... The first day of the month, as David had before observed, 1 Samuel 20:5,

and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty; or be inquired after, because not in his usual place at mealtime.

Geneva Study Bible

Then Jonathan said to David, To morrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. thy seat will be empty] At the sacrificial feast. See 1 Samuel 20:5; 1 Samuel 20:25.

18–42. This section is the Haphtarah for the New Moon when it falls on the first day of the week.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 18, 19. - Jonathan now arranges his plan for communicating the result to David. For when thou hast stayed three days, at which all the versions stumble, a slight alteration gives the right sense: "And on the third day." David on the third day was to go down quickly - Hebrew, "greatly, i.e. he was to go a long way down into the valley. The rendering quickly is taken from the Vulgate, but makes no sense. It did not matter whether David went fast or slow, as he was to hide there for some time, but it was important that David should be far away, so that no prying eye might chance to catch sight of him. When the business was in hand. Literally, "the day of the business," probably that narrated in 1 Samuel 19:2-7. The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Chaldee all understand "a working day," in opposition to a feast day; but "where thou didst hide thyself on a week day" gives no intelligible meaning. By the stone Ezel. As the name Ezel is formed from a verb signifying to go, some understand by it a road stone, a stone to mark the way. 1 Samuel 20:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

He then discussed the sign with him for letting him know about his father's state of mind: "To-morrow is new moon, and thou wilt be missed, for thy seat will be empty," sc., at Saul's table (see at 1 Samuel 20:5). "And on the third day come down quickly (from thy sojourning place), and go to the spot where thou didst hide thyself on the day of the deed, and place thyself by the side of the stone Ezel." The first words in this (19th) verse are not without difficulty. The meaning "on the third day" for the verb שׁלּשׁ cannot be sustained by parallel passages, but is fully established, partly by השּׁלשׁית, the third day, and partly by the Arabic usage (vid., Ges. Thes. s. v.). מאד after תּרד, lit., "go violently down," is more striking still. Nevertheless the correctness of the text is not to be called in question, since שׁלּשׁתּ is sustained by τρισσεύσει in the Septuagint, and מאד תּרד by descende ergo festinus in the Vulgate, and also by the rendering in the Chaldee, Arabic, and Syriac versions, "and on the third day thou wilt be missed still more," which is evidently merely a conjecture founded upon the context. The meaning of המּעשׂה בּיום is doubtful. Gesenius, De Wette, and Maurer render it "on the day of the deed," and understand it as referring to Saul's deed mentioned in 1 Samuel 19:2, viz., his design of killing David; others render it "on the day of business," i.e., the working day (Luther, after the lxx and Vulgate), but this is not so good a rendering. The best is probably that of Thenius, "on the day of the business" (which is known to thee). Nothing further can be said concerning the stone Ezel than that Ezel is a proper name.