Some people, reading this and succeeding chapters, conclude that Jonathan and David are, uhm, well, ahem. . . There's really no way for us to know how this bromance would have been understood by the Israelites in the 7th Century BCE when this was written. It is furthermore a fictional account of events centuries earlier, a nationalist mythology like King Arthur or The Aeneid, probably based on earlier written sources which have been lost, which in turn probably originated in oral tradition.
Homosexual acts are clearly forbidden in the Torah. On the other hand, Torah law has disappeared from the Deuteronomic history before. The Midianite Ruth married into the Israelites, which the Torah unequivocally forbids, and nobody batted an eye. In Judges, non-Levites perform sacrifices, and there is even an instance of the veneration of images. Still, I think this is probably just supposed to be an intense friendship. Nevertheless, there is a good deal else that is quite strange about the story of the next few chapters. I'll comment along the way.
18 After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. 2 From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. 3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
Yeah, he got naked. Probably just platonic. In the last chapter I noted that the bow and arrow had yet to appear in the Tanakh. Here it is for the first time. Jonathan is the first bowman.
5 Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David was so successful that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the troops, and Saul’s officers as well.
6 When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. 7 As they danced, they sang:
“Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands.”
A very strange thing for them to sing because at this point, Saul has indeed killed tens of thousands but David, as far as we know, has killed exactly one person. That the number of people killed is the marker of a leader's greatness tells us exactly where we are morally.
8 Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” 9 And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David.
10 The next day an evil[a] spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand 11 and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice.
This exact scenario will be repeated in the following chapter, again showing the composite nature of this material.
12 Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had departed from Saul. 13 So he sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men, and David led the troops in their campaigns. 14 In everything he did he had great success, because the Lord was with him. 15 When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in their campaigns.
Again the anachronism of separate kingdoms of Israel and Judah. That will not happen until much later.
17 Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage; only serve me bravely and fight the battles of the Lord.” For Saul said to himself, “I will not raise a hand against him. Let the Philistines do that!”
18 But David said to Saul, “Who am I, and what is my family or my clan in Israel, that I should become the king’s son-in-law?” 19 So[b] when the time came for Merab, Saul’s daughter, to be given to David, she was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah.
20 Now Saul’s daughter Michal was in love with David, and when they told Saul about it, he was pleased. 21 “I will give her to him,” he thought, “so that she may be a snare to him and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “Now you have a second opportunity to become my son-in-law.”
22 Then Saul ordered his attendants: “Speak to David privately and say, ‘Look, the king likes you, and his attendants all love you; now become his son-in-law.’”
23 They repeated these words to David. But David said, “Do you think it is a small matter to become the king’s son-in-law? I’m only a poor man and little known.”
24 When Saul’s servants told him what David had said, 25 Saul replied, “Say to David, ‘The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.’” Saul’s plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines.
26 When the attendants told David these things, he was pleased to become the king’s son-in-law. So before the allotted time elapsed, 27 David took his men with him and went out and killed two hundred Philistines and brought back their foreskins. They counted out the full number to the king so that David might become the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.
The original price for Michal was only 100 foreskins, but David pays double. Did Saul have the foreskins framed, or what? Imagine the process on the battlefield of removing the enemies' foreskins.
28 When Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, 29 Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days.
30 The Philistine commanders continued to go out to battle, and as often as they did, David met with more success than the rest of Saul’s officers, and his name became well known.
Footnotes
- 1 Samuel 18:10 Or a harmful
- 1 Samuel 18:19 Or However,
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