1 Samuel 20:8

Therefore, show mercy to your servant. For you have brought me, your servant, into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is any iniquity in me, you may kill me, and you shall not lead me in to your father.”

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

Therefore thou shalt deal kindly with thy servant; for thou hast brought thy servant into a covenant of the LORD with thee: notwithstanding, if there be in me iniquity, slay me thyself; for why shouldest thou bring me to thy father?

In Context

7If he will say, ‘It is well,’ then your servant will have peace. But if he will be angry, know that his malice has reached its height.

9And Jonathan said: “May this be far from you. For certainly, if I ever realized that any wickedness was determined by my father against you, I would not be able to do anything other than report it to you.”

Read all of 1 Samuel 20

Cross References

Genesis 24:49For this reason, if you would act according to mercy and truth with my lord, tell me so. But if it pleases you otherwise, say that to me also, so that I may go either to the right, or to the left.”

Joshua 2:14They responded to her: “May our lives be yours unto death, if only you do not betray us. And when the Lord will have delivered the land to us, we will act toward you with mercy and truth.”

Ruth 1:8She said to them, “Go to the home of your mother. May the Lord deal mercifully with you, just as you have dealt with the dead and with me.

1 Samuel 18:3Then David and Jonathan formed a pact. For he loved him like his own soul.

1 Samuel 23:18Therefore, they both struck a pact before the Lord. And David stayed in the woods. But Jonathan returned to his house.

1 Chronicles 12:17And David went out to meet them, and he said: “If you have arrived peacefully, so as to be a help to me, may my heart be joined to you; but if to betray me to my adversaries, though I have no iniquity in my hands, may the God of our fathers see and judge.”

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 20:2-9

David Consults Jonathan. ( b. c. 1058.) 1 And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life? 2 And he said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die: behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will shew it me: and why should my father hide this thing from me? it is not so. 3 And David sware moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study 1 Samuel 20:8