Read the passage and its setting
1 Samuel 20:35–20:42, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
1 Samuel 20:35–20:42
Jonathan and David part under covenant peace
The Main Point
Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants.
What Is Happening Here?
Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants.
What Came Before—and What Comes Next?
1 Samuel 20:24–20:34 has just established this movement: At two new-moon meals Saul questions David's absence, abuses Jonathan and his mother, argues from succession, orders David's death, and throws a javelin at Jonathan, who leaves grieving.
1 Samuel 21:1–21:7 next develops the story this way: Ahimelech fears at David's arrival; David invents a royal assignment, negotiates for bread, and receives consecrated loaves while Doeg is present.
Follow the Transition to Kingship
See why this section appears here and how the author's scene leads to its meaning.
Why Is This Passage Here?
Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants. Its placement makes the contrast with the neighboring scene part of the interpretation.
Follow the Scene
Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants.
The scene's speech, action, or evaluation sets up the next movement without making every narrated choice exemplary.
What Is the Author Saying?
Why This Interpretation Fits
Narrative movement
Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants.
Language control
The KJV indicates David's weeping became greater; it does not rank the sincerity of either man's grief.
Ethical boundary
Their farewell must not be mocked or desexualized by assumption, but the kiss and tears also do not settle every modern claim about their relationship.
Understand the Meaning and Its Boundaries
Clarify the words that matter and keep the conclusion no broader than the passage allows.
Words That Matter
until David exceeded
See the cited Masoretic Hebrew record ·
The KJV indicates David's weeping became greater; it does not rank the sincerity of either man's grief.
What the Passage Is Not Saying
Reading 1 Samuel 20:35–20:42 within the complete received narrative rules out these uses:
Their farewell must not be mocked or desexualized by assumption, but the kiss and tears also do not settle every modern claim about their relationship.
Context check: Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants. Reading the action, response, and consequence together keeps the unit from becoming a free-standing rule.
What Remains True Today
The durable responsibility is to protect people from detached uses of this scene while retaining its warranted claim: Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants.
Respond and Remember
Let the meaning shape life carefully, then practice explaining the section in context.
How This Should Shape Us
Why these applications follow
Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants.
Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants. Reading the action, response, and consequence together keeps the unit from becoming a free-standing rule.
The durable responsibility is to protect people from detached uses of this scene while retaining its warranted claim: Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants.
What accountable response follows?
Use “Jonathan and David part under covenant peace” to examine accountable action, not to copy ancient power. Preserve the specific limit: Their farewell must not be mocked or desexualized by assumption, but the kiss and tears also do not settle every modern claim about their relationship.
A Concrete Example
When a leader appeals to this scene, document the actual analogy, the people affected, the alternatives not considered, and the limit stated here: Their farewell must not be mocked or desexualized by assumption, but the kiss and tears also do not settle every modern claim about their relationship.
Teach It Back
Explain 1 Samuel 20:35–20:42 in your own words, including its movement, one source-controlled detail, one uncertainty, one affected person, and one misuse the context rules out.
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Go Deeper
The main explanation above stands on its own. Open these optional sections for fuller language, history, disagreements, and source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Narrative movement
Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants.
Language control
The KJV indicates David's weeping became greater; it does not rank the sincerity of either man's grief.
Ethical boundary
Their farewell must not be mocked or desexualized by assumption, but the kiss and tears also do not settle every modern claim about their relationship.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
until David exceeded
The KJV indicates David's weeping became greater; it does not rank the sincerity of either man's grief.
How certain? probableWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Ancient setting and recoverable limits
Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants. Historical and social reconstruction remains limited by the received narrative, textual plurality, and selective comparative evidence; no source proves every speech, motive, number, miracle, or theological explanation.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV language and material alternatives
The KJV expression “until David exceeded” is read with the Masoretic wording and the inspected NET notes. The KJV indicates David's weeping became greater; it does not rank the sincerity of either man's grief. Material textual differences remain visible where they affect the unit.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Torah, Judges, Samuel-Kings, and Jewish reading
Judges, Torah, and the continuing Samuel-Kings narrative provide the nearest literary and theological horizon; their ancient peoples and conflicts must not be flattened into modern labels.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Responsible canonical connections
Later biblical reception may compare monarchy, anointing, lament, covenant, and kingship only after this unit's own ancient setting and literary work are established.
How certain? probableTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
Textual and reconstruction limits
Ancient male affection, covenant politics, and homoerotic interpretations remain live alternatives; the text explicitly presents love, embodied grief, and enduring obligation.
How certain? probableWhere careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful readers disagree?
Best judgment: Ancient male affection, covenant politics, and homoerotic interpretations remain live alternatives; the text explicitly presents love, embodied grief, and enduring obligation.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
The received narrative joins divine judgment or mercy with accountable human action: Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
Within 1 Samuel's received movement from Shiloh through contested monarchy to Gilboa, Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants.
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
Their farewell must not be mocked or desexualized by assumption, but the kiss and tears also do not settle every modern claim about their relationship.
A vivid line from 1 Samuel 20:35–20:42 can be detached from its speaker, literary form, ancient power, affected people, material uncertainty, and later qualification.
Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants. Reading the action, response, and consequence together keeps the unit from becoming a free-standing rule.
The durable responsibility is to protect people from detached uses of this scene while retaining its warranted claim: Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants.
The text-supported movement remains: Jonathan gives the arrow signal, dismisses the lad, meets David, and the two kiss, weep, and separate under a covenant extending to descendants.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
1 Samuel 20:35–20:42, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 20:35–20:42–21:1; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 20:35–20:42
Supports: A diachronic political-covenant study that keeps succession and affection visible without settling homoerotic interpretation.
Johnson, Politics and Covenant in the Divine Davidic Kinship, Cambridge PhD thesis (2023), Jonathan covenant pp. 29–69; 1 Samuel 18:1–5 pp. 41–49; 20:1–42 pp. 50–62; 23:15–18 pp. 63–65
Supports: Only the publisher-visible book architecture and theological scope; the paywalled body is not treated as inspected.
Goldingay, The Theology of the Book of Samuel (2024), official frontmatter and TOC: 1 Samuel 13:1–20:42[21:1], pp. 77–110
Supports: One literary, ethical, and political account of divine and human violence; publisher-visible scope does not establish consensus.
Gilmour, Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel (2021/2022), official abstract and TOC: relevant discussion for 1 Samuel 20:35–20:42, including 1 Samuel 12 pp. 71–81, Saul's rejection pp. 90–139, Eli's house pp. 140–150, or ark violence pp. 154–185 as applicable
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: 1 Samuel 20:35–20:42, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 20:35–20:42–21:1; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: 1 Samuel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 20:35–20:42
Open source ↗open access doctoral thesis
Politics and Covenant in the Divine Davidic Kinship
Sophia Ruth Carter Johnson
University of Cambridge, 2023
Supports: A diachronic political-covenant study that keeps succession and affection visible without settling homoerotic interpretation.
Exact location: Johnson, Politics and Covenant in the Divine Davidic Kinship, Cambridge PhD thesis (2023), Jonathan covenant pp. 29–69; 1 Samuel 18:1–5 pp. 41–49; 20:1–42 pp. 50–62; 23:15–18 pp. 63–65
Open source ↗scholarly monograph frontmatter and table of contents
The Theology of the Book of Samuel
John Goldingay
Cambridge University Press, 2024
Supports: Only the publisher-visible book architecture and theological scope; the paywalled body is not treated as inspected.
Exact location: Goldingay, The Theology of the Book of Samuel (2024), official frontmatter and TOC: 1 Samuel 13:1–20:42[21:1], pp. 77–110
Open source ↗scholarly monograph abstract and contents
Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel
Rachelle Gilmour
Oxford University Press, 2021 online; 2022 print
Supports: One literary, ethical, and political account of divine and human violence; publisher-visible scope does not establish consensus.
Exact location: Gilmour, Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel (2021/2022), official abstract and TOC: relevant discussion for 1 Samuel 20:35–20:42, including 1 Samuel 12 pp. 71–81, Saul's rejection pp. 90–139, Eli's house pp. 140–150, or ark violence pp. 154–185 as applicable
Open source ↗