And thou shalt not only while yet I live shew me the kindness of the Lord, that I die not. — The Hebrew of this and the next verse is again very confused, abrupt, and ungrammatical, but this is evidently to be attributed to the violent emotion of the speaker. We have, doubtless (as above suggested). David’s own report of what took place, and the words of his dead friend had, no doubt, impressed themselves with a sad accuracy on his heart.
The Syriac and Arabic renderings have been followed by Maurer, Ewald, Keil, Lange, and others, who change v’lo (“and not”) in the first two clauses of 1 Samuel 20:14, into the interjection v’lu (and “O that,” or “would that”). They render them, “And mayest thou, if I still live, show to me the favour of the Lord, and if I die, not withdraw thy favour from my house for ever, not even when Jehovah shall cut off the enemies of David, every one from the face of the earth.”
The last words, “when Jehovah shall cut off,” tells us with striking clearness how thoroughly convinced was Jonathan that in the end David’s cause, as the cause of their God, would surely triumph. Mournfully he looked on to his father’s downfall and his own (Jonathan’s) premature death; and in full view of this he bespoke the interest of his friend — though his friend would probably in a few hours become an exile and outlaw — on behalf of his own (Jonathan’s) children, who would, he foresaw, before many years had expired, be landless, homeless orphans.