1 Samuel 23:16 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

And Jonathan Saul’s son arose, and went to David. — Some have wished to show that the account of the last interview between the friends really belongs to the secret meeting between David and Jonathan recounted in 1 Samuel 20, and that it has got transposed; but such a view is quite untenable, for the narrative here is circumstantial, and even mentions the scene of the interview — “the wood,” or, less probable, the town named “Horesh.” The expression “strengthened his hand in God” is added by the narrator to show how sorely tried was the king of the future at this juncture, notwithstanding that so many gallant spirits rallied round him. The determined and relentless hostility of the king of the land, his sovereign, and once his friend — the apparent hopelessness of his struggle — the cruel ingratitude of whole bodies of his fellow countrymen, such as the men of Ziph — his homeless, outlawed condition: all these things naturally weighed upon the nervous and enthusiastic temperament of David, which was soon depressed. His sad forebodings in his desolateness and loneliness at this time are breathed forth in not a few of the Psalms which tradition ascribes to him. At such a juncture the warm sympathy, the steady onlook to a sunnier future of one like Jonathan was a real help to David. Jonathan was far-sighted enough when David’s fortunes were at their lowest ebb to look confidently forward to a time when all these thick dark clouds of trouble should have passed away. Jonathan, we know (1 Samuel 20:14-15) possessed sufficient confidence in David’s future fortune even to ask the hunted exile to remember him, the prince, with kindness when he should have come into his kingdom. Such warm sympathy, such glowing trustful words, we may well imagine, raised the spirits of the outlaw, and gave him new courage to face the grave difficulties of his dangerous position.