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?
David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan. He could not remain in Naioth, because he had strong reason to fear that when the religious fit, if we may so call it, was ever, Saul would relapse into his usual fell and sanguinary temper. It may be thought that David acted imprudently in directing his flight to Gibeah. But he was evidently prompted to go there by the most generous feelings, to inform his friend of what had recently occurred, and to obtain that friend's sanction to the course he was compelled to adopt. Jonathan could not be persuaded there was any real danger after the oath his father had taken; at all events, he felt assured his father would do nothing without telling him. Filial attachment naturally blinded the prince to defects in the parental character, and made him reluctant to believe his father capable of such atrocity. David repeated his unshaken convictions of Saul's murderous purpose, confirming his declaration by a special form of oath, which occurs here for the first time, but in terms delicately chosen (1 Samuel 20:3) not to wound the filial feelings of his friend; while Jonathan, clinging, it would seem, to a hope that the extraordinary scene enacted at Naioth might have worked a sanctified improvement on Saul's temper and feelings, undertook to inform David of the result of his observations at home.