The Greatest Pals of All Time

“I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was more wonderful Than the love of women.” –David^[1]

            Most know David slay Goliath. We know David was average size and Goliath was a monster of a man. We know David slay Goliath by throwing a stone with a sling. We know Michelangelo sculpted David. Few, however, learn that David became a king in part because of his friendship with Jonathan, the son of Saul, king of Israel.

This is the Bible’s greatest story of friendship. David and Jonathan were heroic figures of the ancient Kingdom of Israel. Their story is recorded in the books of Samuel. David was a shepherd. Jonathan was the son of Saul, the king. When Saul was ill David sung to him. Saul’s health improved and David had won the thanks of a king.

Later David asks to fight Goliath. Saul was surprised. Saul’s army was then in a standoff with the Philistine army. Goliath was taunting Saul’s army. He was daring any one of them to fight him. Saul finally allows David to fight Goliath. David approaches the well-armored Goliath with only his sling and a few rocks at the Valley of Elah. David flings his stone before Goliath can get close enough to cut him down with a sword. The rock slams into Goliath’s head. The giant man falls.

David’s victory over Goliath begins a rout of the Philistines who are driven back to Gath and the gates of Ekron. David cuts off Goliath’s head and brings it to Saul. Jonathan, who has also been fighting the Philistines, takes an immediate liking to David.

The Bible describes their immediate bond. “Now it came about when he had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself. Saul took him that day and did not let him return to his father’s house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, including his sword and his bow and his belt. So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and prospered; and Saul set him over the men of war.”^[2]

Saul soon makes David a commander over his armies and offers him his daughter in marriage. David continues to have success in battle. Jonathan fights alongside David. They become brothers in arms. However, as David’s popularity grows, Saul becomes alarmed. He asks, “What more can he have but the kingdom?”^[3]

Saul decides to kill David. Jonathan warns David to hide and David flees into the wilderness. Jonathan then approaches Saul to plead for David’s life. Saul turns his fear and wrath on his own son by saying, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?”^[4]

Jonathan is so disturbed he doesn’t eat for days. He finally goes to David in the wilderness and tells him that it’s not safe. “David rose from beside the stone heap and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He bowed three times, and they kissed each other, and wept….”^[5]

Eventually Saul and David were reconciled. Jonathan, however, is slain on Mt. Gilboa along with his two brothers Abinadab and Malchi-shua. In grief, Saul commits suicide. David learns of Saul and Jonathan’s death and chants a lament, which in part says, “Saul and Jonathan, beloved and pleasant in their life, And in their death they were not parted; They were swifter than eagles, They were stronger than lions....”^[6]

David also says, “I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was more wonderful Than the love of women.”

David soon becomes a king. His story has been repeated through the ages.

The sages characterized the relationship between Jonathan and David in the following Mishnah: “Whenever love depends on some selfish end, when the end passes away, the love passes away; but if it does not depend on some selfish end, it will never pass away. Which love depended on a selfish end? This was the love of Amnon and Tamar. And which did not depend on a selfish end? This was the love of David and Jonathan.”^[7]

^[1] Bible, 2 Samuel, 1:26

^[2] Bible, 1 Samuel, 18:1-4

^[3] Bible, 1 Samuel, 18:8.

^[4] Bible, 1 Samuel, 20:30

^[5] Bible, 1 Samuel, 20:41.

^[6] Bible, 2 Samuel, 1:23.

^[7] Avot 5:16 (http://www.uscj.org.il/haftarah/Toldot5765.html)