What was the covenant made by King David and his friend Johnathan?

Question

1 Samuel. 18: 3
3 Then Jonathan and David made a acovenant, because he loved him as his own soul.

Answer 1

I believe (from memory, not looking at the passage again) it was a covenant of loyalty. Jonathan would not betray David to his father Saul.

Answer 2

It was a loyalty thing. 1 Sam 20:4 " Whatever you want me to do for you, I will do for you."

For example, when Saul wanted to kill David, Jonathan warned David (1 Sam 19:3 ) that Saul wanted to kill him.

Jonathan adviced the king not to kill David, and Saul listened. Then Saul took the oath not to kill David. He broke it later...but in the end David proved that he is a good servant of the king. David could have taken his "shortcut" to kingdom to get " the promotion", but he refused to kill Saul when he had a good change. And then Saul realised that David is not his enemy.

More about that 1 Sam 18:3. As though there are NO indications in Scripture that David and Jonathan were homosexuals, some see the this intense love between David and David as they were homosexuals. If you look at how many wifes David had, it seems that he had too much hetorexuality. Jonathan and David had a very strong friendship. Like the word " blood brothers".

Answer 3

There were actually more than one promise that David and Jonathon said together - This is the first Biblical account of the covenant - other parts of the I Samuel seem to provide more details - as to the committment these friends had together. The Bible does not provide details about the covenant in this passage - it is through further reading of the Scriptures that we can have an idea of what this covenant committment involved.

*Jonathon would not harm David and accepted that David was chosen to be the next king instead of Jonathon
*David would not harm Saul, Jonathon's father
*David's pledge to Jonathon that the descendents of Saul would not be killed when he took the throne - normally a rival king would kill all the descendents of the prior king to prevent claims to the throne. 2 Samuel 9
*Jonathons pledge to provide information about his father's anger to David about the intentions of Saul to kill him or not. I Sam 20

Answer 4

To be loyal to each other.
Jonathan never delivered David to Saul...and David
kept his part of the covenant by rescuing Mefibosete from
misery.
Mefibosete was brought to David castle and was aloud to live there and eat with David all his life....all that because the covenant of David and Jonathan.

Answer 5

Basically it was like a blood brother's oath. In the next verse Johnathan gave his outward vestments that symbolized that he was the prince of Israel to David as he recognized that David was God's chosen one to lead Israel after his father.

Check out Chapter 20:13-16 as it helps clarify the covenant that was made.

Answer 6

True friendship is hard to find in a world where people betray you....Jonathan was willing to protect David from his own father. Similar comradeship is seen is soldiers that fight in battle together. Very strong bonds form.

Answer 7

It was a covenant of friendship