1 Samuel 14:43

14:43 So Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you have done.” Jonathan told him, “I used the end of the staff that was in my hand to taste a little honey. I must die!” 1 

1 Samuel 20:5

20:5 David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I am certainly expected to join the king for a meal. 2  You must send me away so I can hide in the field until the third evening from now.

1 Samuel 20:8

20:8 You must be loyal 3  to your servant, for you have made a covenant with your servant in the Lord’s name. 4  If I am guilty, 5  you yourself kill me! Why bother taking me to your father?”

1 Samuel 28:1

The Witch of Endor

28:1 In those days the Philistines gathered their troops 6  for war in order to fight Israel. Achish said to David, “You should fully understand that you and your men must go with me into the battle.” 7 

1 Samuel 29:9

29:9 Achish replied to David, “I am convinced that you are as reliable 8  as the angel of God! However, the leaders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go up with us in the battle.’

1 tn Heb “Look, I, I will die.” Apparently Jonathan is acquiescing to his anticipated fate of death. However, the words may be taken as sarcastic (“Here I am about to die!”) or as a question, “Must I now die?” (cf. NAB, NIV, NCV, NLT).

2 tn Heb “and I must surely sit with the king to eat.” The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

3 tn Heb “and you must do loyalty.”

4 tn Heb “for into a covenant of the Lord you have brought your servant with you.”

5 tn Heb “and if there is in me guilt.”

6 tn Heb “their camps.”

7 tc The translation follows the LXX (εἰς πόλεμον, eis polemon) and a Qumran ms מלחמה במלחמה ([m]lkhmh) bammilkhamah (“in the battle”) rather than the MT’s בַמַּחֲנֶה (bammakhaneh, “in the camp”; cf. NASB). While the MT reading is not impossible here, and although admittedly it is the harder reading, the variant fits the context better. The MT can be explained as a scribal error caused in part by the earlier occurrence of “camp” in this verse.

8 tn Heb “I know that you are good in my eyes.”