Discovery Box1 Samuel 20:5 
Context20:5 David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I am certainly expected to join the king for a meal. 1 You must send me away so I can hide in the field until the third evening from now.
1 Samuel 20:24-29
Context20:24 So David hid in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat down to eat his meal. 20:25 The king sat down in his usual place by the wall, with Jonathan opposite him 2 and Abner at his side. 3 But David’s place was vacant. 20:26 However, Saul said nothing about it 4 that day, for he thought, 5 “Something has happened to make him ceremonially unclean. Yes, he must be unclean.” 20:27 But the next morning, the second day of the new moon, David’s place was still vacant. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has Jesse’s son not come to the meal yesterday or today?”
20:28 Jonathan replied to Saul, “David urgently requested that he be allowed to go to Bethlehem. 20:29 He said, ‘Permit me to go, 6 for we are having a family sacrifice in the city, and my brother urged 7 me to be there. So now, if I have found favor with you, let me go 8 to see my brothers.’ For that reason he has not come to the king’s table.”
1 tn Heb “and I must surely sit with the king to eat.” The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.
2 tc Heb “and Jonathan arose.” Instead of MT’s וַיָּקָם (vayyaqam, “and he arose”; from the hollow verbal root קוּם, qum), the translation assumes a reading וַיִּקַדֵּם (vayyiqaddem, “and he was in front of”; from the verbal root קדם, qdm). See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 338.
3 tn Heb “and Abner sat at the side of Saul.”
4 tn The words “about it” are not present in the Hebrew text, although they are implied.
5 tn Heb “said,” that is, to himself.
6 tn Heb “send me.”
7 tn Heb “commanded.”
8 tn Heb “be released [from duty].”
