David Loves Jonathan
II Sam. 1:1, 17-27
by the Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones
Cathedral of Hope – Oklahoma City
13 August 2006

I want to begin by simply retelling the story.

David was young and had a ruddy beauty that captivated people. And he had pluck. Coming to the armies of Israel to visit his brothers, he had astonished the entire camp by taking on Goliath of Gath and defeating him. David succeeded in battle where others had failed. Saul wanted to know who this young man was and sent the commander of his armies to fetch the lad.

David stood before the king with Goliath’s bloody head still in his hands, covered with grime, blood, and sweat himself. “Whose son are you, my boy?” the wily king asked. Notice: “whose son are you, my boy. Saul was drawn to this young man and wanted him for his own household.

“The son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”

Jonathan, the king’s son, was standing there. Jonathan, who had already proven himself to be a great warrior, the hero of the army, had heard David and immediately he loved David as himself. Immediately, his own soul became bound up with the soul of David.

That day Saul did take David into his own household and would not let him return to Bethlehem to his father Jesse.

That day Jonathan made covenant with David, because he loved him. Jonathan stripped himself and presented David with his cloak and tunic, his sword, bow, and belt.

David became a great warrior, the hero of the army, and Saul placed him in command. When the troops returned from war, the women of the towns of Israel came out singing and dancing with instruments and shoutings. They chanted, “Saul has slain his thousands; David, his ten thousands!” And Saul was distressed and greatly vexed.

From that day on, Saul kept a jealous eye on David, suspicious that he would rise up and claim the crown. An evil spirit of God gripped Saul.

Saul offered David his eldest daughter Merab to wed. Then changed his mind. Saul learned that his other daughter, Michal, loved David. So, Saul conceived a plot to entrap David through the engagement and marriage to Michal. He set a task for David, a bride price of one hundred Philistine foreskins. Surely, if David tried to circumcise one hundred Philistines, he would be killed. David and his men massacred two hundred Philistines and brought their foreskins to the king. Saul grew even more afraid of David.

Saul now urged Jonathan and the other courtiers to kill David, but Jonathan took great delight in David and warned David that Saul wanted to kill him. David fled, and Jonathan pleaded with Saul to change his mind. Saul heeded his son’s plea and swore that David should not be put to death. David returned to serving Saul.

One again Saul was jealous. He first tried to kill David himself. Then he plotted for David to be killed while in his bedchamber with his wife. Saul’s daughter Michal warned David and helped him to escape. David fled to Samuel.

Saul sent to Samuel to capture David, but every messenger that went was seized by the spirit of God and began speaking in ecstasy. Finally Saul himself came and was overwhelmed, once again, by God’s spirit, speaking in ecstasy, he stripped off his clothes and lay naked all day and night before Samuel.

David fled and returned to Jonathan. “What have I done,” he asked. “What is my crime and my guilt against your father, that he seeks my life?”

Jonathan replied, “Heaven forbid! You shall not die. My father does not do anything, great or small, without disclosing it to me; why should my father conceal this matter from me? It cannot be!”
David pressed on, “Your father knows well that you are fond of me and has decided: Jonathan must not learn of this or he will be grieved. But, as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.”

Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want, I will do it for you.”

So David arranged a plot whereby Jonathan could find out the desire of the king. David would miss a feast. If Saul grew angry over David’s absence, then it was clear he wanted to harm David.
David concluded his plans “Deal faithfully with your servant, since you have taken your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. And if I am guilty, kill me yourself, but don’t make me go back to your father.”

Jonathan replied, “Don’t talk like that! If I learn that my father has resolved to kill you, I will surely tell you about it.”

Jonathan and David then planned how Jonathan would get word to David. Jonathan loved David as himself and concluded their pact, “As for the promise we made to each other, may the Lord be witness between you and me forever.”

David hid and awaited word from Jonathan.

The first day of the feast, Saul said nothing about David’s absence. He assumed David was unclean and going through the rituals of cleansing. On the second day, when David was absent, Saul said to Jonathan, his son, “Why didn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal yesterday or today?”

Jonathan answered, “David begged leave of me to go to Bethlehem, He said, ‘Please let me go, for we are going to have a family feast in our town and my brother has summoned me to it. Do me a favor, let me slip away to see my kinsmen’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”

Saul flew into a rage against his son Jonathan. “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! I know that you side with the son of Jesse – to your shame, and to the shame of your mother’s naked genitals! For as long as the son of Jesse lives on earth, neither you nor your kingship will be secure. Now then, have him brought to me, for he is marked for death.”

Jonathan stood up to his father, “Why should David die? What has he done?” And Saul threw a spear at Jonathan to strike him down.

Jonathan went out to David. David flung himself down in front of Jonathan and bowed low three times. They kissed each other and wept together; David wept the longest.

Jonathan said to David, “Go. We have sworn to each other in the name of the Lord.” And David went away. They never saw each other again.

After Saul and Jonathan were slain in battle at Mount Gilboa, a messenger ran to inform David, who had spent years in exile as a brigand, outlaw, and insurrectionist, who sometimes allied himself with the Philistines, but who had drawn more and more people to him over time, people opposed to Saul’s leadership.

David, in his grief, sang a great lament over Saul and Jonathan.

Your glory, O Israel,
Lies slain on your heights;
How have the mighty fallen!

How have the mighty fallen
In the thick of battle –
Jonathan, slain on your heights!
I grieve for you,
My brother Jonathan,
Greatly beloved were you to me;
Your love was wonderful to me,
More than the love of women.

Years later, after David was established in his throne as king of all Israel, after many wars and much bloodshed between David’s forces and the house of Saul, David inquired “Is there anyone still left of House of Saul with whom I can keep faith for the sake of Jonathan?” And a servant was brought to him, Ziba by name. The king asked this servant if there were any remaining of the House of Saul. Ziba answered, “Yes, there is still a son of Jonathan whose feet are crippled.”

David found this son, named Mephibosheth and brought him to court. Mephibosheth prostrated himself before David who said, “Don’t be afraid. I will keep faith with you for the sake of your father Jonathan.” David gave back to Mephibosheth all the land of Saul and made Mephibosheth a part of his own household, eating at David’s table like a prince.

So, what should we make of this story? Are Jonathan and David gay?

What is clear is that a covenant, based on love, sealed with intimate affection, is made between two members of the same sex, a covenant witnessed by God and blessed by holy scripture. Michael Piazza wrote, “When, how, or even if, David and Jonathan’s love was sexually expressed is really not the point. Both the Bible and history have honored their passionate love for one another.”

I personally believe in the queer reading of this passage, though with a healthy dose of skepticism remaining. It is not conclusive, and scholars disagree. Many prominent commentators completely ignore the queer reading and don’t even address it. Others address it only briefly, but simply to dismiss it without convincing argument. Though I am sure they exist, I was unable to locate any commentary that adequately argued against the queer reading.

You should also know that there are straight scholars who adopt the queer reading of this story. In fact, now there is enough nuance to the debate that even the queer reading has variations and disagreements, always a healthy sign in the scholarly world.

Further, you sometimes hear people reject the queer reading on the notion that this is some radical, unconventional, new idea. However, for centuries there have been people who thought David and Jonathan had a gay relationship, all the way back to various Medieval scholars. Even Peter Abelard, who was quite clearly a heterosexual and one of the most prominent writers of the eleventh century, presents an erotic reading of the David and Jonathan story.

We also know that such relationships were common in the ancient world. They were particularly common in the warrior class with prominent historical examples like Alexander and Hephaistion and Julius Caesar and his various relationships.

It was also a common feature of the literature of the ancient world. Much of the David narrative is written much later than the actual events, and what we have is a work of literature, rooted in legends and folktales that have some connection with an historical reality. We have other examples of a lament like David’s, a great warrior lamenting the death of his beloved. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh laments the death of his lover and companion Enkidu, and in the Iliad, Achilles laments the death of his lover and companion Patroclus.

There are many questions not resolved. Were David and Jonathan lovers? Did Jonathan love David, and David simply used Jonathan to achieve his own political ambitions? Did the authors who composed this story intend to represent a gay relationship in a positive light?

I don’t know. But what I do know is that in sacred scripture, in the Holy Bible, in the church’s guide to faith and practice, in the story about the most prominent character in the Hebrew Scriptures, after Jesus, the most prominent character in the Christian Bible, there is a story about a covenant, based on love, sealed with intimate affection, that is made between two members of the same sex, a covenant witnessed by God.