1 Samuel 20:7

7 If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he is enraged, you will know he has evil intentions.

1 Samuel 20:7 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 20:7

If he say thus, [it is] well
It is very well, it is very good and right in him to do so:

thy servant shall have peace;
it will be a token that the wrath of the king was removed, and that his mind was well disposed towards David, and things had taken an happy turn, and would issue in his peace and prosperity:

but if he be very wroth;
with Jonathan for giving leave, and with David for going away:

[then] be sure that evil is determined by him;
that he has a settled obstinate malice in his heart, which is become implacable and inveterate, and confirmed in him; and that it is a determined point with him to slay David if possible, which he hoped to have an opportunity of doing at that time in which he was disappointed, and caused such wrath in him.

1 Samuel 20:7 In-Context

5 So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I am supposed to dine with the king. Instead, let me go and hide in the field until the third evening from now.

6 If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David urgently requested my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because there is an annual sacrifice for his whole clan.’

7 If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he is enraged, you will know he has evil intentions.

8 Therefore show kindness to your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the LORD. If there is iniquity in me, then kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”

9 “Never!” Jonathan replied. “If I ever found out that my father had evil intentions against you, would I not tell you?”