Scenes

Tanakh

וְנֶ֙פֶשׁ֙ יְה֣וֹנָתָ֔ן נִקְשְׁרָ֖ה בְּנֶ֣פֶשׁ דָּוִ֑ד (ויאהבו) [וַיֶּֽאֱהָבֵ֥הוּ] יְהוֹנָתָ֖ן כְּנַפְשֽׁוֹ׃ 

וַיִּכְרֹ֧ת יְהוֹנָתָ֛ן וְדָוִ֖ד בְּרִ֑ית בְּאַהֲבָת֥וֹ אֹת֖וֹ כְּנַפְשֽׁוֹ׃ 

וַיִּתְפַּשֵּׁ֣ט יְהוֹנָתָ֗ן אֶֽת־הַמְּעִיל֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָלָ֔יו וַֽיִּתְּנֵ֖הוּ לְדָוִ֑ד וּמַדָּ֕יו וְעַד־חַרְבּ֥וֹ וְעַד־קַשְׁתּ֖וֹ וְעַד־חֲגֹרֽוֹ׃ 

"Now Yehonatan’s own self became bound up with David’s self, so that Yehonatan loved him like his own self— ...

And Yehonatan and David cut a covenant, because of his love for him, like his own self. 

Yehonatan stripped off the cloak that he had on and gave it to David, along with his [military] garb, including his sword, including his bow, and including his belt." — Sh'muel Aleph (Samuel I) 18:1, 3-4; 1995 Schocken Bible Everett Fox translation

Talmud, Midrash, and Commentary

כָּל אַהֲבָה שֶׁהִיא תְלוּיָה בְדָבָר, בָּטֵל דָּבָר, בְּטֵלָה אַהֲבָה. וְשֶׁאֵינָהּ תְּלוּיָה בְדָבָר, אֵינָהּ בְּטֵלָה לְעוֹלָם. אֵיזוֹ הִיא אַהֲבָה הַתְּלוּיָה בְדָבָר, זוֹ אַהֲבַת אַמְנוֹן וְתָמָר. וְשֶׁאֵינָהּ תְּלוּיָה בְדָבָר, זוֹ אַהֲבַת דָּוִד וִיהוֹנָתָן:   

"All love that depends on a something, [when the] thing ceases, [the] love ceases; and [all love] that does not depend on anything, will never cease. What is an example of love that depended on a something? Such was the love of Amnon for Tamar. And what is an example of love that did not depend on anything? Such was the love of David and Jonathan." — Pikrei Avot 5:16; Joshua Kulp translation

Date Made:

May 4, 2025

Description

I wanted to make this drawing for Pride Month! Jews across the ages along with scholars have wrestled with what Yonatan and David's relationship was. Although The Jewish Study Bible claims that this bond was only platonic and typical of Near Eastern political alliances, many queer Jewish interpretations and I disagree especially when you look at the language and the commentary. For one, Yonatan's soul is bound to David as if they were one flesh similar to Adam and Chava (Bereshit (Genesis) 2:24). There's another line from David's elegy to Shaul and Yonatan saying how Yonatan was "very delightful to me; more wonderful was [his] love to me than the love of women!" (Sh'muel Bet (Samuel II) 1:26). The rabbis also contrast David and Yonatan's unconditional love for each other to the conditional obsession Amnon had with Tamar bat David. Just because David married Yonatan's sister does not rule out a relationship. In fact, a parallel incident occurred in Talmud with Rabbi Yochanan and Resh Lakish. According to Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs/Song of Shlomo) Rabbah which is an explicitly erotic and romantic poem, the lines "For love is intense as death/Jealousy is as cruel as the grave" is compared to the love Yonatan had for David contrasted with Shaul's jealousy against David. The midrash for Shir HaShirim then continues with comparing the same lines to the love a man has for his wife and his jealousy that he has regarding her (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 8:6:4). Modern adaptations like The Secret Chord, The First, and The Secret Book of Kings tend to drive home the relationship between David and Yonatan with varying degrees of focus. Within the larger context of Near Eastern literature, David and Yonatan's relationship parallels the one between Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh and Achilles and Patroclus in the Illiad (Gordon 1955).

Within my work, Yonatan and David are unambiguously a couple. Shaul does not have a problem with Yonatan liking men as much as the fact that it's David (note: there even seems to be textual support in midrash: Rabbi Nehemiah interpreted the daughers of Israel to mean the Sanhedrin. When Shaul heard the taste of halacha coming from the mouths of Torah sscholars, he would stand and kiss them on the mouth (Midrash Sh'muel 25:1). For the record, the Sanhedrin were only men and the Bronze Age Near East was full of same-sex relationships.)

I wanted to place this work at night because of the haftarah for Machar Rosh Chodesh involving them. There's additional symbolism since Shaul prophecied that so long as David lives, Yonatan's kingship will never be secure (which turns out to be right since David lives while Yonatan dies). Based on the metaphor that Ya'akov uses on his deathbed to describe Binyamin using the morning and evening, I wanted to emphasize the evening part here. However, the story turned tragic when politics ties with it.

This also serves as my first time I drew a romantic couple in such an intimate pose. As an allosexual aromantic, I don't necessarily understand romance, but that doesn't mean I can't celebrate how other people do.