“Surpassing the love of women”
I grieve for you, Jonathan, my brother. You were delightful to me; your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women. (2 Samuel 1:26 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A line modern readers may hear as a romantic or sexual confession.
The cultural key
David and Jonathan had entered a formal covenant, sworn and sealed (1 Samuel 18:3; 20:16-17), of a kind that bound them and their houses in loyalty. In the ancient Near East, 'love' (ahavah) is frequently the vocabulary of covenant and treaty, meaning steadfast allegiance rather than romance, and most scholars read this line as praise of a brotherhood-loyalty deeper than the ordinary bonds of clan and marriage. Honesty requires noting that some modern readers hear a romantic or sexual claim here; the text itself, and its treaty-language setting, point toward sworn covenant friendship, and the passage is best read within that frame rather than through modern categories.
Recovered meaning
David mourns a covenant brother whose sworn loyalty outstripped even the deepest natural ties. The words are the language of ancient covenant devotion, and are most faithfully read as an elegy for a friendship bound by oath.