He said to him, "Far from it; you shall not die: behold, my father does nothing either great or small, but that he discloses it to me; and why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so."
There are several oaths and strong affirmations in this chapter (1 Samuel 20:3; 1 Samuel 20:12-13; 1 Samuel 20:16-17; 1 Samuel 20:23; 1 Samuel 20:42). The one that David made in 1 Samuel 20:3 is very strong. He believed correctly that he was in mortal danger, and he tried to make Jonathan see this. Jonathan was open to anything David wanted to suggest to prove his point (1 Samuel 20:4).