DAVID Popularity can be a fickle thing. King Saul could have waited out a momentary public frenzy about David if it had been a fad. But David’s popularity tended to turn into intense loyalty. Saul had inspired that kind of loyalty only in the residents of Jabesh Gilead whom he had rescued at the very start of his reign (1 Sam. 31:11–13). David did it everywhere without trying. How did Jonathan react when he first learned that his father wanted to kill David and remove him as a rival for the throne?