In a moment of profound fury, Saul unleashes a harsh and explicit curse against his son Jonathan, directing his rage at both the young man and his mother. This explosive reaction stems from Jonathan’s choice to support David and advocate for his kingship, a move Saul views as the ultimate personal and familial betrayal [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The nature of this rebellion is highly unusual. While a typical uprising involves a subordinate seeking to overthrow a master to claim power, a son rebelling against his own father merely to hand the throne to a stranger is seen as a twisted, illogical act of madness [מלבי״ם].
Saul directs a significant portion of his anger toward Jonathan’s mother, suggesting that this rebellious streak is a genetic flaw. He claims that Jonathan inherited this defiant nature directly from her, as she was known to rebel against her husband's wishes [רד״ק, מצודת דוד]. Some commentators view this as an accusation that the mother lacked moral character and failed to raise her son properly, making her deserving of the resulting pain and punishment [רלב״ג, רש״י]. Consequently, just as the mother proved herself unfit for leadership, her son demonstrates the same unfitness by willingly surrendering the monarchy to David [רלב״ג].
This accusation of inherited audacity is tied to an ancient tradition regarding the kidnapping of women at Shiloh. According to this narrative, Saul was naturally shy and modest, reluctant to participate in the dances to snatch a bride. However, Jonathan’s mother boldly left her home, venturing into the vineyards and actively pursuing Saul until he married her. In his anger, Saul throws this history back at Jonathan, accusing him of displaying the exact same brazenness that his mother showed in the vineyards [רש״י, צאינה וראינה].
By choosing to ally with David, Jonathan brings immense disgrace upon himself and his mother. The sheer irrationality of a prince loving his father's greatest enemy and voluntarily giving up his right to the throne is bound to incite public gossip. People will naturally assume that Jonathan cannot possibly be Saul's biological son, leading to devastating rumors that his mother was guilty of adultery [מצודת דוד, רד״ק, צאינה וראינה]. Furthermore, the very act of handing the royal dynasty over to a different family brings profound grief and humiliation to the mother [מלבי״ם], as a foolish son inevitably brings shame to the woman who bore him [אהבת יהונתן].
A deeper layer of this humiliation connects directly to David’s ancestry. David descends from Ruth the Moabite, and Jewish law permits female Moabites to marry into the Israelite nation based on the principle that women are naturally modest and remain inside their homes. By supporting David and validating his royal legitimacy, Jonathan indirectly draws attention to his own mother's lack of modesty. Unlike the modest Moabite women, his mother brazenly went out into the vineyards of Shiloh to secure a husband, making Jonathan's endorsement of David an implicit condemnation of his own mother's past behavior [חומת אנך, אהבת יהונתן].