1 Samuel 26

Chap. XXVI. Ver. 1-25. Saul again persecutes David, who gives him another instance of his fidelity, and puts him to utter shame.—We have before seen that the Ziphites were bitter enemies to David, and offered to deliver him into the hands of Saul, but could not take him. Here again they gave information to the king, who came down, with three thousand chosen men, to take him. David had, however, spies upon the look out; and finding where Saul lay, he and Abishai, his nephew, stole secretly into the camp by night; and the latter, knowing David would not touch the Lord’s anointed, entreated him only to permit him to strike his enemy dead with one blow. David, as in a former instance, expresses his abhorrence of such a crime, and leaves it to the Lord to avenge his cause, brings away, however, the royal “spear,” and the “cruise of water”

at Saul’s head; and when he had gained some considerable distance “on a hill afar off,” he reproaches Abner for not guarding better the king’s person, and then exhibits the spear and cruise. Saul, recognising David’s voice, cries out, “Is it thy voice, my son David?” David replies, “It is my voice, my lord, O king!” He then remonstrates with him in the same terms as before; and particularly reproaches him for driving him out among the heathen, and subjecting him to temptations to join in their idolatries, as it were bidding him to “Go and serve other gods.” Saul now expresses great contrition; “I have played the fool,” says he, “and have erred exceedingly.” He blesses his son David, and promises no more to seek his hurt.

Still David, distrusting promises so often before broken, delivered not himself into his hands, but “went on his way; and Saul returned to his own place,” it is to be feared without any change of heart, or of principle, which, indeed, grace only can effect. “Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar,” says king Solomon, “yet will not his foolishness depart from him.” ((Proverbs 27:22).) Chap. XXVII. Ver. 1—12. David flies to Achish king of Gath.—We now see David driven, as it were, to desperation. He can have no confidence in Saul, and even his confidence in God is shaken. He said in his heart, (i.e. to himself,) “I shall (even) now one day perish by the hand of Saul!” And he sees no way to escape out of his hands but by throwing himself into the hands of the Philistines, and entering with his men into the service of Achish, king of Gath, with whom he had before resided, and from whom he had been dismissed as insane.

Achish receives him again kindly, and gives him a town to dwell in, where he left his family, and went out with his men continually on predatory excursions. Here it is well we are not called upon to vindicate David’s conduct, for we should find it extremely difficult. 1. It was a very censurable degree of unbelief in God, who had delivered and did deliver him, and in whom he had every reason to trust that he would still deliver him. ((2 Corinthians 1:10).) 2. He throws himself among the heathen; and as in the former case he was guilty of unbelief, in not relying on the divine protection, after being so repeatedly assured he should obtain the kingdom; so in this he is guilty of presumption in going among idolaters, upon

the excuse that Saul had driven him. 3. Neither can we justify his conduct, in living by war and plunder; nor his prevarication, in pretending he had been fighting against his countrymen in the south of Judah, &c. when, in fact, he had been fighting against their enemies: nor his cruelty, in destroying every soul among the Geshurites, &c. not on the ground of a divine proscription, but lest they should fly to Gath, and tell Achish: nor his hypocrisy, in pretending that he was hated by his own people, and revolted from them, when in fact he was still faithful to his country, and an enemy to all its enemies. “It is hard (says Dr. Wall) to reconcile this management with justice, truth, or gratitude.

Neither are we, I suppose, bound to justify or approve all the actions, even of good men, recorded in Scripture. Those people were, indeed, southward of Judah; but Achish understood it, the southern parts of Judea.”

Notes on the verses

Ver. 42. And became his wife.—{It is probable that David had heard that Saul, to cut off his pretensions to the throne, had married Michal to Phalti; and this justified him in taking Abigail, and it was not then unlawful for a man to have several wives. This conduct of David’s corresponds with the manner in which the Oriental princes generally form their matrimonial alliances. “The king of Abyssinia,” says Bruce, “sends an officer to the house where the lady lives, who announces to her, that it is the king’s edict she should remove instantly to the palace. She then dresses herself in the best manner, and immediately obeys. Thenceforward he assigns her an apartment in the palace, and gives her a house elsewhere, in any place she chooses.”}—ster.

Dr. Clarke thinks, that by this marriage, David became possessed of all Nabal’s property, in Carmel and Maon.} Ver. 44. Gallim.—{This town appears to have been situated in the tribe of Benjamin, as it is mentioned in (Isaiah 10:30). with Michmash, Geba, &c.}—B. Guage. XXVI. Ver. 5. Saul lay in the trench.—See Margin. [The word maagal never signifies a ditch or rampart, but a chariot or wagon way. Nor does it seem to denote a ring of carriages, as Buxtorf and others interpret the word; for it is not probable that Saul would encumber his army with baggage in so rapid a pursuit, nor that so mountainous a country was practicable for wagons. It appears simply to mean here, the circular encampment (from agai “round,”) which these troops formed, in the midst of which, as being the place of honour, Saul reposed.

An Arab camp, D’Arvieur informs us, is always circular, when the disposition of the ground will permit, the prince being in the middle, and the troops at a respectful distance around it. Add to which, their lances are fixed near them in the ground all the day long, ready for action. This appears to have been an ancient custom; for Homer, in his description of Diomede asleep, says, “They found him without before his tent with his arms, and his followers sleeping around him; their shields were placed under their heads, and their spears were fixed upright in the ground, upon their brazen points.”|—Bagster. ae Ver. 12. Cruise of water.—Probably an earthen jar.—A deep sleep from the Lord.—That is, a supernatural sleep: see (Genesis 2:21). where the same expression is used. Ver. 20. A flea.—[Parosh, (in Arabic borghooth, Syriac, poorthano,) the well known little contemptible and troublesome insect, the flea, seems to be so called from its agility in leaping and skipping, from para, “free,” and posh, to leap, bound.” David, by comparing himself to this insect, seems to say, that while it would cost Saul much pains to catch him, he would gain but very little advantage from it. As one doth hunt partridge.—Korat certainly denotes the partridge, which is called in Arabic, kiraa. It seems to be so called from the cries which it utters when calling its young. Dr. Shaw says, “The Arabs have another, though a more laborious method of setting

these birds; for observing, that they become languid and fatigued after they have been hastily put up twice, or thrice, they immediately run in upon them, and knock them down with their zerwattys, or bludgeons as we should call them.” Precisely in this manner Saul hunted David, coming hastily upon him, putting him up incessantly, in hopes that at length his strength and resources would fail, and he would become an easy prey to his pursuer. |—Bagster. H 2 A Ver. 25. Thou shalt both do great things, &c.—Hebrew, Abies thou shalt do; and being able thou shalt be able.” The idiom is not fully rendered.