1 Samuel 26

1Sa 26:1-4.

SAUL

COMES TO THE

HILL OF

HACHILAH AGAINST

DAVID.

1, 2. the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah--This people seem to have

thought it impossible for David to escape, and therefore recommended

themselves to Saul, by giving him secret information

(see on

1Sa 23:19).

The knowledge of their treachery makes it appear strange that David

should return to his former haunt in their neighborhood; but, perhaps

he did it to be near Abigail's possessions, and under the impression

that Saul had become mollified. But the king had relapsed into his old

enmity. Though Gibeah, as its name imports, stood on an elevated

position, and the desert of Ziph, which was in the hilly region of

Judea, may have been higher than Gibeah, it was still necessary to

descend in leaving the latter place; thence Saul

(1Sa 26:2)

"went down to the wilderness of Ziph."

4, 5. David . . . sent out spies . . . and David arose, and came to the

place where Saul had pitched--Having obtained certain information of

the locality, he seems, accompanied by his nephew

(1Sa 26:6),

to have hid himself, perhaps disguised, in a neighboring wood, or hill,

on the skirts of the royal camp towards night, and waited to approach

it under covert of the darkness.

1Sa 26:5-25.

DAVID

STAYS

ABISHAI FROM

KILLING

SAUL, BUT

TAKES

HIS

SPEAR AND

CRUSE.

5. Saul lay in the trench, and the people pitched round about

him--Among the nomad people of the East, the encampments are

usually made in a circular form. The circumference is lined by the

baggage and the men, while the chief's station is in the center,

whether he occupy a tent or not. His spear, stuck in the ground,

indicates his position. Similar was the disposition of Saul's camp--in

this hasty expedition he seems to have carried no tent, but to have

slept on the ground. The whole troop was sunk in sleep around him.

8-12. Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into

thine hand--This midnight stratagem shows the activity and heroic

enterprise of David's mind, and it was in unison with the style of

warfare in ancient times.

let me smite him . . . even to the earth at once--The ferocious

vehemence of the speaker is sufficiently apparent from his language,

but David's magnanimity soared far above the notions of his followers.

Though Saul's cruelty and perfidy and general want of right principle

had sunk him to a low pitch of degradation, yet that was no reason for

David's imitating him in doing wrong. Besides, he was the sovereign;

David was a subject. Though God had rejected him from the kingdom, it

was in every way the best and most dutiful course, instead of

precipitating his fall by imbruing their hands in his blood and thereby

contracting the guilt of a great crime, to wait the awards of that

retributive providence which sooner or later would take him off by some

sudden and mortal blow. He who, with impetuous haste was going to

exterminate Nabal, meekly spared Saul. But Nabal refused to give a

tribute to which justice and gratitude, no less than custom, entitled

David. Saul was under the judicial infatuation of heaven. Thus David

withheld the hand of Abishai; but, at the same time, he directed him to

carry off some things which would show where they had been, and what

they had done. Thus he obtained the best of victories over him, by

heaping coals of fire on his head.

11. the spear that is at his bolster, and the cruse of water--The

Oriental spear had, and still has, a spike at the lower extremity,

intended for the purpose of sticking the spear into the ground when the

warrior is at rest. This common custom of Arab sheiks was also the

practice of the Hebrew chiefs.

at his bolster--literally, "at his head"; perhaps, Saul as a sovereign

had the distinguished luxury of a bolster carried for him. A "cruse of

water" is usually, in warm climates, kept near a person's couch, as a

drink in the night time is found very refreshing. Saul's cruse would

probably be of superior materials, or more richly ornamented than

common ones, and therefore by its size or form be easily distinguished.

13-20. Then David . . . stood on the top of an hill afar off . . .

and cried to the

people--(See on

Jud 9:7).

The extraordinary purity and elasticity of the air in Palestine enable

words to be distinctly heard that are addressed by a speaker from the

top of one hill to people on that of another, from which it is

separated by a deep intervening ravine. Hostile parties can thus speak

to each other, while completely beyond the reach of each other's

attack. It results from the peculiar features of the country in many of

the mountain districts.

15. David said to Abner, Art not thou a valiant man: . . . wherefore

then hast thou not kept thy lord the king?--The circumstance of David

having penetrated to the center of the encampment, through the circular

rows of the sleeping soldiers, constituted the point of this sarcastic

taunt. This new evidence of David's moderation and magnanimous

forbearance, together with his earnest and kindly expostulation,

softened the obduracy of Saul's heart.

19. If the Lord have stirred thee up against me--By the evil spirit

He had sent, or by any spiritual offenses by which we have mutually

displeased Him.

let him accept an offering--that is, let us conjointly offer a

sacrifice for appeasing His wrath against us.

if they be the children of men--The prudence, meekness, and address

of David in ascribing the king's enmity to the instigations of some

malicious traducers, and not to the jealousy of Saul himself, is worthy

of notice.

saying, Go, serve other gods--This was the drift of their conduct.

foreign and heathen countries, they were exposing him to all the

seductions of idolatry.

20. as when one doth hunt a partridge--People in the East, in hunting

the partridge and other game birds, pursue them, till observing them

becoming languid and fatigued after they have been put up two or three

times, they rush upon the birds stealthily and knock them down with

bludgeons [SHAW, Travels].

It was exactly in this manner that Saul

was pursuing David. He drove him from time to time from his

hiding-place, hoping to render him weary of his life, or obtain an

opportunity of accomplishing his destruction.

25. So David went on his way--Notwithstanding this sudden relenting

of Saul, David placed no confidence in his professions or promises, but

wisely kept at a distance and awaited the course of Providence.