CHAPTER XXIV _Saul is informed that David is at En-gedi, and goes to seek him_ _with_ three thousand _men_, 1, 2. _He goes into a cave to repose, where David and his men lay hid;_ _who, observing this, exhort David to take away his life: David_ _refuses, and contents himself with privily cuttin... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:2. _ROCKS OF THE WILD GOATS._] The original (צורי היעלים _tsurey haiyeelim_) is variously understood. The VULGATE makes a _paraphrase: Super abruptissimas petras quae solis ibicibus_ _perviae sunt_; "On the most precipitous rocks over which the ibexes alone can travel." The TARGUM:... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:3. _THE SHEEP-COTES_] Caves in the rocks, in which it is common, even to the present time, for shepherds and their flocks to lodge. According to _Strabo_ there are caverns in Syria, one of which is capable of containing _four thousand men_: Ὡν ἑν και τετρακισχιλιους ανθρωπους δεξ... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:4. _AND THE MEN OF DAVID SAID_] We know not to what promise of God the men of David refer; they perhaps meant no more than to say, "Behold, the Lord hath delivered thine enemy into thy land, now do to him as he wishes to do to thee." _THEN DAVID AROSE_] Though I have a high opini... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:6. _THE LORD'S ANOINTED_] However unworthily Saul was now acting, he had been appointed to his high office by God himself, and he could only be removed by the authority which placed him on the throne. Even David, who knew he was appointed to reign in his stead, and whose life Saul... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:7. _SUFFERED THEM NOT TO RISE AGAINST SAUL._] As he could restrain them, it was his duty to do so; had he connived at _their_ killing him, David would have been the _murderer_. In praying for the king we call God _the only Ruler of princes_, for this simple reason, that their autho... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:12. _THE LORD JUDGE BETWEEN ME AND THEE_] Appeals of this kind to God are the common refuge of the poor and oppressed people. So also among the _Hindoos: God will judge between us._ _Mother Kalee will judge_. Sometimes this springs from a consciousness of innocence, and sometimes f... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:13. _WICKEDNESS PROCEEDED FROM THE WICKED_] This proverb may be thus understood: He that does a wicked act, gives proof thereby that he is a wicked man. From him who is wicked, wickedness will proceed; he who is wicked will add one iniquity to another. Had I conspired to dethrone t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:14. _AFTER A DEAD DOG_] A term used among the Hebrews to signify the most sovereign contempt; see 2 Samuel 16:9. One utterly incapable of making the least resistance against Saul, and the troops of Israel. The same idea is expressed in the term _flea_. The _Targum_ properly express... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:15. _THE LORD THEREFORE BE JUDGE_] Let God determine who is guilty.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:16. _MY SON DAVID?_] David had called Saul his _master, lord_, and _king_. Saul accosts him here as his _son_, to show that he felt perfectly reconciled to him, and wished to receive him as formerly into his family.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:19. _IF A MAN FIND HIS ENEMY, WILL HE LET HIM GO WELL_ _AWAY?_] Or rather, _Will he send him in a good way_? But _Houbigant_ translates the whole clause thus: _Si quis, inimicum suum_ _reperiens, dimittit eum in viam bonam_, redditur ei adomino sua merces; "If a man, finding his en... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:20. _I KNOW WELL THAT THOU SHALT SURELY BE KING_] Hebrew, _Reigning, thou shalt reign_. He knew this before; and yet he continued to pursue him with the most deadly hatred.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:21. _SWEAR NOW_] Saul knew that an oath would bind _David_, though it was insufficient to bind _himself_; see 1 Samuel 19:6. He had sworn to his son Jonathan that David should not be slain; and yet sought by all means in his power to destroy him!... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Samuel 24:22. _SAUL WENT HOME_] Confounded at a sense of his own baseness, and overwhelmed with a sense of David's generosity. _DAVID AND HIS MEN GAT THEM UP UNTO THE HOLD._] _Went up to Mizpeh_, according to the _Syriac_ and _Arabic_. David could not trust Saul with his life; the utmost he... [ Continue Reading ]