1 Samuel 26

The people of Ziph came to Saul at Gibeah and said, "David is hiding on the hill of Hachilah, which faces Jeshimon. Didn't you know?"

1And the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon?

NoteZiph was a town and its surrounding dry country in the hill land of Judah, south of Hebron. Its inhabitants had already reported David's whereabouts to Saul once before. Gibeah was Saul's home town and the seat of his court. "Jeshimon" is a Hebrew word meaning "the wasteland", the barren country sloping down toward the Dead Sea; the King James treats it as a place name.

2So Saul set out and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, taking three thousand hand-picked men of Israel with him, to search for David there.

2Then Saul arose, and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.

NoteThree thousand "chosen" or hand-picked men means a picked force of regulars, not a general call-up of the militia.

3Saul camped beside the road on the hill of Hachilah, which faces Jeshimon. David was staying out in the wilderness, and he learned that Saul had followed him there.

3And Saul pitched in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon, by the way. But David abode in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness.

4So David sent out men to watch and report back, and he found out for certain that Saul really had come.

4David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul was come in very deed.

5Then David got up and went to the place where Saul had camped. He saw where Saul was lying down, and where Abner son of Ner, the commander of Saul's army, was lying. Saul lay inside the camp circle, with his troops camped all around him.

5And David arose, and came to the place where Saul had pitched: and David beheld the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his host: and Saul lay in the trench, and the people pitched round about him.

NoteAbner son of Ner was Saul's cousin as well as the commander of his army, which made him the most powerful man in the kingdom after the king. The word rendered "trench" in the King James does not mean a dug ditch; it refers to the circular enclosure at the center of a camp, where the baggage and the wagons were drawn up and the commander slept, ringed by his troops.

6David then spoke to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai son of Zeruiah, the brother of Joab. He asked, "Who will go down into the camp to Saul with me?" Abishai said, "I will go with you."

6Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with thee.

NoteThe Hittites were a non-Israelite people; individual Hittites lived among the Israelites and some, like Ahimelech here and Uriah later, served in David's forces. Abishai and Joab are named by their mother, Zeruiah, rather than their father, unusual in Hebrew narrative; elsewhere she is called David's sister, making these men David's nephews. Joab would become the commander of David's army.

7So that night David and Abishai came to where the troops were. Saul lay asleep inside the camp circle, with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the troops lay around him.

7So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster: but Abner and the people lay round about him.

NoteA spear planted upright in the ground beside a sleeping man marked the spot as his; for a king it also served as a visible badge of his authority, the nearest thing Saul had to a scepter.

8Abishai said to David, "Today God has handed your enemy over to you. So let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear. I won't need a second one."

8Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time.

Note"God has handed your enemy over to you" is the language of holy war: it claims the opportunity itself is a divine verdict against the enemy, so that killing him would carry no guilt.

9But David said to Abishai, "Don't kill him. No one can raise a hand against the man the LORD has chosen and marked out as king, and stay innocent."

9And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not: for who can stretch forth his hand against the LORD’s anointed, and be guiltless?

NoteKings in Israel were installed by having olive oil poured over the head, a ritual that transferred them out of ordinary status; "the LORD's anointed" is a standing title for the reigning king that follows from that ceremony. Saul had been anointed by Samuel, and, in the logic David appeals to here, remained protected by that status regardless of his conduct.

10David went on, "As surely as the LORD lives, the LORD himself will strike him down. Either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and be killed."

10David said furthermore, As the LORD liveth, the LORD shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and perish.

Note"As surely as the LORD lives" is a fixed oath formula, the strongest form of promise in Hebrew: the speaker stakes his words on the reality of God. It is not a comment on God's being alive.

11"The LORD keep me from raising my hand against the man he has chosen as king. Now take the spear by his head and the water jug, and let's go."

11The LORD forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’s anointed: but, I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his bolster, and the cruse of water, and let us go.

12So David took the spear and the water jug from beside Saul's head, and they left. No one saw them, no one knew, and no one woke up. They all stayed asleep, because the LORD had made a deep sleep fall on them.

12So David took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul’s bolster; and they gat them away, and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither awaked: for they were all asleep; because a deep sleep from the LORD was fallen upon them.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "deep sleep" denotes an abnormally heavy stupor, not ordinary sleep; the same word is used of the sleep that falls on Adam in Genesis and on Abraham. The narrator's point is that the camp's failure to wake was not merely careless.

13Then David crossed over to the other side and stood on top of a hill far away, with a wide gap between them.

13Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of an hill afar off; a great space being between them:

14David shouted to the troops and to Abner son of Ner, "Aren't you going to answer me, Abner?" Abner shouted back, "Who are you, calling out to the king?"

14And David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Answerest thou not, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who art thou that criest to the king?

15David said to Abner, "You're a brave man, aren't you? Who in Israel is your equal? Then why didn't you guard your master the king? Someone came into the camp to kill him."

15And David said to Abner, Art not thou a valiant man? and who is like to thee in Israel? wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord.

NoteGuarding the king's person overnight was the specific duty of his commander. David's mocking question ("who in Israel is your equal?") plays that reputation against the fact that Saul's spear is now in David's hands.

16"What you have done is not good. As surely as the LORD lives, you all deserve to die, because you failed to guard your master, the man the LORD chose as king. Now look around. Where is the king's spear, and the water jug that was by his head?"

16This thing is not good that thou hast done. As the LORD liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the LORD’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster.

Note"You all deserve to die" invokes the penalty a royal bodyguard would face for letting the king be killed; David is passing sentence on Abner in the king's own idiom, with the missing spear and water jug as the evidence.

17Saul knew David's voice and said, "Is that your voice, David my son?" David said, "It is my voice, my lord the king."

17And Saul knew David’s voice, and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.

18And David said, "Why is my lord chasing me, his servant? What have I done? What wrong am I guilty of?"

18And he said, Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand?

19"So please, my lord the king, listen to what your servant says. If the LORD has turned you against me, then let him accept an offering. But if people have done it, may they be cursed in the LORD's sight. They have driven me out today from my share in the land the LORD gave his people, saying, 'Go and serve other gods.'"

19Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the LORD have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the LORD; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve other gods.

NoteTwo possible causes are laid side by side and left unresolved. If God has incited Saul, the remedy is an offering, a sacrifice to appease and settle the matter. If human informers are behind it, they fall under a curse. The "inheritance of the LORD" is the land of Canaan as parceled out among the Israelite families; a man's share of it was his standing in the community. Because each people was assumed to have its own gods attached to its own territory, driving David off that land was in effect telling him to go and serve someone else's god, which is why he can quote his enemies as saying words they never spoke aloud.

20"So do not let my blood spill on the ground far from the LORD's presence. The king of Israel has marched out to look for a single flea, like a man hunting a partridge in the hills."

20Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the LORD: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains.

NoteBlood "falling to the ground" is the idiom for a killing that goes unavenged, the blood soaking away with no one to answer for it. "Far from the LORD's presence" continues the thought of verse 19: to die outside the land is to die away from where God is worshiped. A flea is proverbially the most contemptible thing a man might chase. The partridge was hunted by being flushed and driven across the hills until it was too exhausted to fly, a long, undignified pursuit of very small game.

21Then Saul said, "I have sinned. Come back, David my son. I will never harm you again, because today you treated my life as precious. I have acted like a fool and made a terrible mistake."

21Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David: for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.

Note"I have sinned" here is a formal admission of wrong done to David, not a general statement of religious feeling; it is the same phrase a subject would use in confessing an offense to a superior.

22David answered, "Here is the king's spear. Let one of your young men come across and get it."

22And David answered and said, Behold the king’s spear! and let one of the young men come over and fetch it.

23"May the LORD pay each man back for doing what is right and staying loyal. The LORD handed you over to me today, but I would not raise my hand against the man he chose as king."

23The LORD render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness; for the LORD delivered thee into my hand to day, but I would not stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’s anointed.

NoteThe two words are a standard pair: doing what is right, and keeping faith with the obligations one has taken on. David is asking that the reckoning be left to God rather than settled between the two of them.

24"Just as I treated your life as valuable today, so may the LORD treat my life as valuable and rescue me from every trouble."

24And, behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the LORD, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation.

25Then Saul said to David, "May you be blessed, David my son. You will do great things, and you will certainly succeed." Then David went on his way, and Saul went back home.

25Then Saul said to David, Blessed be thou, my son David: thou shalt both do great things, and also shalt still prevail. So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.

Note"Blessed be you" is a formal pronouncement of good, close to a farewell blessing, and it is the last exchange the two men ever have; they do not meet again.