1 Samuel 26: David Spares Saul a Second Time, But Announces His Doom
1 Now the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is David not hiding in the hill of Hachilah, opposite Jeshimon?” 2 Then 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. 3 And Saul encamped in the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite Jeshimon, by the road. But David stayed in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. 4 David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul had indeed come.
“The Ziphites once more reveal his hiding place to Saul.” (Arno Gaebelein) “Having declared themselves so decidedly against David, they apprehended the utmost danger if he should ascend the throne.” (Hill)
Likewise: “Saul was rushing forward to his doom when with his three thousand chosen men he took up the hunt again.” (Arno Gaebelein) He went back on his word. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.” (Jeremiah 13:23) “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:6-8) Yet David had hoped for King Saul’s repentance and conversion to the faith of the church fathers. Perhaps God’s dealing with Nabal made him extremely optimistic. He had to send out spies to confirm what his eyes now saw. “It should seem that David could not be immediately brought to believe that Saul, after his former profession, would have pursued him anymore. But the fact proved it to be so. Reader! learn from hence, what a deceitfulness there is in the heart of [the natural] man?” (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary)
Saul had indeed come again for his life— “the devil driving him: for as he, being cast out of heaven, keepeth ado, and is restless; so do unruly spirits, led by him.“ (John Trapp) Thus David cried to Yahweh for help: “Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations.” (Psalm 27:12)
5 So David arose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Now Saul lay within the camp, with the people encamped all around him. 6 Then David answered, and said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab, saying, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?” And Abishai said, “I will go down with you.”
So David and his men arose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. He spoke to trust counselors. “Ahimelech the Hittite may have been a foreign mercenary (cf. Uriah the Hittite, 2 Samuel 11:3).” (Dr. Thomas B Constable)”Palestine and Syria appear to have been originally inhabited by three different tribes. (1.) The Semites, living on the east of the isthmus of Suez. They were nomadic and pastoral tribes. (2.) The Phoenicians, who were merchants and traders; and (3.) the Hittites, who were the warlike element of this confederation of tribes.” (Easton’s Bible Dictionary) “But he had probably embraced the Jewish religion.” (George Leo Haydock) In contrast, “Abishai was David’s nephew, one of the sons of his sister Zeruiah (cf. 1 Chronicles 2:15-16).” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) His nephew volunteered for the mission. Here I am; send me.
7 So David and Abishai came to the people by night; and there Saul lay sleeping within the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. And Abner and the people lay all around him. 8 Then Abishai said to David, “God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore, please, let me strike him at once with the spear, right to the earth; and I will not have to strike him a second time!”
So David and his natural relation went and came to the camp of Saul and Israel. The sleep which had fallen upon the company was of Yahweh. “He can keep awake (Esther 6:1) and He can put to sleep, to suit His own will and purpose.” (Arno Gaebelein) Abishai, though related to David, was wrong. He thought that an opportunity made something right. But natural relations to David means nothing in the spiritual realm. “Abishai’s viewpoint was carnal. He concluded that because God had given David the upper hand he should use it to do away with his rival ( 1 Samuel 26:8; cf. 1 Samuel 24:4). David had used similar words when he promised to kill Goliath (cf. 1 Samuel 17:46), as had Saul in describing how he would kill David with his spear (cf. 1 Samuel 18:11).” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable)
He said: “I will not smite him the second time’— So complete will be the execution of the first stroke that there will be no need of a second.” (Whedon)— giving “him his passport” (Trapp) to his grave in the earth.
9 But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless?” 10 David said furthermore, “As Yahweh lives, Yahweh shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish. 11 Yahweh forbid that I should stretch out my hand against Yahweh’s anointed. But please, take now the spear and the jug of water that are by his head, and let us go.” 12 So David took the spear and the jug of water by Saul’s head, and they got away; and no man saw or knew it or awoke. For they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.
David again leaves Saul “in the Lord’s hands to deal with him as it pleases Him.” (Arno Gaebelein) Do not destroy His anointed. But the tone turns prophetic, declaring his demise— ‘the Lord shall smite him’ [as He had done to Nabal] “The offending lion is not to be lashed with every man’s whip, but by the rod of his accustomed governor.” (John Trapp)—
Or “his day shall come to die,” naturally. This seems as a prophetic taking of his reign, symbolized by his spear... and of his life, symbolized by water. “Saul had used his spear to attack David three times (cf. 1 Samuel 18:10; 19:9-10; 20:33). It was, therefore, an instrument of death. It was also the symbol of Saul’s rule, similar to a scepter (cf. 1 Samuel 22:6).” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) And water is needed for life.
“Alas! poor, apostate Saul had been deprived before of what these two things mean spiritually; he had lost his weapon to fight in faith and righteousness, he knew no longer the water, which refreshes the soul. How the spear and the water-cruse are lost today to nominal, disobedient, apostate Christendom!” (Arno Gaebelein) Many shall surely perish in the conflict of the ages, even this final spiritual battle.
1 Samuel 26: David Speaks; Abner is Silent
13 Now David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of a hill afar off, a great distance being between them. 14 And David called out to the people and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, “Do you not answer, Abner?” Then Abner answered and said, “Who are you, calling out to the king?” 15 So David said to Abner, “Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not guarded your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy your lord the king. 16 This thing that you have done is not good. As Yahweh lives, you deserve to die, because you have not guarded your master, Yahweh’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is, and the jug of water that was by his head.”
David had stopped the mouths of the carnal men within his own camp, and now within Israel’s. He was a more faithful defender of Saul's life"than his closest and most zealous servants." (Keil) “It would seem, then, that had Saul been left alone he would have left David alone. It was the bitter and incessant plotting of David's enemies that stirred him up.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)This dialogue is meant to show forth the guilt of the alleged host of Yahweh’s armies, even its head. “At En-gedi Saul was alone, and had placed himself in David's power; he therefore had followed him closely. Here Saul had his army round him, and David had entered his camp by stealth.” (The Pulpit Commentary)
The soldiers were in a state of spiritual sleep and therefore had no real power to perform their duty. “… YHWH had kept watch over David by causing Saul’s army to remain asleep, while in the parallel Abner had failed to keep watch over Saul who was YHWH’s anointed, illustrating that it is better to be watched over by YHWH than by man.” (Peter Pett)
David called out to "the people and to Abner" many times before awakening Abner, saying “Do you not answer, Abner?”— After finally waking up, Abner answered and said, “’Who are you who cries to the king?’ i.e., offendest the king by thy shouting, and disturbest his rest.” (Keil & Delitzsch) “We are reminded of how Nabal had asked, ‘Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse?’ Both are questions that the writer wanted answered. Abner meant his question to indicate to whoever it was who had awoken the camp that he should be silent in view of the king’s presence, unless he had something very important to say, his assumption being that whoever it was would not know that the king was there. But the writer intends us to see that the answer to the question was ‘David, the anointed of YHWH and successor to Saul in the kingship’.” (Pett)
“And David said to Abner, ‘Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not guarded your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy your lord the king.’ Among all Saul's subjects there was no one so powerful and highly placed as the commander-in-chief, and he ought to have shown himself worthy of his pre-eminence.” (The Pulpit Commentary) “It was the general's special duty to watch over the king's life. ‘For there came one of the people in to destroy the king, thy lord;’ [— if evil had been in their hearts.] Saul had been in real peril of life.“ (The Popular Commentary)— “This thing that you have done is not good. As Yahweh lives, you deserve to die,”—literally are "a son of death”— “because you have not guarded your master, Yahweh’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is, and the jug of water that was by his head,” as proof thereof. “Was there any doubt of the truth of what he said? Let them observe that Saul's spear and the vessel of water were no longer where they had been, near his head.” (L. M. Grant)
In the next section we will discover that Saul, rather than Abner, answered. “Abner was covered with shame. Thus in the sight of God and all good men shall the workers of iniquity be put to silence.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) On that Great Day of Judgment, those without the Advocate will have no defense. But meanwhile- “Behold,” in our spiritual battles, “He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (Ps 121:4)
1 Samuel 26: David’s Final Plea to Saul
17 Then Saul knew David’s voice, and said, “Is that your voice, my son David?” David said, “It is my voice, my lord, O king.” 18 And he said, “Why does my lord thus pursue his servant? For what have I done, or what evil is in my hand? 19 Now therefore, please, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant: But if it is the children of men, may they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day from sharing in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’ 20 So now, do not let my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord. For the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains.”
“Then Saul knew David’s voice, and said, ‘Is that your voice, my son David?’ David said, ‘It is my voice, my lord, O king.’ Evidently the realization that David or Abishai again could have killed him but did not, led Saul to respond to David tenderly, calling him his son ( 1 Samuel 26:17; cf. 1 Samuel 26:21; 1 Samuel 26:25). Indeed, David had behaved as a loyal son toward Saul. David, however, did not now address Saul as his father, as he had previously (cf. 1 Samuel 24:11). He had come to view Saul less affectionately since he continued to hound David without cause after repeated promises to stop doing so. Moreover Saul was no longer David’s father-in-law (cf. 1 Samuel 25:44).” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable)
“And he said, ‘Why does my lord thus pursue his servant? For what have I done, or what evil is in my hand?’ Nothing is more irrational than irreligion. ‘Now therefore, please,’— practice the faith of our fathers— ‘let my lord the king hear the words of his servant: If Yahweh has stirred you up against me, let Him accept an offering. ’... Heb., Let Him smell, viz., the savour of a sacrifice, and be reconciled through the passion of Christ, whereof those sacrifices were sacraments.” (Trapp) “And it is certainly not by accident merely that David uses the word ‘minchah’, the technical expression in the law for the bloodless sacrifice, which sets forth the sanctification of life in good works.” (Keil & Delitzsch) So, offer the appropriate sacrifice by the law and amend your works and He will smell it; “because the offering, minchah, consisting of flour and frankincense, was burnt for a sweet odour before God.” (Pulpit Commentaries)
David had dealt with his own sins. And have taken the beam out of his own eye, he was now trying to help the king remove that which was in his. Perhaps Yahweh was provoking the king's wrath. The thought is “that God instigates a man to evil actions, is met with in other passages of the Old Testament. It not only lies at the foundation of the words of David in Psalms 51:6 (cp. Hengstenberg on Psalms), but is also clearly expressed in 2 Samuel 24:1, where Jehovah instigates David to number the people, and where this instigation is described as a manifestation of the anger of God against Israel; and in 2 Samuel 16:10., where David says, with regard to Shimei, that God had bade him curse him. These passages also show that God only instigates those who have sinned against Him to evil deeds; and therefore that the instigation consists in the fact that God impels sinners to manifest the wickedness of their hearts in deeds, or furnishes the opportunity and occasion for the unfolding and practical manifestation of the evil desire of the heart, that the sinner may either be brought to the knowledge of his more evil ways and also to repentance, through the evil deed and its consequences, or, if the heart should be hardened still more by the evil deed, that it may become ripe for the judgment of death. The instigation of a sinner to evil is simply one peculiar way in which God, as a general rule, punishes sins through sinners; for God only instigates to evil actions such as have drawn down the wrath of God upon themselves in consequence of their sin. When David supposes the fact that Jehovah has instigated Saul against him, he acknowledges, implicitly at least, that he himself is a sinner, whom the Lord may be intending to punish, though without lessening Saul's wrong by this indirect confession.” (Keil & Delitzsch)
“But, if it was men who had maligned him, then let them be cursed before YHWH, for by their activities they had driven him to recognize that he must leave Israel, (‘the inheritance of YHWH’) and go and live in a foreign country where there was no institutional worship of YHWH. Thus they were basically telling him to go and worship other gods. (He did not, of course, have the intention of worshipping other gods. His faith and awareness of God as revealed in his Psalms indicated that he knew that he could worship YHWH wherever he was. But it was not the same thing as being able to worship at the Sanctuary with God’s people.)” (Pett)
“‘Now therefore, let my blood fall to the earth etc.’.... “some render it, ‘my blood shall not fall to the earth before the face of Yahweh’ ; I am continually under His eye and care, and He will protect and defend me; and in vain is it for thee to pursue after me; I shall never fall into thine hands, though I may be obliged to quit my country, and go into an idolatrous nation, against my will: 'for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea;' which leaps from place to place and is not easily taken: ‘as when one hunts a [single straying] partridge in the mountains.’” (Gill)
1 Samuel 26: Saul’s Confession
21 Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David. For I will harm you no more, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Indeed I have played the fool and erred exceedingly.” 22 And David answered and said, “Here is the king’s spear. Let one of the young men come over and get it. 23 May Yahweh repay every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; for Yahweh delivered you into my hand today, but I would not stretch out my hand againstYahweh's anointed. 24 And indeed, as your life was valued much this day in my eyes, so let my life be valued much in the eyes of Yahweh, and let Him deliver me out of all tribulation.” 25 Then Saul said to David, “May you be blessed, my son David! You shall both do great things and also still prevail.” So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.'
This was oft the confession to Samuel and to "his son" David: "'I have sinned.’ But there wasn’t any sign of repentance. ‘I have sinned, I have played the fool, I have erred exceedingly.’ This is Saul’s confession. Of course it’s a very tragic confession. It’s the truth, he did play the fool all through his life he played the fool. He was a man who was endowed by God with many natural talents and abilities. He was a man who was given every opportunity by God, but yet a man who blew his opportunities of really being a servant of God. He is a man who failed to do the work of God, though he had all that he needed to be a marvelous king over Israel, he became exalted and lifted up with pride, and played the fool, and erred exceedingly. So his autobiography, ‘I have sinned, I’ve played the fool, I’ve erred exceedingly.’” (Chuck Smith) But he approached not the Throne.
Instead of offering the sacrifice of God prescribed by David in the preceding verses and turning to Him in true repentance, asking for grace and power to overcome the evil of his heart, he makes a resolution which he has no power to keep by his own strength. “‘I have sinned’ against you… 'I have played the fool.' Nay, you have done worse than all that. [You have sinned against Yahweh.] —for, against the light of your own mind, you have maliciously persecuted that godly man whom God had set apart for Himself. [Ps 4:3] Saul promised: ‘I will no more do thee harm.‘ — no more till next time. Saul’s good affections and resolutions were so far from being like the Persian decrees, unalterable, that they were more like the Polonian laws, which, they say, last but three days.” (John Trapp)
“He ought rather to have taken refuge with God, and appealed to Him for grace, that he might not fall into such sins again.” (Berleb. Bible) “That repentance which begins not in God's grace, is never to be depended upon in man's mercy.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
“David responded by offering him back his ceremonial spear which was the symbol of his kingship, the equivalent of a royal sceptre. But he would not approach the king himself. He had suffered too much at Saul’s hands to trust the genuineness of his repentance. Let one of Saul’s young men come over and collect it. Thus he did not take the request for him to return as reliable.” (Peter Pett) Yet He did leave Judgment to God. “’May the Lord repay every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; etc.’ (Roman 2:6; Psalm 62:12)- then referring to his own good conduct.
One Day, God will judge the living and the dead by the Man Christ Jesus—“according to truth.” I believe that He is the Lawgiver from Sinai and will be the Judge. So, we have no business judging. “There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?” (James 4:12) We are fallen without full knowledge, therefore, do not do it.
Saul prophesied “May you be blessed, my son David! You shall both do great things and also still prevail..’ The Tigurines translate it,…’thou shalt do the deed, and go thorough stitch with it,’... And so David did indeed above all that went before him; so that in his days, and his son Solomon’s, that kingdom was at its highest ακμη but no thanks to Saul, who truly foretold it, but maliciously opposed it to his utmost.” (John Trapp)
“‘So David went on his way.’ David placed no confidence in his professions or promises, but wisely kept at a distance and awaited the course of Providence.” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown) “David went on his way, it is said, the way of grace and salvation; for Jesus was then as he was afterwards, and is now and ever will be, the way, the truth, and the life.-- ‘And Saul returned to his place.’ [To his home in Gibeah.] An awful account though short: for where is the place of the wicked, where in this life, and where in that which is to come? Judas, when he fell, went to his own place. Acts 1:25.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
“Surely men of low degree (literally 'sons of Adam') are a vapor, men of high degree (in the eyes of man) are a lie; if they are weighed on the scales, they are altogether lighter than vapor. Do not trust in oppression, nor vainly hope in robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them. God has spoken once, twice I have heard this: that power [to perform] belongs to God. Also to You, O Yahweh, belongs mercy; for You will render to each one according to his works.” (Psalm 62:9-12)
Jesus or Yeshua came first as the Lamb of God. According to Matthew 16:27, it is He who will come again in the glory of His Father with His angels for rewards and punishment. He will render… “eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness— And He will render "'indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.” (Rom 2:6b-11)