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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Samuel 26:13 - 26:13
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“And David went over to the other side, and placed himself upon the top of the mountain afar off (the space between them was great), and cried to the people,” etc. Saul had probably encamped with his fighting men on the slope of the ill Hachilah, so that a valley separated him from the opposite hill, from which David had no doubt reconnoitred the camp and then gone down to it (1Sa 26:6), and to which he returned after the deed was accomplished. The statement that this mountain was far off, so that there was a great space between David and Saul, not only favours the accuracy of the historical tradition, but shows that David reckoned far less now upon any change in the state of Saul's mind than he had done before, when he followed Saul without hesitation from the cave and called after him (1Sa 24:9), and that in fact he rather feared lest Saul should endeavour to get him into his power as soon as he woke from his sleep.
1Sa 26:14
David called out to Abner, whose duty it was as general to defend the life of his king. And Abner replied, “Who art thou, who criest out to the king?” i.e., offendest the king by thy shouting, and disturbest his rest.
1Sa 26:15-16
David in return taunted Abner with having watched the king carelessly, and made himself chargeable with his death. “For one of the people came to destroy thy lord the king.” As a proof of this, he then showed him the spear and pitcher that he had taken away with him. רְאֵה is to be repeated in thought before אֶת־צַפַּחַת: “look where the king's spear is; and (look) at the pitcher at his head,” sc., where it is. These reproaches that were cast at Abner were intended to show to Saul, who might at any rate possibly hear, and in fact did hear, that David was the most faithful defender of his life, more faithful than his closest and most zealous servants.
1Sa 26:17-19
When Saul heard David's voice (for he could hardly have seen David, as the occurrence took place before daybreak, at the latest when the day began to dawn), and David had made himself known to the king in reply to his inquiry, David said, “Why doth my lord pursue his servant? for what have I done, and what evil is in my hand?” He then gave him the well-meant advice, to seek reconciliation for his wrath against him, and not to bring upon himself the guilt of allowing David to find his death in a foreign land. The words, “and now let my lord the king hear the saying of his servant,” serve to indicate that what follows is important, and worthy of laying to heart. In his words, David supposes two cases as conceivable causes of Saul's hostility: (1) if Jehovah hath stirred thee up against me; (2) if men have done so. In the first case, he proposes as the best means of overcoming this instigation, that He (Jehovah) should smell an offering. The Hiphil יָרַח only means to smell, not to cause to smell. The subject is Jehovah. Smelling a sacrifice is an anthropomorphic term, used to denote the divine satisfaction (cf. Gen 8:21). The meaning of the words, “let Jehovah smell sacrifice,” is therefore, “let Saul appease the wrath of God by the presentation of acceptable sacrifices.” What sacrifices they are which please God, is shown in Psa 51:18-19; 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. The thought to which David gives utterance here, namely, 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 Psa 51:6 (cf. Hengstenberg on Psalms), but is also clearly expressed in 2Sa 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 2Sa 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.
The second supposition is: “if, however, children of men” (sc., have instigated thee against me); in which case “let them be cursed before the Lord; for they drive me now (this day) that I dare not attach myself to the inheritance of Jehovah (i.e., the people of God), saying, Go, serve other gods.” The meaning is this: They have carried it so far now, that I am obliged to separate from the people of God, to fly from the land of the Lord, and, because far away from His sanctuary, to serve other gods. The idea implied in the closing words was, that Jehovah could only be worshipped in Canaan, at the sanctuary consecrated to Him, because it was only there that He manifested himself to His people, and revealed His face or gracious presence (vid., Psa 42:2-3; Psa 84:11; Psa 143:6.). “We are not to understand that the enemies of David were actually accustomed to use these very words, but David was thinking of deeds rather than words” (Calvin).
1Sa 26:20
“And now let not my blood fall to the earth far away from the face of the Lord,” i.e., do not carry it so far as to compel me to perish in a foreign land. “For the king of Israel has gone out to seek a single flea (vid., 1Sa 24:15), as one hunts a partridge upon the mountains.” This last comparison does not of course refer to the first, so that “the object of comparison is compared again with something else,” as Thenius supposes, but it refers rather to the whole of the previous clause. The king of Israel is pursuing something very trivial, and altogether unworthy of his pursuit, just as if one were hunting a partridge upon the mountains. “No one would think it worth his while to hunt a single partridge that had flown to the mountains, when they may be found in coveys in the fields” (Winer, Bibl. R. W. ii. p. 307). This comparison, therefore, does not presuppose that קֹרֵא must be a bird living upon the mountains, as Thenius maintains, so as to justify his altering the text according to the Septuagint. These words of David were perfectly well adapted to sharpen Saul's conscience, and induce him to desist from his enmity, if he still had an ear for the voice of truth.