1 Samuel 24:6

_AND IT CAME TO PASS AFTERWARD, THAT DAVID'S HEART SMOTE HIM, BECAUSE HE HAD CUT OFF SAUL'S SKIRT._ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THESE VERSES....

1-7 God delivered Saul into David's hand. It was an opportunity given to David to exercise faith and patience. He had a promise of the kingdom, but no command to slay the king. He reasons strongly, both with himself and with his men, against doing Saul any hurt. Sin is a thing which it becomes us to startle at, and to resist temptations thereto. He not only would not do this bad thing himself, but he would not suffer those about him to do it. Thus he rendered good for evil, to him from whom he received evil for good; and was herein an example to all who are called Christians, not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good....

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 had often sought to destroy, did not conceive that he had any right to take away his life; and he grounds the reasons of his forbearance on this-He is my _master_, I am his _subject_. He is the _Lord's anointed_, and therefore _sacred_ as to his _person_ in the Lord's sight. It is an awful thing to kill a king, even the most untoward, when he has once been constitutionally appointed to the throne. No experiment of this kind has ever succeeded; the Lord abhors _king killing_. Had David taken away the life of Saul at this time, he would, in the sight of God, have...

DAVID IN THE WILDERNESS OF ENGEDI (1Sa 23:29 -35-24). EXPOSITION DAVID SPARES SAUL'S LIFE IN A CAVE (1 Samuel 24:1). 1 SAMUEL 24:1 THE WILDERNESS OF EN-GEDI. Finding no safety on the western side of the desert of Judah, where the Ziphites were ever watching his movements, David now boldly crossed this arid waste, and sought shelter in the remarkable oasis of En-gedi, on the shore of the Dead Sea. The word may signify either the Fountain of Luck or the Kid's Spring, the latter being the meaning of the name Ain-Jadi, which it still bears. I

AND HE SAID UNTO HIS MEN,.... When he returned and brought the skirt of Saul's garment in his hand; or else he said this before that, though here mentioned, when they moved it to him to dispatch him, as he had a fair opportunity of doing it: GOD FORBID THAT I SHOULD DO THIS THING UNTO MY MASTER, THE LORD'S ANOINTED; and which he could not think of but with detestation and abhorrence, since he was his sovereign lord and master, and he a subject of his, and was anointed by the order of God, and his person sacred: TO STRETCH FORTH MY HAND AGAINST HIM; to take away his life; to cut off the skirt of his garment gave him uneasiness; but to slay him, the thought of it was shocking to him: SEEING HE [IS] THE ANOINTED OF THE LORD; anointed by Samuel to be king, 1 Samuel 10:1, by order of the Lord,...

CHAPTER 24 _ 1. In the wilderness of En-gedi (1 Samuel 24:1)_ 2. David's words to Saul (1 Samuel 24:9) 3. Saul's answer to David (1 Samuel 24:16) Saul continues in the pursuit of David and with 3000 chosen men he sought David at the rocks of the wild goats. It was in En-gedi, which means “the fountain of the young goat.” There were wild rocks and the fountains of water and here David had found his refuge and strongholds. God trained him also amidst the hardships and difficulties suggested by the rocks, while the fountain suggests the refreshing which was also his blessed portion. Perhaps in that trying wilderness he poured out his heart in the way as recorded in...

1 SAMUEL 24. DAVID SPARES SAUL AT ENGEDI (E). Chs. 24 and 26 give two versions of the same story, located at different places. Probably both versions are early. It is not clear which is the earlier, but it is often considered that 26 has the more primitive flavour. It is not necessary to suppose that either story has been developed from the other; they are probably independent developments from the actual facts. 1 SAMUEL 24:1. Saul resumes the pursuit of David; under the stress of a necessity of nature, he goes alone into a cave, in the recesses of which David and his men are hidden. His followers urge him to slay Saul, but he contents himself with secretly cutting off the skirt of his robe; and even then he has qualms of conscience as to taking this liberty with his master, the Anointed of Yahweh. Saul goes out, unconscious of his danger....

MASTER. Hebrew. _'Adoni,_ my lord. App-4....

David spares Saul's life in the cave at En-gedi This narrative and that in ch. 26 are regarded by some commentators as different accounts of the same event. See Note VII. p. 243, and the notes on ch. 26. Psalms 57, 142 are referred by their titles to the time when David fled from Saul in the cave; but whether this occasion or his sojourn in the cave of Adullam is meant, must remain uncertain....

DISCOURSE: 305 DAVID’S FORBEARANCE TOWARDS SAUL 1 Samuel 24:4. _And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily. And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt. And he said unto his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord_. KNOWING what we do of the depravity of human nature, we should scarcely conceive that men could attain to such heights of virtue as are recorded in the Holy Scriptures, if we did not know that those records are of divine authority. This observation is verified in the hist