1 Samuel 26:15

_AND 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._ David said to Abner, Art not thou a valiant man? ... wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? The circumstance of David having penetrated to the center of the encampment, through the circular rows of the sleeping soldiers, constituted the point of this sarcastic taunt....

13-20 David reasoned seriously and affectionately with Saul. Those who forbid our attendance on God's ordinances, do what they can to estrange us from God, and to make us heathens. We are to reckon that which exposes us to sin the greatest injury that can be done us. If the Lord stirred thee up against me, either in displeasure to me, taking this way to punish me for my sins against him, or in displeasure to thee, if it be the effect of that evil spirit from the Lord which troubles thee; let Him accept an offering from us both. Let us join in seeking peace, and to be reconciled with God by sacrifice....

Verse 1 Samuel 26:15. ART _NOT THOU A_ VALIANT _MAN?_] This is a strong irony. _Ye_ are _worthy to die; ye are sons of death _- ye deserve death for this neglect of your king. And had not Saul been so deeply affected with David's generosity in preserving his life, he had doubtless put Abner and his chief officers to death; though they were not to blame, as their apparent neglect was the effect of a supernatural sleep....

This incidental testimony to Abner’s great eminence as a warrior is fully borne out by David’s dirge at Abner’s death 2 Samuel 3:31, 2 Samuel 3:38, as well as by his whole history. At the same time David’s bantering tone in regard to Abner, coupled with what he says in 1 Samuel 26:19, makes it proable that David attributed Saul’s persecution of him in some degree to Abner. Abner would be likely to dread a rival in the young conqueror of Judah (compare 2 Samuel 2:8)....

DAVID A SECOND TIME SPARES SAUL'S LIFE (1 Samuel 26:1.). EXPOSITION SAUL, ON INFORMATION FROM THE ZIPHITES, AGAIN SEEKS TO DESTROY DAVID (1 Samuel 26:1). 1 SAMUEL 26:1 THE ZIPHITES CAME UNTO SAUL. There are so many points of similarity between this narrative and that contained in 1

AND DAVID SAID TO ABNER, [ART] NOT THOU A [VALIANT] MAN?.... Or a man u, a man of great fame for courage and valour, a man of great authority, who had the next post in the army under Saul, but had not behaved like a man, worthy of his character and office: AND WHO [IS] LIKE TO THEE IN ISRAEL? none that bare so great a name, or was in so high an office, who therefore should have been careful to have acted according to both: WHEREFORE THEN HAST THOU NOT KEPT THY LORD THE KING? took care to have set a guard about his person while he slept; which perhaps was neglected through a contempt of David and his men, as being in no fear of them: FOR THERE CAME ONE OF THE PEOPLE IN TO DESTROY THE KING THY LORD; that is, there had been one in the camp that night, who had entered there with that view to have destroyed him, had he an opportunity, and which did offer; this was true of Abishai, who no d...

CHAPTER 26 _ 1. The Ziphites and Saul's pursuit (1 Samuel 26:1)_ 2. David again spares Saul (1 Samuel 26:5) 3. David's words to Abner (1 Samuel 26:13) 4. David's words to Saul (1 Samuel 26:17) 5. Saul's confession and David's reply (1 Samuel 26:21) Hachilah, where we find David now, was six miles east of Ziph and about halfway to En-gedi. The Ziphites once more reveal his hiding place to Saul. And Saul was rushing forward to his doom when with his three thousand chosen men he took up the

1 SAMUEL 26. DAVID SPARES SAUL IN THE WILDERNESS OF ZIPH (J). From one of the oldest sources (_cf._ on ch. 24). 1 SAMUEL 26:1 TO 1 SAMUEL 12:1 f. repeats briefly the substance and part of the wording of 1 Samuel 23:19: David is in the wilderness of Ziph, and Saul pursues him. But instead of the sequel given in 1 Samuel 23, we have another version of the story in 1 Samuel 24 of David's generous treatment of Saul. David learns that Saul is again pursuing him and is in his immediate neighbourhood: of a certainty is clearly wrong, and RVm, to a set place, is not much more likely. There may be a scribal error, and the name of a place may have stood here originally. David went to see for hims

MAN. Hebrew. _'ish,_ App-14. not. Hebrew. _'el._ (Hypothetical.)...

David's final expostulation with Saul 13. _a great space being between them_ This precaution indicates that David trusted Saul less now than upon the former occasion. Cp. 1 Samuel 26:22....