1 Samuel 26:20

_NOW 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._ As when one doth hunt a partridge. The allusion is to the ancient method of taking these birds by throwing sticks. Wild animals of a large size were generally captured in nets and pitfalls. Dogs do not appear to have been employed in the chase at all. As to fowls, people in the East, in hunting the partridge and other game birds, pursue them until observing them becoming languid and fatigued; after they have been put up two or three times, they rush upon the birds stealthily, and knock them down with bludgeons (Shaw's 'Travels'). It was exactly in this manner that Saul was pursuing David: he drove him from time to time from his hiding place, hoping to render him weary of his life, or obtain an opportunity...

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 26:20. _AS WHEN ONE DOTH HUNT A PARTRIDGE_] It is worthy of remark that the Arabs, observing that partridges, being put up several times, soon become so weary as not to be able to fly; they in this manner hunt them upon the mountains, till at last they can knock them down with their clubs. It was in this manner that Saul hunted David, coming hastily upon him, and putting him up from time to time, in hopes that he should at length, by frequent repetitions of it, be able to destroy him. See _Harmer_....

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

NOW THEREFORE LET NOT MY BLOOD FALL TO THE EARTH BEFORE THE FACE OF THE LORD,.... For should it be spilled, God, who is omniscient, will see it, and take notice of it; and being righteous, and to whom vengeance belongs, he will avenge it: some render it, "my blood shall not fall to the earth before the face of the Lord" r; 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: or this may denote what a mean, poor, weak, insignificant person David was; and how much it was below Saul to come out with an army of chosen men in pursuit of him; so the Targum, "the king of Israel is come ou...

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

A FLEA. one flea....

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....

A PARTRIDGE— The Hebrew word קרא _kore, a partridge,_ occurs only here and Jeremiah 17:11 and has its name, according to Parkhurst, from the note that it utters in calling its young or mate; which cannot be better expressed in articulate sounds, than by קרא _quera._ Whoever reads with tolerable attention the Hierozoicon of Bochart, or even the 19th chapter of the first book, _De Nominibus Anim. ab Adamo impositis,_ cannot doubt that the Hebrew names given by Adam to the animals, were intended to express some remarkable and eminent quality in each. See Parkhurst on the word, and Scheuchzer's Physique Sacree, tom. 5: The account that Dr. Shaw gives us of the manner in which the Arabs hunt _partridges,_ is a lively comment on the place. "The Arabs have another and more laborious method of catching these birds; for, observing that they become languid and fatigued after th