1 Samuel 26:5

_AND DAVID AROSE, AND CAME TO THE PLACE WHERE SAUL HAD PITCHED: AND DAVID BEHELD THE PLACE WHERE SAUL LAY, AND ABNER THE SON OF NER, THE CAPTAIN OF HIS HOST: AND SAUL LAY IN THE TRENCH, AND THE PEOPLE PITCHED ROUND ABOUT HIM._ Came to the place where Saul had pitched. Having obtained certain information respecting the locality of the king's encampment, he seems, accompanied by his nephew (1 Samuel 26:6), to have hid himself, perhaps disguised, in a neighbouring wood or hill, on the skirts of the royal camp toward night, and waited to approach it under covert of the darkness. THE PLACE WHERE SAUL LAY, AND ABNER THE SON OF NER. The Hebrew _ 'AAB_ (H1) signifies father; but the captain of Saul's host may have been called Ab-ner in honour of some ancestor, without any reference to the meaning of the name. Another expl

1-12 How soon do unholy hearts lose the good impressions convictions have made upon them! How helpless were Saul and all his men! All as though disarmed and chained, yet nothing is done to them; they are only asleep. How easily can God weaken the strongest, befool the wisest, and baffle the most watchful! David still resolved to wait till God thought fit to avenge him on Saul. He will by no means force his way to the promised crown by any wrong methods. The temptation was very strong; but if he yielded, he would sin against God, therefore he resisted the temptation, and trusted God with the event....

Verse 1 Samuel 26:5. _DAVID AROSE_] As David and his men knew the country, they had many advantages over Saul and his men; and no doubt could often watch them without being discovered. _SAUL LAY IN THE TRENCH_] The word במעגל _bammaegal_, which we translate _in the trench_, and in the margin _in the midst of his_ _carriages_, is rendered by some _in a ring of carriages_, and by others _in the circle_, i.e., which was formed by his troops. Luther himself translates it _wagenburg_, a _fortress_ formed of _wagons_ or _carriages_. As עגל _agal_ signifies any thing _round_, it may here refer to a _round pavilion_ or _tent_ made for Saul, or else to the _form_ of his _camp_. The Arabs, to the present day, always form a _circle_ in their encampments, and put their

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 AROSE, AND CAME TO THE PLACE WHERE SAUL HAD PITCHED,.... Came near it, within sight of it; so that he could take a view of it with his naked eye, and observe where and in what manner he was encamped: AND DAVID BEHELD THE PLACE WHERE SAUL LAY, AND ABNER THE SON OF NER, THE CAPTAIN OF HIS HOST; where he and his general had their quarters in the camp: AND SAUL LAY IN THE TRENCH; or circuit; not in the foss or ditch thrown up, in which an army sometimes lies entrenched; but this is to be understood either of the camp itself, so called, as Ben Gersom, Abarbinel, and Ben Melech think, because it lay in a circular form, that all comers to it on every side might be seen; or else a sort of fortress all around the camp, made of carriages joined together; and as the word signifies a carriage, cart or chariot, it may design the chariot in which Saul slept, as kings have been used to do...

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

TRENCH, or, barricade....

Saul's life again in David's power 5. _in the trench_ See on 1 Samuel 17:20. The Sept. rendering "in a chariot" is a mistake....

AND SAUL LAY IN THE TRENCH— _Within the trench,_ Houbigant; which appears to be the true meaning of the original word. The Chaldee renders it the same. This entrenchment is generally thought to have consisted of chariots joined together; and therefore Le Clerc renders it, not improperly, _intra ambitum plaustrorum._ The LXX with no great propriety read; _in his chariot._ The author of the _Observations_ is of a different opinion from Houbigant. "One can hardly imagine," says he, "that the Hebrew word מעגל _mangal,_ signifies a ditch and bank thrown up; as one would suppose our translators apprehended, from their using the word _trench;_ for it appears from the history, that no precautions were taken against David. Nor does it seem to mean _a ring of carriages,_ as it is supposed in the Margins of our Bibles, and as Buxtorf interprets the word; for, most probably, the parting of carriages...