1 Samuel 21:15

Det Norsk Bibelselskap

Har jeg ikke nok av gale folk siden I er kommet hit med ham der, så han skal plage mig med sin galskap? Skulde slik en få komme i mitt hus?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Reciprocal: Psalms 119:161 - Princes

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Have I need of madmen?.... Or fools, do I want them? have not I enough of them already at my court? I want wise men, and not fools and madmen. The Jews say w that the wife and daughter of Achish were mad; that while David was playing the fool and madman without, they were acting the same part within; so that Achish had enough of that sort of diversion, if it was to be reckoned such; as it was according to the taste of some persons, who used, as in later so in earlier times, to keep fools in their houses to make them sport; but Achish had enough of that, and too much, at least needed no more:

that ye have brought this [fellow] to play the madman in my presence? or act the part of a fool before me:

shall this [fellow] come into mine house? court or palace, and have a post there; you need be in no pain about it; he is neither agreeable to me, nor fit for any; and therefore Achish drove him away as a fool or madman, instead of imprisoning him as an enemy, or taking away his life; see the title of the thirty fourth psalm, Psalms 34:1.

w Midrash Tillim apud Abarbinel. in loc.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Samuel 21:15. Shall this fellow come into my house? — I will not take into my service a man who is liable to so grievous a disease. Chandler, who vindicates David's feigning himself, mad, concludes thus: "To deceive the deceiver is in many instances meritorious, in none criminal. And what so likely to deceive as the very reverse of that character which they had so misconstrued? He was undone as a wise man, he had a chance to escape as a madman; he tried, and the experiment succeeded." I confess I can neither feel the force nor the morality of this. Deceit and hypocrisy can never be pleasing in the sight of God.