Bible Commentaries
1 Samuel 26

Verses 1-25

David spares Saul’s Life a Second Time

1. Hachilah] near the wilderness of Ziph: see 1 Samuel 23:19.

4. Was come in very deed] Heb. ’was come to Nakon.’ Nakon = ’a set place’ (RM), though it may have been the corruption of a place-name, such as Maon.

6. Hittite] So he belonged to one of the original inhabitants of the country. We might expect to find some of them among David’s followers: cp. 1 Samuel 22:2. Uriah, another Hittite, played an important part in David’s history. Abishai] is here mentioned for the first time. He saved David’s life in one of the Philistine wars (2 Samuel 21:17), was implicated in the murder of Abner (2 Samuel 3:30), shared the command of the army (2 Samuel 10:10), and remained faithful to David in Absalom’s rebellion.

8. At once] RV ’at one stroke.’

19. Let him accept an offering] cp. Genesis 4:7. The idea in this v. is simply that if Jehovah had prompted Saul’s action, Saul was doing right, and David would seek pardon by an offering. Go, serve other gods] This seems to suggest that David limited the rule of Jehovah to the land of Israel as the rule of Chemosh was limited to Moab: cp. Jephthah’s reference to Chemosh in Judges 11:24. In the older Hebrew thought, Jehovah was specially present in Palestine (though cp. Judges 5:4). Hence it seemed difficult and almost impossible to worship the true God in a heathen land, since when a Hebrew became naturalised elsewhere, he would conform to the religion of his new home.

20. Before the face] RV ’away from the presence of,’ i.e. let not my blood be shed without Jehovah requiring it: cp. Genesis 4:10.

A flea] LXX ’my soul.’ The Heb. reading is due to a recollection of 1 Samuel 24:14.