1 Samuel 26:8 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

1 Samuel 26:8

6 Then David answered, and said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai ^athe son of Zeruiah, brother of ^bJoab, saying, “Who will ^cgo down with me to Saul in the camp?” And ^dAbishai said, “I will go down with you.”

7 So David and Abishai came to the people by night; and there Saul lay sleeping within the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. And Abner and the people lay all around him.

8 Then Abishai said to David, ^a“God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore, please, let me strike him¹ at once with the spear, right to the earth; and I will not have to strike him a second time!”

9 But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him; ^afor who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless?”

10 David said furthermore, “As the Lord lives, ^athe Lord shall strike him, or ^bhis day shall come to die, or he shall ^cgo out to battle and perish.

11 ^aThe Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. But please, take now the spear and the jug of water that are by his head, and let us go.”

12 So David took the spear and the jug of water by Saul’s head, and they got away; and no man saw or knew it or awoke. For they were all asleep, because ^aa deep sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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1 Samuel 26:8-12

Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand—This midnight stratagem shows the activity and heroic enterprise of David's mind, and it was in unison with the style of warfare in ancient times.

let me smite him . . . even to the earth at once—The ferocious vehemence of the speaker is sufficiently apparent from his language, but David's magnanimity soared far above the notions of his followers. Though Saul's cruelty and perfidy and general want of right principle had sunk him to a low pitch of degradation, yet that was no reason for David's imitating him in doing wrong. Besides, he was the sovereign; David was a subject. Though God had rejected him from the kingdom, it was in every way the best and most dutiful course, instead of precipitating his fall by imbruing their hands in his blood and thereby contracting the guilt of a great crime, to wait the awards of that retributive providence which sooner or later would take him off by some sudden and mortal blow. He who, with impetuous haste was going to exterminate Nabal, meekly spared Saul. But Nabal refused to give a tribute to which justice and gratitude, no less than custom, entitled David. Saul was under the judicial infatuation of heaven. Thus David withheld the hand of Abishai; but, at the same time, he directed him to carry off some things which would show where they had been, and what they had done. Thus he obtained the best of victories over him, by heaping coals of fire on his head.

Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 Samuel 26:8:

Job 31:31
Nahum 1:9

<< 1 Samuel 26:7

1 Samuel 26:9 >>

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