The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 489

the higher gron11tl, ns he spcnks in ver. 6 of the hend is." Like David's men in eh. xxiv. going do1rn to Saul's cnmp. And he saw. 4, Abishai sees in Saul's defenceless con- I. e. learned, was told. It was only when his dition a !?roof that it was God's will that hfr scouts brought him their report that he knew should die, but there is a difference of lan- that Saul wns come in very deed, or "for a guage in the Hebrew which the A. V. does not certainty" (see eh. xxiii. 23). represent. There the word rendered deliver Yer. 5. - David arose. It seems as if is really give,· here it is "hath locked up." Da,id could scnrcely believe that Saul would At once. Hebrew, "once." Abishai would thus a second time pursue him ; but when pierce him through with a single stroke so the scouts info11ned him that it was really thoroughly that no second blow would be so, he went in person to reconnoitre Saul's necessary. The purpose of this would be to camp. From the opposite hill he was able prevent an outcry. to see that he lay in the trench, i. e. the bar- Vers. 9 - 11. - David forbids the deed , ricade formed by the wagons. At night Saul's as before (eh. xxiv. 6), because of Saul's place would be in the centre, with Abner office. As we there saw, this was an ingrained near him, while the rest would lie sleeping principle in David's mind on which he con- around, but all of them within the ram- stantly acted. Present with equal strength part. When David reconnoitred them they in Saul's mind, it was the cause of moral would probably be arranging their wagons ruin to the one, and of a noble forbearance to form this barricade. and self-control to the other. David there- Yer. 6.-Ahimelech the Hittite. Though fore leaves him in Jehovah's hand, saying, a portion of this once powerful people (Gen. As Jehovah liveth, Jehovah shall smite him; xv. 20; Judges i. 26) was reduced to the or his day, &c. Literally, "As Jehovah position of bondmen (1 Kings ix. 20), yet liveth (I will not smite him), but Jehovah others liad retained their independence, and shall smite him ; either his day shall come their 1.ings e.en are spoken of (ibid. x. and he shall die ; or he shall go down in to- 29 ; 2 Kings vii. 6). As Ahimelech is men- battle and perish." Whenever he falls, it tioned before Abishai, he must have held shall he Jehovah's doing, whether he die a an honourable place with David, as did natural death, or a violent one in battle. subsequently another Hittite, Uriah (2 Sam. "The smiting of Jehovah" does not imply a xi. 3). Abishai the son of Zeruiah. Zeruiah sudden death. God smites men with diseasfr is described in l Chron. ii. 16 as sister to (2 Kings xv. 5) and other troubles. What Jesse's sons, but apparently only by adop- David means is that he will leave the matter tion, as both she and Abigail seem to have entirely to God, but that if Saul's death is Leen daughters of the king of Ammon to be a violent one, he must fall honourably, (2 Sam. xvii. 25), whence probably the ab- not by the hand of a subject, but in battlfr sence of any direct reference to their father. with Israel's enemies. Jehovah forbid. c\J,ishai, who was probably about David's The same phrase as in eh. xxiv. 6. Cruse :l;:(C, and his two brothers were high in rank of water. I. e. water-bottle, as in l Kings among David's heroes (1 Chron. xi. 6, 20, xi:x. 6. 26), and apparently he wa~ one of the three Ver. 12.-And no man ea.wit, &c. The captains who, whtn David was in the cave of Hebrew text describes the occurrenc~ in a. Adullam, broke through the host of the much more lively manner: "And none saw, Philistines to fetch him water from the well and none knew, and none awaked." A deep of Bethlehem. Who will go down 1 It is sleep from Jehovah, &c. So surprising a evident that Da,·id and his men remained fact as that two men conl.i penetrate into upon the mountains, which extend from the very centre of a considerable army, and .ll1aon far to the south-west. Saul's camp, remove the king's sceptre and water-bottle being " by the way," i. e. near the road, from his side, could only be accounted for would be on the lower ground. David by the interference of Providence in their having personally examined it, and seen behalf. titn.t the watches were ill kept, asks which Vers. 13-16.-The top of a hill. He- of the two will accompany him for the more !irew, "the top of the hill," the particulat hazardous enterprise of penetrating into it. mountain from which David had recon- Ahimelech seems prudently to have declined, noitred Saul's camp (ver. 6). A great space but Abishai at once offers his services. being between them. At En-gedi Saul was Vers. 7, 8.-The two accordingly go by alone, and had placed himself in Davi.i's night, or "at night," as soon as night came power; he therefore had followed him closr,]y. on, and find Saul asleep within the trench, Here Saul had his army round him, and i. e. inside the wagon-rampart, as in ver. 5, David had entered his camp by stealth. It and his spear, the sign of his royal authority, is not, thernfore, till he had placccl nn am,,le stuck in the ground ; not at his bolster, but interval between them thnt he cnlls to Abner, "at his head;" all(l so in vers. I I, 12, 16. and asks in derision, Art thou not a man 1 TLe word literally signifies "the place where The irony is enfeeblecl Ly tl,c i11scrtio11 of  OB. XXVI. 1--25.) THE FIHS'l' BOOK OF SA~IUEL.