The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 490

the word mliant (comp. 0h. iv. 9). No to c_arry it to God's throne in prayer, iw special valour was needed; any one worthy D_av1d ur~es S~ul to ~e'.'k for Jhe rp1ieting of of the name of man ought to have guarded his emotions in religion. Under holy in- his master better. Who is like to thee- fluences these fierce passions -,,ould pas~ Hcbrew, "who is os thou" - in Israel 1 away, and Jehovah would accept an offer- Among all Saul's subjects there was no ing. Hebrew, "would sm~II it," because the one so powerful and highly placed as the offering, minchah, consisting of flour and commanJcr-in-chief, and he ought to have frankincense, was burnt for a sweet odour shown himself worthy of his pre-eminence. before God. But, secondly, Saul might be Justly, therefore, for neglecting his duty stirred up by the calumnies of wicked men, and exposing the king to danger, he and in which case David prays that they may be his people were worthy to die. Hebrew, cursed before Jehove.h; because by forcing "sons of death" (see on eh. xx. 31 ). Finally him to leave the covenant land of Israel they David bids him search for the king's spear virtually say to him, Go, serve other gods. and water-bottle, that he may understand To a mind so intensely religious as David's, how completely Saul bad been in his power. not only was the private devotion of the It has been suggested that Abner was heart a necessity, but also the taking part in probably a personal enemy of David, with the public worship of the Deity (Ps. xiii. 2 ; whom he could never have held the high !xiii 2; lxxxiv. 2); and, therefore, to deprive position which he occupierl. with bis near him of this privilege and expel him from relative Saul. Possibly instead of dissuading the inheritance of Jehovah, i. e. the earthly . Saul from persecuting David, be stirred up limits of Jebovah's Church, was to force him, his ill feelings. Still absolutely there is as far as his enemies could do so, to be :t nothing in this banter which was not heathen and a worshipper of strange gods. justified by Abner's official position. Ver. 20.-Let not my blood fall to the Vers. 17-19.-Is this thy voice 1 So cb. earth before the face of Jehovah. He bre"·. xxiv. 16. In the darkness the only way of "far from the presence of Jehovah." The recognising David was by bis voice. If point of David's appeal is not that his lire Jehovah have stirred thee up, &c. This is may be spared, but that he may not thus \,e one of the many passages indicative of the driven far away from the land where J eho- intensity with which the Israelites had vah manifests -himself; nor does he seem w grasped the idea of the omnipresence of the much to contemplate Saul's putting him tu Deity, and of his being the one power by death as the probability that sooner or Li t,·r whose energy all things exist and all acts the life of an exile will be cut short Ly c11,· are done (see on eh. ii. 2). Alike evil and or other of the many dangers by which he is good come from God, for he alone is the surrounded. A 11.ea. Hebrew, "a single, source of all ; but it does not therefore flea," as in eh. lliv. 14. A partridge. follow that everything which he makes Many emendations of the text have been possible, or to which his providence seems proposed on the supposition that partridge" to lead, is therefore right for man to do are only to be found in plains. But Mr_ (eh. xxiv. 4, 6). On the contrary, all leadings Conder tells us that partridges are among of providence are to be judged by God's the few living creatures which still tenant immutable law, and the conduct of e. Shimei these wilds ; and, speaking of the precipitom, may be absolutely wrong and unjustifiable, cliffs which overhang the Dead Sea, he says, even though "Jehovah had bidden him do Here, among "the rocks of the wild goats. it" (2 Sam. xvi. 11). If, indeed, an externe.l the herds of ibex may be seen bounding, aml command come by the hand of e. properly the pnrtridge is still chased on the mountains. accrndited person, it may take the same high as David was followed by the stealthy bunter position as the published le.w of God, and so Saul" (' Tent Work,' ii. 90; see also eh. over-ride the conscience ; but Shimei's bid- xxiii. 19). ding came through the working of his own Yer. 21.-I have sinned. Saul's answer passions, and was no more binding than the here is very different from that in eh. xxiv. moving of David's mind by Jehovah to 17-21, where the main idea was wonder that· number Israel (2· Sam. xxiv. 1). David, David should with such ma&'llanimity. sparl: then, here sets forth the two only possible the life of an enemy so mamfestly delivered cases : first, Saul may be stirred up by into his hand. Here a sense of vexation Jehovah to persecute David, i. e. the tempta- seems uppermost, and of annoyance, not tion may come by the working of his own merely because his purpose was frustre. ted, mind under those strong impulses which to but because his own military arrangemenb the Israelifo had in them always something ha(l been so unsoldierlike. I have played Divine. Ent this was an impulse to break the fool. His first enterprise had ende,l ic God's law, and was therefore to be resisted ; placing his life in David'~ power, and it was and just as in mo,lern phrase we should bi,l folly indeed a second tnne to repe,tt thC> a per,on when strongly moved to some act attempt. But though the words of SauL K K 2 ~00 THE FIRST BvOK OF SAMUEL. [en. XXVI. 1-26.