The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Saul Tries to Kill David
1 Samuel 19:1–24 — Saul Tries to Kill David. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1Then Saul ordered his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Jonathan delighted greatly in David,
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl ’el- way·ḏab·bêr bə·nōw wə·’el- yō·w·nā·ṯān kāl- ‘ă·ḇā·ḏāw lə·hā·mîṯ ’eṯ- dā·wiḏ wî·hō·w·nā·ṯān šā·’ūl ben- ḥā·p̄êṣ mə·’ōḏ bə·ḏā·wiḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-spoke Saul unto Jonathan his-son and-unto all his-servants to-put-to-death David. But-Jehonathan son-of-Saul delighted in-David exceedingly.
Where the English smooths the original
The murderous impulse of the unhappy Saul gradually increased in intensity. First, it showed itself only in the paroxysms of insanity, when the half distraught king would grasp and poise his heavy spear, as though he would hurl it at the kindly musician as he tried to calm the troubled spirit. Then it would plot and scheme against the hated life, trying to involve this young soldier in some enterprise fraught with deadly peril. Now he speaks openly to his heir and his counsellors of the risk incurred by suffering so dangerous a man to live.
When Saul spoke to his son Jonathan and all his servants about his intention to kill DavidK&D is arguing the grammar, not the morality: the Hebrew reports Saul's stated intention rather than an executable order.
Before Saul sought David's life secretly, but now his hypocrisy grows to open cruelty.
2so he warned David, saying, “My father Saul intends to kill you. Be on your guard in the morning; find a secret place and hide there.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yə·hō·w·nā·ṯān way·yag·gêḏ lə·ḏā·wiḏ lê·mōr ’ā·ḇî šā·’ūl mə·ḇaq·qêš la·hă·mî·ṯe·ḵā wə·‘at·tāh hiš·šā·mer- nā ḇab·bō·qer wə·yā·šaḇ·tā ḇas·sê·ṯer wə·naḥ·bê·ṯā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-told Jehonathan to-David saying: “Seeking is Saul my-father to-put-thee-to-death. And-now, guard-thyself, I-pray, in-the-morning; and-thou-shalt-sit in-the-hiding-place and-thou-shalt-hide-thyself.”
Where the English smooths the original
who knows of a conspiracy against an innocent person’s life, and doth not discover it; or, who kills such a one by another’s instigation and command, is himself a murderer; and no duty to a father, or allegiance to a prince, can oblige any one to shed innocent blood.Benson is quoting Dr. Dodd, and is answering the moral objection that Jonathan disobeyed his father and king.
Jonathan, therefore, warns David of the king's malice, and urges him to hide himself until he has made a last entreaty for him.
he seems to suggest as if it was not safe for him to be in his own house, and in his own bedchamber that night, but that it was advisable to retire to some private place, where it might not be known or suspected that he was there.Anchor spans Gill's inference that David's own house and bedchamber were already unsafe — which v. 11 confirms.
3I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, so I can ask about you. And if I find out anything, I will tell you.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wa·’ă·nî ’ê·ṣê wə·‘ā·maḏ·tî lə·yaḏ- ’ā·ḇî baś·śā·ḏeh ’ă·šer ’at·tāh šām wa·’ă·nî ’ă·ḏab·bêr bə·ḵā ’el- ’ā·ḇî wə·rā·’î·ṯî māh wə·hig·gaḏ·tî lāḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-I, I-will-go-out and-stand at-the-hand-of my-father in-the-field where thou art; and-I, I-will-speak-concerning-thee unto my-father; and-I-shall-see what — and-I-will-tell to-thee.”
Where the English smooths the original
David was to conceal himself in the field near to where Jonathan would converse with his father about him; not that he might hear the conversation in his hiding-place, but that Jonathan might immediately report to him the result of his conversation, without there being any necessity for going far away from his father, so as to excite suspicion that he was in league with David.
Jonathan may have wished David to hear and judge for himself of Saul’s intention; or to be close at hand so that he might at once inform him of the result of his appeal.Cambridge leaves open exactly what K&D rules out; we record the disagreement rather than resolve it.
No doubt some garden or quiet place, whither the king was in the habit of resorting with his friends and counsellors.
4Then Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David; he has not sinned against you. In fact, his actions have been highly beneficial to you.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yə·hō·w·nā·ṯān way·ḏab·bêr ṭō·wḇ bə·ḏā·wiḏ ’el- ’ā·ḇîw šā·’ūl way·yō·mer ’ê·lāw ham·me·leḵ ’al- ye·ḥĕ·ṭā bə·‘aḇ·dōw ḇə·ḏā·wiḏ lō·w ḥā·ṭā lāḵ wə·ḵî kî ma·‘ă·śāw mə·’ōḏ ṭō·wḇ- lə·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-spoke Jehonathan good concerning-David unto Saul his-father, and-said unto-him: “Let-not sin the-king against-his-servant, against-David; for he-hath-not sinned to-thee, and-because his-deeds are-to-thee very good.”
Where the English smooths the original
Had Jonathan simply advised David to flee, without endeavouring to bring Saul to a better mind, he would have acted to the prejudice of his father’s interests, by depriving him of the best support of his kingdom.
Jonathan then endeavoured with all the modesty of a son to point out most earnestly to his father the grievous wickedness involved in his conduct towards David.
Jonathan spake good of David, which he could not do without hazard to himself. Herein therefore he performed the duty of a true friend, and of a valiant man.
5He took his life in his hands when he struck down the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, so why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yā·śem ’eṯ- nap̄·šōw ḇə·ḵap·pōw way·yaḵ ’eṯ- hap·pə·liš·tî Yah·weh way·ya·‘aś ḡə·ḏō·w·lāh tə·šū·‘āh lə·ḵāl yiś·rā·’êl rā·’î·ṯā wat·tiś·māḥ wə·lām·māh ṯe·ḥĕ·ṭā nā·qî bə·ḏām lə·hā·mîṯ ’eṯ- dā·wiḏ ḥin·nām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-he-put his-soul in-his-palm and-he-struck the-Philistine, and-YHWH wrought a-great deliverance for-all Israel. Thou-sawest and-thou-didst-rejoice; and-why wilt-thou-sin against-innocent blood, to-put-to-death David for-nothing?”
Where the English smooths the original
put his life in his hand ] i.e. voluntarily exposed himself to peril of death. The figure seems to be that of taking a treasure out of a safe place, and carrying it about with the risk of losing it
wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause? and so entail the guilt of it on himself and family.
on that ever memorable occasion when he fought the giant, when he aimed the pebble of the brook from his shepherd’s sling, he put his life in his hand. Had he missed a hair’s-breadth, the giant would have slain him, and the deliverance then wrought for Israel would never have been accomplished.Ellicott is dramatising Jonathan's speech, filling out with imagination what the Hebrew states flatly; the substance, not the wording, is in the text.
6Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan and swore an oath: “As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl way·yiš·ma‘ bə·qō·wl yə·hō·w·nā·ṯān way·yiš·šā·ḇa‘ šā·’ūl Yah·weh ḥay- ’im- yū·māṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-hearkened Saul to-the-voice of-Jehonathan, and-swore Saul: “Living is YHWH — if he-shall-be-put-to-death!”
Where the English smooths the original
This great change is not to be ascribed to any true repentance for his sin against David, or any better affection which he now had to him; but merely to his own worldly interest, because he was convinced by Jonathan’s discourse that he could not kill him without great inconvenience and shame to himself.
Whatever he pretended outwardly, yet his heart was full of malice.The Geneva gloss is the harshest reading available in the brief; Gill and Cambridge both think the oath was sincere when sworn.
And as he swore inconsiderately, so, he as quickly and inconsiderately broke his oath; which may be a lesson to us never to take an oath upon any occasion, but with the greatest seriousness and an inward veneration
7So Jonathan summoned David and told him all these things. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yə·hō·w·nā·ṯān way·yiq·rā lə·ḏā·wiḏ way·yag·geḏ- lōw kāl- hā·’êl·leh had·də·ḇā·rîm yə·hō·w·nā·ṯān ’êṯ way·yā·ḇê yə·hō·w·nā·ṯān ’eṯ- dā·wiḏ ’el- šā·’ūl way·hî lə·p̄ā·nāw kə·’eṯ·mō·wl šil·šō·wm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-called Jehonathan to-David, and-told him Jehonathan all these words; and-brought Jehonathan David unto Saul, and-he-was before-his-face as-yesterday and-the-day-before.
Where the English smooths the original
The old life went on as before, and David seemingly was received on terms of intimacy and affection by the king, but a new cause was soon supplied which again lit up the slumbering fires of jealousy
whereupon Jonathan reported these words to David, and brought him to Saul, so that he was with him again as before. But this reconciliation, unfortunately, did not last long.
in appearance, received him courteously, and a reconciliation was seemingly made
8When war broke out again, David went out and fought the Philistines and struck them with such a mighty blow that they fled before him.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ham·mil·ḥā·māh lih·yō·wṯ wat·tō·w·sep̄ ḏā·wiḏ way·yê·ṣê way·yil·lā·ḥem bap·pə·liš·tîm way·yaḵ bā·hem ḡə·ḏō·w·lāh mak·kāh way·yā·nu·sū mip·pā·nāw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-added the-war to-be, and-went-out David and-fought against-the-Philistines and-struck them a-great blow, and-they-fled from-before-his-face.
Where the English smooths the original
This preliminary mention of David’s fresh successes implies that Saul’s attack of madness was due to jealousy excited by them.
he killed many of them in his engagements with them, and the rest fled, and he returned victorious; which stirred up the envy and increased the jealousy of Saul
So David continues his good services, though they were ill requited. They who are ill paid for doing good, yet must not be weary of well-doing, remembering how bountiful a benefactor God is, even to the evil and unthankful.
9But as Saul was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, a spirit of distress from the LORD came upon him. While David was playing the harp,
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·hū yō·wō·šêḇ bə·ḇê·ṯōw wa·ḥă·nî·ṯōw bə·yā·ḏōw rū·aḥ rā·‘āh Yah·weh wat·tə·hî ’el- šā·’ūl wə·ḏā·wiḏ mə·nag·gên bə·yāḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he was sitting in-his-house, and-his-spear in-his-hand; and-was a-spirit of-evil of-YHWH unto Saul; and-David was playing with-the-hand.
Where the English smooths the original
It is, no doubt, a hard saying, and no human expositor has ever yet been able fully to explain it.Ellicott's full note runs to a careful hypothesis about permitted evil spirits (Job 1, 1 Kings 22); this sentence is his concession, and we record the concession rather than the hypothesis.
suggesting that it was no longer a natural influence, but that Saul, having broken his covenant relations with Jehovah, was now punished by him.
The thought expressed is, that the growth of Saul's melancholy was a sign of the hardness of heart to which Jehovah had given him up on account of his impenitence.
He played on his harp to appease the rage of the evil spirit
10Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear. But David eluded him and the spear struck the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl way·ḇaq·qêš lə·hak·kō·wṯ bə·ḏā·wiḏ ū·ḇaq·qîr ba·ḥă·nîṯ wə·ḏā·wiḏ way·yip̄·ṭar mip·pə·nê šā·’ūl ha·ḥă·nîṯ way·yaḵ ’eṯ- baq·qîr nās way·yim·mā·lêṭ hū bal·lay·lāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-sought Saul to-strike with-the-spear through-David and-into-the-wall; and-he-slipped-away from-before-the-face-of Saul, and-he-struck the-spear into-the-wall. And-David fled and-was-delivered that night.
Where the English smooths the original
How sad and shocking a scene was this! David labouring with all his study and skill to relieve Saul’s anguish; and Saul, in the same instant, meditating his destruction!Benson is quoting Delaney; the vivid reconstruction of Saul waiting for the music to steady his hand is Delaney's inference, not the text's statement.
Here Saul actually threw his javelin at David with such violence that it was fixed into the wall.Pulpit is distinguishing this verb from the one at 1 Samuel 18:11, which he takes as a threatened rather than executed throw.
This was the beginning of David's life as a fugitive and outcast
11Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you do not run for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl way·yiš·laḥ mal·’ā·ḵîm ’el- dā·wiḏ bêṯ lə·šā·mə·rōw wə·la·hă·mî·ṯōw bab·bō·qer ’iš·tōw lê·mōr mî·ḵal wat·tag·gêḏ lə·ḏā·wiḏ ’im- ’ê·nə·ḵā mə·mal·lêṭ ’eṯ- nap̄·šə·ḵā hal·lay·lāh mā·ḥār ’at·tāh mū·māṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-sent Saul messengers unto the-house-of David to-watch-him and-to-put-him-to-death in-the-morning. And-told Michal his-wife to-David, saying: “If thou-art-not delivering thy-soul tonight — tomorrow thou art put-to-death.”
Where the English smooths the original
To slay him in the morning: why not in the night? Answ. Partly, because it would have been barbarous, and most dishonourable to Saul, to break into David’s house by night, and kill him in his own house and bed; and it seemed more expedient to kill him as he came out of his house in the morning; partly, because the night might give David some opportunity of escaping, which the day-light would prevent; and principally, by God’s singular providence, infatuating Saul’s mind to take the worst course, that David might be delivered from him.
The danger in which David was at that time is described by him in Psalm 59 , from which we may see how Saul was surrounded by a number of cowardly courtiers, who stirred up his hatred against David, and were busily engaged in getting the dreaded rival out of the way.K&D reads Psalm 59 as David's own record of this night; the psalm's title is the ground of that reading, and Ellicott questions whether the title fits.
Psalms 59 is referred by its title to the present occasion. If this is correct, the Psalm supplements the history, shewing that David was in danger not from Saul only, but from ruffians among Saul’s followers who prowled about the streets of Gibeah threatening his life.
Saul's plan was to surround the house at night, and to have David killed as soon as he came abroad unsuspectingly in the morning.
12So Michal lowered David from the window, and he ran away and escaped.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mî·ḵal ’eṯ- wat·tō·reḏ dā·wiḏ bə·‘aḏ ha·ḥal·lō·wn way·yê·leḵ way·yiḇ·raḥ way·yim·mā·lêṭ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-let-down Michal David through the-window; and-he-went and-fled and-was-delivered.
Where the English smooths the original
With this desperate flight began those long weary wanderings, those perpetual risks of his life, which went on until the death of King Saul released David from his deadly enemy.
Thus God moved both the son and daughter of this tyrant to favour David against their father.
Thus began that fugitive life of hardship and peril, which was to form a new element in the education of the future king.
13Then Michal took a household idol and laid it in the bed, placed some goat hair on its head, and covered it with a garment.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mî·ḵal ’eṯ- wat·tiq·qaḥ hat·tə·rā·p̄îm wat·tā·śem ’el- ham·miṭ·ṭāh wə·’êṯ śā·māh kə·ḇîr hā·‘iz·zîm mə·ra·’ă·šō·ṯāw wat·tə·ḵas bab·bā·ḡeḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-took Michal the-teraphim and-set-it unto the-bed; and-the-woven-stuff of-the-goats she-set at-its-head-place; and-she-covered it with-the-garment.
Where the English smooths the original
It was a wooden block with head and shoulders roughly shaped to represent a human figure. Laban's tera-phim were so small that Rachel could hide them under the camel's furniture ( Genesis 31:34 ), but Michal's seems to have been large enough to pass in the bed for a man.
Michal probably kept teraphim in secret, like Rachel, because of her barrennessA conjecture, offered as such, resting on the Rachel parallel at Genesis 31:19; Cambridge and Ellicott repeat it, and the text itself says nothing of Michal's motive.
For we cannot suppose that any images, whether called teraphim or by any other nameBenson is arguing against the reading K&D and Cambridge adopt. We record the disagreement without settling it: the text reports the object and not its use.
read in their Hebrew copies keaved (liver). As the vowel points were introduced much later, such a confusion (especially as the difference between d and r in Hebrew is very slight) would be likely enough to occur in the MSS.
14When Saul sent the messengers to seize David, Michal said, “He is ill.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl way·yiš·laḥ mal·’ā·ḵîm lā·qa·ḥaṯ ’eṯ- dā·wiḏ wat·tō·mer hū ḥō·leh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-sent Saul messengers to-take David; and-she-said: “Sick is he.”
Where the English smooths the original
Michal's stratagem to gain time till David got to a distance was allowable, but her falsehood had not even the plea of necessity to excuse it
Apparently she took the messengers into the outer chamber and pointed to the figure in bed in an inner closet, not letting them go near enough to detect the imposture.
Her affection for David, and fear for his life, induced her to tell a plain lie, in which she is neither to be justified nor imitated.
15But Saul sent the messengers back to see David and told them, “Bring him up to me in his bed so I can kill him.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl ’eṯ- way·yiš·laḥ ham·mal·’ā·ḵîm lir·’ō·wṯ ’eṯ- dā·wiḏ lê·mōr ha·‘ă·lū ’ō·ṯōw ’ê·lay ḇam·miṭ·ṭāh la·hă·mi·ṯōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-sent Saul the-messengers to-see David, saying: “Bring-him-up unto-me in-the-bed, to-put-him-to-death.”
Where the English smooths the original
Behold, how the tyrants to accomplish their rage, neither regard oath nor friendship, God nor man.
residence was on the hill of Gibeah, David’s in the lower town.
not content that he should die a natural death, or willing to wait for it, he is in haste, being full of wrath and malice
16And when the messengers entered, there was the idol in the bed with the goat hair on its head.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ham·mal·’ā·ḵîm way·yā·ḇō·’ū wə·hin·nêh hat·tə·rā·p̄îm ’el- ham·miṭ·ṭāh ū·ḵə·ḇîr hā·‘iz·zîm mə·ra·’ă·šō·ṯāw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-came the-messengers, and-behold! — the-teraphim unto the-bed, and-the-woven-stuff of-the-goats at-its-head-place.
Where the English smooths the original
behold, there was an image in the bed to their great surprise; they expected to see David, but instead of him the teraphim
The first messengers of Saul, keeping at a respectable distance, were deceived; but the imposition was detected on a closer inspection.
Michal adds another lie to screen herself from Saul’s anger. In this she was but following her father’s example ( 1 Samuel 19:6 ), and with more excuse.Cambridge's note on the deception is printed under v. 16 in the source; his full remark refuses to let the recording of a lie count as its approval, citing Leviticus 19:11.
17And Saul said to Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this? You sent my enemy away, and he has escaped!” Michal replied, “He said to me, ‘Help me get away, or I will kill you!’”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl way·yō·mer ’el- mî·ḵal lām·māh rim·mî·ṯi·nî kā·ḵāh ’ō·yə·ḇî wat·tə·šal·lə·ḥî ’eṯ- way·yim·mā·lêṭ mî·ḵal ’el- wat·tō·mer šā·’ūl hū- ’ā·mar ’ê·lay šal·lə·ḥi·nî lā·māh ’ă·mî·ṯêḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said Saul unto Michal: “Why thus hast-thou-beguiled me, and-sent-away my-enemy, and-he-was-delivered?” And-said Michal unto Saul: “He said unto-me, ‘Send-me-away! why should-I-put-thee-to-death?’”
Where the English smooths the original
Michael intimates that she did not mean to let David escape, but was obliged to yield to his threat that he would kill her if she continued to refuse. This prevarication she seems to have considered perfectly justifiable.K&D's spelling “Michael” for Michal is the source text's; the excerpt is verbatim.
To avert Saul's anger from herself, she pretended that David had threatened her life unless she facilitated his escape.
Though it is most likely this was a lie and a fiction of her own.
she attempted not to vindicate her husband from the charge of being an enemy to Saul, as she might; but suggested that he was so desperate a man, that if she had offered to have detained him, he would have murdered her, and threatened, if she did, he would do when both were false; that he should say to her let me go, when it was she that advised him to go, and that if she refused he would kill her; which lies were framed by her to excuse herself, at the expense of her husband's reputation.
18So David ran away and escaped. And he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·ḏā·wiḏ bā·raḥ way·yim·mā·lêṭ way·yā·ḇō ’el- šə·mū·’êl hā·rā·mā·ṯāh way·yag·geḏ- lōw ’êṯ kāl- ’ă·šer šā·’ūl ‘ā·śāh- lōw hū ū·šə·mū·’êl way·yê·leḵ way·yê·šə·ḇū bə·nō·wīṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-David bolted and-was-delivered, and-came unto Samuel at-Ramah, and-told him all that Saul had-done to-him. And-went he and-Samuel, and-they-dwelt in-Nevayoth.
Where the English smooths the original
In flying to Samuel, David made God his refuge. Samuel, as a prophet, was best able to advise him what to do in this day of distress. He met with little rest or satisfaction in Saul's court, therefore went to seek it in Samuel's church.
Turning naturally for direction at this crisis to the prophet who had anointed him, and hoping that Saul would at least reverence the age and authority of Samuel.
Somewhere near to Ramah Samuel had erected buildings to receive his young men, who were called "sons of the prophets," not because their fathers were prophets, but because they were under prophetic training, with prophets for their teachers
to him David chose to come, by whom he had been anointed king, that his faith might be strengthened by him with respect to the kingdom
19When Saul was told that David was at Naioth in Ramah,
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lə·šā·’ūl way·yug·gaḏ lê·mōr hin·nêh ḏā·wiḏ bə·nō·wīṯ bā·rā·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-it-was-told to-Saul, saying: “Behold! David is in-Nevayoth in-Ramah.”
Where the English smooths the original
Naioth, or Nevaioth, as it is also written, was not a town, but, as the name denotes, a cluster of dwellings or abodes.
Naioth was either a house or college in the town of Ramah, or a village in the territory of Ramah , or near to the town of Ramah ; in which there was a college of the prophets, amongst whom Samuel thought David might be secure.
it signifies pastures and pleasant places, as meadows and pastures are; and here in the fields near Ramah was the house of doctrine, as the Targum calls it, or the school of the prophets, being pleasant and retired, and fit for study.
20he sent messengers to seize him. But when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel leading them, the Spirit of God came upon them, and Saul’s messengers also began to prophesy.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·’ūl way·yiš·laḥ mal·’ā·ḵîm lā·qa·ḥaṯ ’eṯ- dā·wiḏ way·yar ’eṯ- la·hă·qaṯ han·nə·ḇî·’îm nib·bə·’îm ū·šə·mū·’êl ‘ō·mêḏ niṣ·ṣāḇ rū·aḥ ’ĕ·lō·hîm wat·tə·hî ‘al- ‘ă·lê·hem šā·’ūl mal·’ă·ḵê gam- way·yiṯ·nab·bə·’ū hêm·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-sent Saul messengers to-take David; and-he-saw the-company of-the-prophets prophesying, and-Samuel standing stationed over-them — and-was upon the-messengers-of Saul a-Spirit of-God, and-they-prophesied, even they.
Where the English smooths the original
when the messengers arrive they enter some hall, where they find a regularly organised choir, consisting not of "sons of the prophets," young men still under training, but of prophets, men who had finished their preparatory studies, and arrived at a higher elevation.
It is related of those who started with the most hostile intentions against the prophets and their pupils, that as they approached they suddenly stood still, spell-bound by the music and solemn dance of the devoteesEllicott is quoting Ewald's graphic paraphrase, not translating the Hebrew; the dancing and the music are Ewald's reconstruction, and the text mentions neither.
Prophesying, i.e. speaking of God, or of the things of God, by Divine inspiration; either praising God, or instructing men.
Samuel standing as appointed - Rather, "as Overseer, or leader.
21When this was reported to Saul, he sent more messengers, but they began to prophesy as well. So Saul tried again and sent messengers a third time, and even they began to prophesy.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yag·gi·ḏū lə·šā·’ūl way·yiš·laḥ ’ă·ḥê·rîm mal·’ā·ḵîm hêm·māh way·yiṯ·nab·bə·’ū gam- šā·’ūl way·yō·sep̄ way·yiš·laḥ mal·’ā·ḵîm šə·li·šîm gam- hêm·māh way·yiṯ·nab·bə·’ū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-told to-Saul, and-he-sent messengers others, and-they-prophesied, even they. And-added Saul and-sent messengers a-third, and-they-prophesied, even they.
Where the English smooths the original
Strange obstinacy, to contend so long with the Spirit of God. And they prophesied likewise — That is, they joined with the rest in praising God. “Instead,” says Henry, “of seizing David, they were themselves seized.The closing clause is Benson quoting Matthew Henry.
Carried away by the religious excitement they forgot their errand, and joined the chant of the prophets.
this portion of Scripture, from 1Samuel 19:18 to end of the chapter, which relates the illapse of the Spirit on Saul’s messengers, and even on Saul himself, the persecutor of David, being appointed by the Church to be read on Whitsun Tuesday (Old Lect.), in order to show the existence and working of the Holy Spirit before the times of the Gospel, and the freedom and power of His Divine agency.Ellicott is reporting Bishop Wordsworth on the old lectionary, which appointed this passage for Whitsun Tuesday. It is a fact about the Church's reading, not about the Hebrew text.
22Finally, Saul himself left for Ramah and came to the large cistern at Secu, where he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” “At Naioth in Ramah,” he was told.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hū way·yê·leḵ gam- hā·rā·mā·ṯāh way·yā·ḇō ‘aḏ- hag·gā·ḏō·wl ’ă·šer bō·wr baś·śe·ḵū way·yiš·’al way·yō·mer ’ê·p̄ōh šə·mū·’êl wə·ḏā·wiḏ bə·nō·wīṯ bā·rā·māh way·yō·mer hin·nêh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-went he also, to-Ramah, and-came as-far-as the-great cistern that is in-Secu; and-he-asked and-said: “Where are Samuel and-David?” And-one-said: “Behold — in-Nevayoth in-Ramah.”
Where the English smooths the original
The great cistern , some well known landmark in Sechu , a place nowhere else mentioned, between Gibeah and Ramah. The reading is uncertain.
Sechu, according to Conder ('Handbook'), was probably on the site of the present ruin of Suweikeh, immediately south of Beeroth.Conder's identification is a nineteenth-century survey conjecture, reported by Pulpit as probable, not established.
Where are Samuel and David? for, his messengers not returning, he knew not exactly where they were.
23So Saul went to Naioth in Ramah. But the Spirit of God came upon even Saul, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth in Ramah.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yê·leḵ šām ’el- nō·wīṯ bā·rā·māh rū·aḥ ’ĕ·lō·hîm wat·tə·hî ‘ā·lāw gam- hū way·yê·leḵ hā·lō·wḵ way·yiṯ·nab·bê ‘aḏ- bō·’ōw bə·nō·wīṯ bā·rā·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-went thither, unto Nevayoth in-Ramah; and-was upon-him a-Spirit of-God, even he; and-he-went, going-and-prophesying, until his-coming to-Nevayoth in-Ramah.
Where the English smooths the original
The Spirit of God was upon him also; it came upon him in the way; whereas it came not upon his messengers till they came to the place; whereby God would convince Saul of the vanity of all his designs against David, and that in them he fought against God himself.
He was to be convinced of the irresistible might of the Divine Spirit against whose influence he had striven. He was to be taught, if his heart was not already too utterly hardened to learn, that in fighting against David he was fighting against God, and engaging in a futile struggle.
in this he differed from his messengers; they did not prophesy till they came to that place, but Saul began to prophesy before he came thither, as he was in his way from the well to it.
24Then Saul stripped off his robes and also prophesied before Samuel. And he collapsed and lay naked all that day and night. That is why it is said, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hū way·yip̄·šaṭ bə·ḡā·ḏāw gam- way·yiṯ·nab·bê ḡam- hū lip̄·nê šə·mū·’êl way·yip·pōl ‘ā·rōm kāl- ha·hū hay·yō·wm wə·ḵāl hal·lā·yə·lāh ‘al- kên yō·mə·rū šā·’ūl hă·ḡam ban·nə·ḇî·’im
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-stripped-off, even he, his-garments, and-prophesied, even he, before Samuel; and-he-fell naked all that day and-all the-night. Therefore they-say: “Is also Saul among-the-prophets?”
Where the English smooths the original
The gift of prophesy is a great gift, but it was possessed by Saul. Saul, an evil king, prophesied at the very time he was persecuting holy David. Let not, therefore, men boast if they have God’s gifts; those gifts will profit them nothing without charityEllicott is quoting Augustine (on Psalm 103) by way of Bishop Wordsworth; the sentence is Augustine's, the selection Ellicott's.
Many have great gifts, yet no grace; they may prophesy in Christ's name, yet are disowned by him.
he made Saul, in some sort, a prophet, that he might make David a king.Benson is reviving Poole's formulation; the same sentence stands, nearly verbatim, in Poole's annotation on this verse.
The whole history affords another instance of the protection of God vouchsafed to His servants, which forms so frequent a topic of the Psalms of David.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The chapter opens with speech, not violence. וַיְדַבֵּר (dâbar, Piel) with ʼel means Saul talked to his son and his court about killing David — and every technical voice in the brief presses that point. Ellicott: “The literal translation of the original gives a much better sense: “that he intended to kill David,” or “about killing David.”” K&D says the same of את־דּוד להמית, “not that they should kill David, but ‘that he intended to kill him.’” Pulpit calls the usual translation “untenable” and notes the Septuagint and Syriac both read it so; Cambridge concludes, “No definite command seems to have been given.” Geneva marks the moral shift rather than the grammar: what was secret is now open cruelty. ⚙ The synthesis we would offer is that the two readings are not rivals. A king who says murder aloud to his heir and his household has already made a command of it, whether or not he framed one — which is exactly Ellicott's picture of a descent by stages, and exactly Benson's observation that “he imagined his love to a father would overcome his love to a friend.”
Against that stands one perfect verb: חָפֵץ (châphêts, H2654), a settled delight already in place before the order was spoken. Jonathan's counter-speech in vv. 4-5 uses the king's own vocabulary against him — ṭôwb twice, châṭâʼ three times, and the devastating חִנָּם (ḥinnâm), “for nothing.” Cambridge notices what a lesser friend would have done instead: “Had Jonathan simply advised David to flee, without endeavouring to bring Saul to a better mind, he would have acted to the prejudice of his father's interests.” The oath of v. 6 is left deliberately unfinished in Hebrew — אִם־יוּמָת, “if he shall be put to death—!” — the self-curse unspoken. The brief's voices split on whether Saul meant it: Gill and Cambridge say yes for the moment, Poole says only self-interest, Geneva says the heart was full of malice throughout. We record the disagreement and decline to settle it.
Verse 8 gives David a great blow against the Philistines, the same adjective Jonathan had used of God's great salvation in v. 5 — and the victory is what breaks the oath. Cambridge states the causal link the Hebrew only implies. Then comes the hardest phrase in the unit: רוּחַ רָעָה יְהוָה, “a spirit — evil — of YHWH.” Pulpit marks the shift from 18:10's “from God” to this chapter's “from Jehovah,” concluding that Saul, “having broken his covenant relations with Jehovah, was now punished by him.” K&D reads it as judicial hardening. Ellicott records that the Septuagint translators were so troubled they simply dropped the divine name, and then says the honest thing: “It is, no doubt, a hard saying, and no human expositor has ever yet been able fully to explain it.” ⚙ We let that stand as the unit's limit. The text asserts the sovereignty and does not explain it.
The rescue, when it comes, comes twice through a woman's household goods. הַתְּרָפִים (tᵉrâphîym, H8655) is plural in form and singular in use — Ellicott notes the Latin penates behaves the same way — and life-sized enough to lie in a bed. Cambridge finds it “surprising to find teraphim in David's house” and repeats the conjecture, which K&D also carries, that Michal kept them secretly as Rachel did, on account of barrenness. Benson will not have it: “we cannot suppose that any images, whether called teraphim or by any other name, were kept for the purposes of idolatry in David's family.” ⚙ The text does not adjudicate; it simply reports that the object which saved the LORD's anointed was an idol, and that the woman who used it lied twice. Henry is blunt about the second lie, and Cambridge, having listed Rahab and the woman at Bahurim, refuses the easy exit: “Scripture affirms the universal duty of Truth without any exception, nor can it be understood to sanction breaches of this general law by recording them without disapproval.”
David runs to the one man in Israel who outranks the king in the only currency that matters. Henry: “In flying to Samuel, David made God his refuge.” נוית (Kethib Nevayoth) is not really a town but, as Ellicott, Barnes, K&D, Cambridge and Pulpit all agree, a cluster of dwellings — the Targum's “house of instruction,” Samuel's college. Pulpit reconstructs the scene from the vocabulary: the messengers walk in on a working choir of finished prophets, not students, with Samuel נִצָּב standing as head over them. The word for the company, לַהֲקַת (lahăqâh, H3862), is a hapax legomenon — it occurs nowhere else in Scripture, and K&D reports the rabbinic view that it is qᵉhillâh with the letters inverted.
Then the chapter's one great reversal: three parties sent to seize David are themselves seized, and the Hitpael וַיִּתְנַבְּאוּ falls on them like weather. Benson, quoting Henry: “Instead of seizing David, they were themselves seized.” Poole notes the escalation precisely — the Spirit took the messengers only on arrival, but took Saul on the road. Saul strips (Geneva and Benson: his royal apparel), falls, and lies עָרֹם a day and a night; K&D marshals Isaiah 20:2, Micah 1:8 and John 21:7 to show the word need not mean unclothed. Ellicott records from Wordsworth that the Church appointed this very passage for Whitsun Tuesday, “in order to show the existence and working of the Holy Spirit before the times of the Gospel.” And Poole gives the sentence the whole unit has been building toward: “he made Saul in some sort a prophet, that he might make David a king.”
⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Read straight through, 1 Samuel 19 is a chapter about hands and who fills them. David puts his own נֶפֶשׁ in his כַּף — the open palm, the least safe container there is (v. 5). Saul sits with a spear in his יָד while David's יָד is full of music (v. 9). The spear ends in the wall. What the chapter then demonstrates, four times over, is that neither hand decides anything. Jonathan's advocacy buys a reprieve and loses it. Michal's teraphim buy a night and cost her the truth. David's own speed buys him a window. And then, at Naioth, no hand is raised at all: the men sent to arrest are arrested, the king who comes to seize is seized, and David walks out of the chapter untouched by any deliverance he arranged. The plainest thing the text says about how God preserves his anointed is that he does it by making the persecutor sing. ⚙ Where we hold this loosely: the chapter never tells us what the prophesying was — Poole says praising God or instructing men, the Targum's scribes are praising, Gill allows foretelling, Pulpit and the Chaldee as read by Rashi suggest something nearer madness in Saul's case. We decline to choose, and we note that the text's own final word is not an explanation but a proverb the people repeat with a question mark.
God did not disarm the hand that held the spear; he emptied the hands he had sent to seize, and the anointed walked out through a chorus. (This is the tool's own line, not a verse of Scripture.)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
Twice in this chapter the spear is in Saul's hand (vv. 9, 10) and the rare noun מְרַאֲשֹׁתָיו (mᵉraʼăshâh, H4763, “at his head-place”) marks the goat-hair at the head of the dummy in the bed (vv. 13, 16). Both words meet again at Ziph. There Saul lies asleep in the trench with his חֲנִית stuck in the ground at his head, and David, who was hunted with that spear, stands over it and will not take it. The Verifier confirms both lexemes as shared. ⚙ Our reading: the chapter that shows David escaping a spear is answered by the chapter that shows him refusing one — and the narrator marks the connection with vocabulary, not commentary.
1 Samuel 26:7 · 1 Samuel 26:11 · 1 Samuel 26:16
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H2595 chănîyth, spear (in 40 vv) and H4763 mᵉraʼăshâh, head-place (in only 8 vv) — H4763 is rare enough to carry a verbal link. It is a verbal echo within one narrative, not a quotation: the tier records the shared rare lexeme, and we claim nothing more.
וַתֹּרֶד מִיכַל אֶת־דָּוִד בְּעַד הַחַלּוֹן — “and Michal let David down through the window” (v. 12). Rahab does the identical thing to the spies at Jericho, in the identical words: yârad (Hiphil) + בְּעַד + הַחַלּוֹן. Gill makes the comparison directly (“in like manner as Rahab let down the spies from her house in Jericho”), and Cambridge adds that if David's house, like Rahab's, stood on the town wall, the escape needs no further explanation. ⚙ In both scenes a woman inside the hostile city saves the LORD's men by deceiving her own authorities, and in both the narrator reports the deception without commending it.
Joshua 2:15
basis: Verifier pair check (1 Samuel 19:12 / Joshua 2:15): shared H2474 challôwn, window (in 27 vv — rare), H1157 bᵉʻad, through (in 82 vv), H3381 yârad, to lower (in 345 vv). The three together form the same three-word idiom; the rarity of H2474 carries the verbal tier. No quotation is claimed — this is verbal repetition of an idiom, not citation.
Verse 24 ends not with a verdict but with a saying the people already had: הֲגַם שָׁאוּל בַּנְּבִיאִם. The narrator flags the re-use himself — עַל־כֵּן יֹאמְרוּ, “therefore they say” — and the earlier occasion is 1 Samuel 10:11-12, on the day Saul was made king and “changed into another man.” Cambridge: the proverb “now received a fresh exemplification.” Ellicott and K&D both set the two scenes side by side and read the second as the bitter inversion of the first. ⚙ The first time the Spirit fell, it made Saul a king; the last time, it only stopped him. Between the two stands everything the book has recorded of his obedience.
1 Samuel 10:11 · 1 Samuel 10:12
basis: The text itself explicitly re-cites the saying (ʻal-kên yōʼmᵉrû, “therefore they say”), and the Verifier pair check (1 Samuel 19:24 / 1 Samuel 10:11) confirms the proverb's whole lexical stock is shared: H1571 gam (in 661 vv), H7586 Shâʼûwl (in 335 vv), H5030 nâbîyʼ (in 288 vv). The individual lexemes are common; the verbal tier rests on the narrator's own explicit quotation formula, not on their frequency.
Michal appears at a window here to save David's life, and at a window in 2 Samuel 6:16 to watch him dance before the ark and despise him in her heart. The exchange that follows in 2 Samuel 6:20 turns, like this chapter's v. 24, on a man uncovered before the LORD — and 2 Samuel 6:23 closes her story with childlessness, the very condition Cambridge and K&D conjecture (following the Rachel parallel) may explain why teraphim were in her house at all. ⚙ We offer the arc as a reading, not as a demonstration: the same woman, the same window, first rescuing the anointed and then scorning him.
2 Samuel 6:16 · 2 Samuel 6:20 · 2 Samuel 6:23
basis: Verifier: the only shared lexeme across these verses is H7586 Shâʼûwl (in 335 vv) — far too common to support a verbal claim, and we make none. The link is narrative and structural (Michal, the window, the uncovered body, her childlessness), and the barrenness connection to the teraphim is a conjecture recorded by Cambridge and K&D, not a datum of the text.
Chapter 19 ends with Saul flat on the ground at Naioth; chapter 20 opens with David fleeing from Naioth to Jonathan and asking what he has done that Saul “seeks my life.” The Verifier registers the continuity in the vocabulary itself — Jonathan's name in both spellings and the Piel bâqash that was Jonathan's own word for his father in 19:2 and Saul's posture in 19:10. ⚙ The seam is not a fresh episode but the same pursuit taken up again after a night's interruption.
1 Samuel 20:1
basis: Verifier: shared H3083/H3129 Yᵉhôwnâthân–Yôwnâthân (in 74 and 35 vv) and H1245 bâqash, to seek (in 215 vv). These are moderately common lexemes and a shared proper name, which supports narrative continuity but not a verbal or quotation claim; tiered structural accordingly.
Jonathan's phrase דָּם נָקִי, “innocent blood” (v. 5), is fixed legal language; Cambridge sends the reader to Deuteronomy 19:10-13 and Psalm 94:21 for the statute and the lament. Matthew records Judas using the equivalent Greek phrase, αἷμα ἀθῷον, of the betrayal of Jesus, and the Gospel presents it as self-condemnation rather than defence. ⚙ The link is conceptual and legal: the same category of guilt, named in one testament by a Hebrew idiom and confessed in the other by a Greek one. It cannot be a verbal link — Hebrew and Greek share no Strong's numbers — and we do not tier it as one.
Deuteronomy 19:10 · Psalm 94:21 · Matthew 27:4
basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew within the Old Testament: the shared idiom dâm nâqîy (H1818 + H5355) is documented for Deuteronomy 19:10 and Psalm 94:21 by Cambridge, not by a Verifier candidate run, so we tier it thematically. The Matthew 27:4 leg is cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew) and therefore cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers at all; it is a shared legal category, not a quotation, and is tiered structural on that ground.
The superscription of Psalm 59 reads: “when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him” — which is vv. 11-12 of this chapter, almost in its own words. Gill states it flatly (“Upon this occasion David penned the fifty ninth psalm”); K&D uses the psalm as historical evidence, arguing that it shows “how Saul was surrounded by a number of cowardly courtiers”; Cambridge is more careful, saying the psalm “supplements the history” if the title is correct. Ellicott is the dissenting voice and the reason this badge is flagged: “The internal evidence, however, is scarcely confirmatory of the accuracy of the title … there are references in this psalm which must apply to other events in his troubled, anxious life.” ⚙ We think the connection is likely and we will not build on it. Benson separately attaches part of Psalm 18 (“by my God have I leaped over a wall”) to v. 12; that has no title behind it at all and is an expositor's conjecture.
Psalm 59:1 · Psalm 18:29
basis: Provenance is disputed within the brief's own sources. The Psalm 59 link rests on the psalm's Hebrew superscription, affirmed by Gill, Cambridge and K&D and questioned on internal grounds by Ellicott; no Verifier lexeme basis was computed for it. The Psalm 18:29 link rests on nothing but Benson's inference. Flagged rather than tiered, and nothing in this unit's reading depends on either.
Two of the brief's commentators reach past Michal to the same scene in Acts: Gill (“as the disciples let down the Apostle Paul at Damascus, to preserve him from the designs of the Jews upon him”) and Cambridge (“Compare the escape of the spies from Jericho, and St Paul from Damascus”). The pattern is exact — a man marked for death by the authorities of his own people, a watched gate, a wall, a window, and friends who lower him out by night. ⚙ We record it as a recurring shape of deliverance in Scripture and nothing stronger. This link cannot be verbal: the New Testament leg is Greek, and Greek and Hebrew share no Strong's numbers, so no lexeme basis exists or could exist.
Acts 9:23-25 · 2 Corinthians 11:32-33
basis: Cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are impossible in principle, so no verbal tier is available and none is claimed. The basis is a shared narrative pattern — watched gate, wall, window, nocturnal lowering — noted independently by Gill and Cambridge in this brief on 1 Samuel 19:12.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
⚙ David in this chapter is already anointed (1 Samuel 16) and has no throne, no safety, and no army — only a court post he escapes through a window. The pattern is the one the apostolic church read in Psalm 2 and applied at Acts 4:25-27: rulers taking counsel together against the LORD's anointed, and the counsel coming to nothing. Matthew's infancy narrative repeats the shape exactly — a reigning king who says the killing aloud, a household warned in time, a flight by night, the child untouched. Barnes, commenting on this chapter, says the whole history “affords another instance of the protection of God vouchsafed to His servants, which forms so frequent a topic of the Psalms of David”; Gill and Cambridge both attach Psalm 59 to this very night, though Ellicott cautions that the psalm's internal evidence points beyond one occasion. The typology of the persecuted David is ancient and widely held; the particular application of Psalm 2 to the rulers who oppose the Christ is the New Testament's own.
Psalm 2:1-2 · Acts 4:25-27 · Matthew 2:13 · Psalm 59:1-3
⚙ Jonathan stands between a king bent on death and a man who has done nothing, and his whole plea is two clauses: he has not sinned against thee, and his deeds toward thee have been very good (v. 4). It is the structure of advocacy — an intercessor pressing an innocence that is real, before a judge who has already decided. The plea works, and then fails, because the advocate cannot change the judge's heart. Pilate will pronounce the same verdict of innocence over Jesus and hand him over anyway; Judas will name the same category, “innocent blood,” and it will save no one. ⚙ Our reading is that 1 Samuel 19 shows what an advocate outside the judge can accomplish — a reprieve of a few verses — and by that limit makes the case for an advocate who is himself the righteousness pleaded (1 John 2:1). The innocent-blood category is ancient and biblical; the specific figure of Jonathan as a type of the Advocate is not stated by any commentator in this brief, and we mark it as our own.
1 John 2:1 · Luke 23:14-15 · Matthew 27:4
Saul prophesies while persecuting the LORD's anointed, and the chapter neither denies the prophecy nor credits the prophet. Gill draws the connection plainly, noting that such gifts “have sometimes been bestowed on men that were destitute of the grace of God, as Balaam, Caiaphas, and others” — and Caiaphas is the exact New Testament case: a high priest who, John says, “did not say this on his own,” prophesying truly that one man should die for the people while arranging that death. Ellicott, quoting Augustine through Wordsworth, presses the same point: “The gift of prophesy is a great gift, but it was possessed by Saul.” Henry's line is the sharpest in the brief: “Many have great gifts, yet no grace; they may prophesy in Christ's name, yet are disowned by him,” which is Matthew 7:22 applied to this bed of straw at Naioth. ⚙ The unit's christological force is not that Saul foreshadows Christ but that Saul demonstrates, at the cost of his own dignity, that the Spirit's use of a man is no verdict on him.
John 11:49-52 · Matthew 7:22-23 · Numbers 24:2-4
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Text and translation. The English base is the Berean Standard Bible (CC0); the Hebrew, parsing and Strong's numbers come from the Berean interlinear supplied in the brief. Where this synthesis differs from the BSB rendering it says so and names the Hebrew word; it never corrects the interlinear's parse.
Verse 1. Five independent voices in the brief (Ellicott, Pulpit, K&D, Cambridge, and the LXX and Syriac as those commentators report them) hold that לְהָמִית אֶת־דָּוִד reports Saul's intention rather than an order to his servants. We record that as the weight of the sourced opinion, not as a correction of the BSB, which is defensible on the same consonants.
Verse 9. רוּחַ רָעָה יְהוָה is genuinely hard. Ellicott reports that the Septuagint removed the divine name to avoid the difficulty and states that “no human expositor has ever yet been able fully to explain it.” We have not explained it either. Pulpit's distinction between 18:10 (“from God”) and 19:9 (“from Jehovah”) is his reading of the narrator's word-choice, not a datum the text states.
Verse 13. כְּבִיר הָעִזִּים is the chief textual crux of the unit. K&D: “the meaning is doubtful”; kᵉbîr is from a root meaning something woven, and “it is impossible to decide with certainty what purpose the cloth of goats' hair was to serve.” Ellicott, Gill and K&D all report that the Septuagint read kâbêd (liver) for kᵉbîr — a plausible d/r confusion in unpointed text — and that Josephus built on that reading the account of a palpitating goat's liver in the bed. We have not adopted the LXX reading; we record it. On whether teraphim were in David's house as idols, as charms, as a keepsake, or at all, Cambridge, K&D, Poole, Gill, Barnes and Benson do not agree, and Benson (with Dodd, Abarbinel and Abendana behind him) actively denies the idolatrous reading. The text itself says only that Michal took the teraphim and that they were in the house.
Verse 20. The Masoretic Text reads the singular וַיַּרְא, “and he saw,” where the sense and every ancient version require a plural. K&D argues that the singular is original precisely because a scribal error would not have entered every manuscript, and takes it either of the messengers' leader or of the party as one body; Pulpit and Gill call it a mistake or supply “each one.” The BSB's “when they saw” follows the versions. לַהֲקַת (H3862) is a hapax legomenon; the ancient versions render it “company/assembly,” and K&D reports the rabbinic derivation by metathesis from qᵉhillâh.
Verses 18-23. נוית is Kethib; the Masoretes point the Qere ניות. It is a plural common noun (“dwellings”) used here as a quasi-proper name; Barnes states flatly that “no such place as Naioth (or Nevaioth) is known.” Sechu (v. 22) is a place name occurring nowhere else, and Cambridge records that “the reading is uncertain,” the Septuagint having “the well of the threshing-floor that is in Sephi.” Pulpit's identification with the ruin of Suweikeh is Conder's conjecture, reported as such.
Psalm titles. Gill, Cambridge and K&D all connect Psalm 59 to the night of vv. 11-12, and Benson connects part of Psalm 18 to v. 12. These are the psalm superscription and expositional tradition respectively; Ellicott registers the honest caveat that Psalm 59's “internal evidence is scarcely confirmatory of the accuracy of the title.” We cite the connection as their claim, not as established provenance.
Voices. Every ✦ excerpt is a verbatim contiguous substring of the public-domain commentary supplied in the brief, resolved by code from anchors, not retyped. Where a commentator is himself quoting someone else — Benson quoting Dodd and Delaney and Henry, Ellicott quoting Ewald, Browning, Wordsworth and Augustine — the editorial note says so, because the authority of the quotation is not the authority of the commentator. Three K&D entries in this unit are capped in the brief; nothing in this synthesis depends on the capped remainder.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)