A Piece of Robe Becomes Evidence for Mercy

Saul returns “from following the Philistines” to following David. The word “after” carries the chapter: Saul goes after David, David cries after Saul (verse 8), and David asks after whom the king has come out (verse 14). The Philistine emergency of 23:27 bought only a short delay.

Three thousand picked men is the size of Saul’s first standing army (13:2), now set against one band of six hundred. “The rocks of the wild goats” names the ibex, still seen on the cliffs above En-gedi; the Hebrew word is ya’el, the name Jael.

Shepherds built stone folds at cave mouths, so a cave “by the sheepcotes” was a natural shelter. “The sides of the cave” means its innermost recesses, the word used for the “sides of the ship” where Jonah went down to sleep (Jonah 1:5). Six hundred men sit silent in the dark.

“Privily” is ballat, quietly, the word of the courtiers sent to whisper to David in 18:22. The corner of a garment carried a man’s identity; letters from ancient Mari mention a hem sent in place of its owner. Cutting it takes something of Saul without touching Saul.

“David’s heart smote him” is the same phrase used when David’s conscience struck him after numbering the people (2 Samuel 24:10). The pang comes “afterward”, when the cloth is already in his hand. Even this bloodless act feels to him like a blow against the king.

The verse begins and ends with “the LORD’s anointed”, as though David had to say it twice to hold himself back. He will act on the same principle when he executes the Amalekite who claims to have killed Saul: “Wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?” (2 Samuel 1:14).

“Stayed” translates shissa’, to tear, the verb used of Samson tearing the lion apart like a kid (Judges 14:6). David rips into his own men with words. Saul, unaware, walks out of the cave and on down the path.

“Looked behind him” is a small, telling movement: the hunter turns to find the hunted at his back. David prostrates himself with his face to the earth, the full bow owed to a king, the posture of the woman of Tekoa before David himself (2 Samuel 14:4).

David blames the talk around the king rather than the king himself: “men’s words”. The title of Psalm 7 mentions “the words of Cush the Benjamite”, which may preserve the name of one such slanderer at Saul’s court.

“Mine eye spared thee” makes the eye the subject of pity, as in the Deuteronomy formula “thine eye shall have no pity” (Deuteronomy 7:16). “Some bade me” is literally “one said”; David does not name the men who urged the killing.

Saul was David’s father-in-law, and “my father” is both courtesy and claim. “Huntest” is tsodeh, to lie in wait with intent, the verb Exodus 21:13 uses to separate murder from accidental killing. David says the premeditation is all on the king’s side.

“The LORD judge between me and thee” are the words Sarah threw at Abraham over Hagar (Genesis 16:5). “Avenge me” is naqam, the word for vengeance, which David names and then hands to God. The last clause will be repeated word for word in the next verse.

This is the only saying in the book introduced as an ancient proverb. Its logic is plain: wicked acts come from wicked men, so if David were wicked, Saul would already be dead. The refrain “mine hand shall not be upon thee” is repeated from verse 12.

“A dead dog” was a phrase of utter self-abasement; Mephibosheth uses it of himself before David (2 Samuel 9:8). A single flea is the smallest thing a man could chase. David will return to the image at their last meeting (26:20). Goliath had once asked, “Am I a dog?” (17:43).

The verse is a courtroom: “judge”, “plead my cause” (riv, a lawsuit), and “deliver me”, which here is the verb for judging, to vindicate out of Saul’s hand. David takes his case out of the cave and files it with the only court above the king.

“Is this thy voice?” recalls blind Isaac asking about Jacob’s voice (Genesis 27:22), and “lifted up his voice, and wept” is Esau’s response when the blessing was lost (Genesis 27:38). For once Saul calls him “my son David”, using his name instead of “the son of Jesse”.

“Thou art more righteous than I” echoes Judah’s admission about Tamar: “She hath been more righteous than I” (Genesis 38:26). “Rewarded” is gamal, to deal out. Saul sets his conduct and David’s side by side and says the balance is all one way.

“Delivered me” is sagar, to shut in, the verb Saul used at Keilah when he said God had shut David in (23:7). Now he admits that it was he who was shut into David’s hand. “This day” picks up David’s own phrase from verse 10.

The proverbial question expects the answer no: no man who finds his enemy lets him go “well away”, literally “on a good road”. By asking it, Saul concedes that David had every right, by ordinary custom, to kill him, and he calls himself David’s enemy as he does so.

Jonathan told David that “Saul my father knoweth” he would be king (23:17). Here Saul says it himself: “I know well.” “Established” is literally “shall stand” in David’s hand, the reverse of Saul’s warning to Jonathan that his kingdom would never be established while David lived (20:31).

“Cut off” is karat, the verb of Jonathan’s plea in 20:15. To destroy a man’s name was to leave him no descendants to carry it (Deuteronomy 25:6). The oath will be tested when David hands seven of Saul’s descendants to the Gibeonites while sparing Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 21:7–9).

The oath is recorded without its words: simply “David sware”. Saul goes home to Gibeah; David goes up to the stronghold. Two chapters later Saul will be hunting him again in the same wilderness with the same three thousand men (26:2).