The Spear Beside Saul Becomes David's Second Witness

The Ziphites’ report repeats their first betrayal almost word for word: the hill of Hachilah, “which is before Jeshimon” (23:19). Jeshimon means the desolation, the barren drop toward the Dead Sea. Ziph lay a few miles south east of Hebron.

Saul “went down” from the Benjamin hills into the lower wilderness of Judah. The wilderness of Ziph is named twice in the verse, around the purpose in the middle: to seek David. That verb, biqqesh, has driven the pursuit since 23:14.

“By the way” means beside the road, the track through the wilderness, while David stays off it. The watching is reversed from the cave: Saul walked into En-gedi unaware, and here David sees him coming.

“In very deed” is el-nakon, “for certain”, the phrase Saul used when he told the Ziphites to come back “with the certainty” (23:23). This time it is David who makes sure, through spies of his own.

“Trench” is ma’gal, the ring of the camp, probably a circle of wagons and baggage. It is the word used when the boy David arrived at “the trench” with cheese and bread for his brothers (17:20). Abner, Saul’s kinsman, commands the army (14:50–51).

Ahimelech the Hittite appears only here, a foreigner in David’s band as Uriah the Hittite will be. Abishai is the son of Zeruiah, David’s sister (1 Chronicles 2:16), so he is David’s nephew. This is the first appearance of the sons of Zeruiah, Joab included.

The spear stands upright in the ground at Saul’s head, marking the king’s place. It is the weapon he has kept at hand throughout: thrown at David twice (18:11; 19:10) and at his own son Jonathan (20:33). “Bolster” means the place at his head.

“Even to the earth at once” means pinned to the ground with a single thrust. Saul had tried the same with that spear: “I will smite David even to the wall with it” (18:11). Abishai offers to do to Saul what Saul tried to do to David.

“Destroy him not” is al tashchitehu. The same words, as “Al-taschith”, head Psalms 57, 58, 59 and 75, and Psalm 57 is titled “when he fled from Saul in the cave”. “Guiltless” is niqqah, to be held clean before God.

The third possibility is what happens: Saul goes down into battle on Gilboa and dies (31:3–6). “Perish” is saphah, to be swept away. In the next chapter David uses that verb of himself, fearing he will perish by Saul’s hand (27:1).

“The LORD forbid” is literally “far be it from me by the LORD”, the formula David used in the cave (24:6). The cruse is a flask, the same vessel as the cruse of water by Elijah’s head in the wilderness (1 Kings 19:6). Spear and water together make the proof.

“Deep sleep” is tardemah, the sleep the LORD cast on Adam (Genesis 2:21) and on Abram at the covenant (Genesis 15:12). Three negatives pile up: no man saw, none knew, none woke. A whole camp is put under while two men walk through it.

David crosses a ravine and climbs the far ridge before he speaks, as Jotham shouted his fable from Mount Gerizim to the men of Shechem below (Judges 9:7). In these hills a voice carries across a valley that would take an hour to cross on foot.

David calls for Abner, not the king. Abner, woken in the dark and unable to see the speaker, thinks first of the king’s dignity: who is this shouting at the king? The general answers for his master, which is exactly where David’s charge will land.

“Who is like to thee in Israel?” borrows the language of praise, “Who is like unto thee, O LORD” (Exodus 15:11), for mockery. “Kept” is shamar, to guard. In two chapters Achish will make David himself “keeper of mine head for ever” (28:2).

“Worthy to die” is literally “sons of death”, the phrase Saul used of David when he told Jonathan “he shall surely die” (20:31). David turns it on the men who were meant to guard the king. By his own reckoning, the whole royal guard deserves death.

Saul’s question repeats the cave exactly (24:16). There Saul wept and David had no chance to reply. This time he answers, “It is my voice”, across the dark valley where neither man can see the other.

“What have I done? or what evil is in mine hand?” are the questions David brought to Jonathan in 20:1, “What have I done? what is mine iniquity?” He has asked them of Saul’s household for six chapters and never had an answer.

“Accept an offering” is literally “let him smell an offering”, as the LORD smelled Noah’s sacrifice (Genesis 8:21). “Stirred thee up” is sut, to incite, the verb used when the LORD moved David to number Israel (2 Samuel 24:1).

“Before the face of the LORD” means in the LORD’s land; to die abroad was to die away from his presence. The partridge is qore’, “the caller”, and David has just been calling (qara’) across the valley. Hunters ran partridges down on foot until they tired.

Saul said “I have sinned” twice to Samuel (15:24, 30), and neither time did it hold. “Played the fool” is hiskalti, the verb Samuel used at Gilgal: “Thou hast done foolishly” (13:13). “Precious” is yaqar, valued.

David offers back the spear alone; the cruse of water is not mentioned again. He calls for a young man to cross to him, so the distance is kept even for the handover.

“Faithfulness” is emunah, from the root of the “sure house” Abigail promised (25:28). David will sing the same principle after his deliverance from Saul: “The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness” (2 Samuel 22:21).

In 1611 “much set by” meant highly valued; the Hebrew is “was great”. “Deliver me out of all tribulation” comes back almost word for word in David’s old age, when he swears by “the LORD ... that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress” (1 Kings 1:29).

The Hebrew doubles each verb: “doing thou shalt do, and prevailing thou shalt prevail”. The parting recalls Jacob and Laban, son-in-law and father-in-law, after another pursuit: “and Laban departed, and returned unto his place” (Genesis 31:55). These are Saul’s last words to David.