David spares Saul’s life
24
📚And it happened, when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, “Look, David is in the desert of Engedi”. 2 📚Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to look for David and his men at the Rocks of the Wild Goats.3 📚And he came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. And David and his men were sitting far back in the cave. 4 📚And David’s men said to him, “See, this is the day about which the LORD said to you 📖: ‘Look, I will deliver your enemy into your hands, so that you can do to him as it seems good to you.’ ” Then David got up, and stealthily cut off the edge of Saul’s robe.
5 📚And it so happened afterwards that David was conscience-stricken 📖, because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe. 6 📚And he said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the anointed of the LORD”. 7 📚So David held back his men with these words and did not allow them to rise against Saul. Then Saul arose, left the cave and went on his way.
8 📚Afterwards David also stood up and went out of the cave, and cried out after Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David bent over with his face toward the ground and bowed down.
24:8 David showed that he was willing to submit to Saul’s authority and respect him as king.⚜
9 📚And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to men’s words, saying, ‘Look, David is seeking to harm you?’ 10 📚Look, today your eyes have seen how the LORD delivered you into my hands in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you, and said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD’s anointed.’
11 📚“Moreover, my father 📖, look, yes, see the edge of your robe in my hand. Because in my cutting off the edge of your robe and not killing you, you can know and understand that there is no evil or rebellion in my hand, and that I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it. 12 📚The LORD will judge 📖 between me and you, and the LORD will take vengeance 📖 for me on you. But my hand will not be against you. 13 📚As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Wickedness comes from the wicked’, but my hand will not be against you.
24:13 Compare Matt 7:16-20.⚜
14 📚“After whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? After a dead dog, after a flea. 15 📚Therefore may the LORD be the judge, and judge between me and you, and see and plead my cause, and rescue me out of your hands”.
16 📚And it came about, when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul raised his voice and wept.
24:16 Saul was mentally and emotionally unstable, an example of the man in Jam 1:8. This was a result of his sin and disobedience – as it so often is among human beings. His remorse here is an example of false repentance. Afterwards he again pursued David to kill him (1 Sam 26:1-2).⚜
17 📚And he said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. 18 📚And you have showed today how you have treated me well, for when the LORD delivered me into your hands, you did not kill me. 19 📚For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away safely? Therefore the LORD reward you well for what you have done for me this day. 20 📚And now, look, I well know that you will surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands. 21 📚Therefore now swear to me by the LORD that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father’s house”.
22 📚And David swore to Saul. And Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
24:22 David had no confidence in Saul’s seeming repentance.⚜