1 Samuel 24
BSASBSaul hunts David with three thousand men, but by chance walks into the very cave where David is hiding. David has the chance to kill him, yet spares him and refuses to touch the LORD’s anointed. His mercy brings Saul to tears and to the admission that David will be king.
1 Samuel 24:1-2
No sooner has Saul finished with the Philistines than he turns on David again. En-gedi is a green oasis in the rugged cliffs above the Dead Sea. Saul brings three thousand picked soldiers to hunt one man and his followers. His priorities are badly twisted.
BSA: chosen men (“specially-picked warriors”): Saul uses his best troops against a fellow Israelite instead of Israel’s real enemies.
1 Samuel 24:3
Saul steps into a cave to relieve himself, not knowing David is deep inside. Sheep caves in these cliffs are large and dark. A king alone, vulnerable and unaware, has walked into the hands of the man he is hunting. Nothing here is planned by David.
BSA: recesses (“the innermost parts, the deepest part”): David and his men sit in the cave’s far depths, hidden from Saul coming in from the light.
1 Samuel 24:4
David’s men read the moment as God’s gift: here is your enemy, do what seems good to you. Their words are not a recorded promise of God, but they sound like one. David does not strike. He creeps up and cuts off a corner of Saul’s robe, a risky and, as he soon feels, questionable act.
BSA: corner (“the skirt or hem”): The hem of a royal robe stood for the king’s authority, so cutting it was a symbolic insult.
Hebrew: כָּנָף (kanaf, H3671) — “wing, edge, corner of a garment.” The Hebrew word literally means ‘wing’, and is used for the edge of a garment. It shows how close David came to Saul.
1 Samuel 24:5
Even this small act bothers David. He did not harm Saul’s body, but he treated the king’s honor lightly. A tender conscience is a gift. David feels the weight of touching, even in a small way, the man God had set apart.
BSA: conscience was stricken (“smote, deeply troubled”): The Hebrew says David’s heart struck him, an inner blow of guilt.
1 Samuel 24:6-7
David calls Saul his master and the LORD’s anointed. Saul was set apart by God, and David will not take vengeance into his own hands. He holds back his men with firm words. Saul walks out, never knowing how near death he came.
BSA: anointed (“chosen one, appointed king”): Saul’s oil of anointing meant God had put him in office, and only God could remove him. restrained (“checked and controlled”): David had to stop his own men as well as himself.
Hebrew: מְשִׁיחַ (mashiach, H4899) — “anointed one.” This is the word behind ‘Messiah’. A king anointed with oil was holy to the LORD, which is why David feared to harm him.
See also: 1 Samuel 26:9; Romans 13:1.
1 Samuel 24:8
David follows Saul out and calls to him with respect: my lord the king. He bows with his face to the ground. The hunted man honors the hunter. David could have shot from a distance. He chooses to speak openly and humbly.
BSA: reverence (“honor, worship”): The word for bowing in the Hebrew is the one used for deep homage, here given to the office of king.
1 Samuel 24:9
David begins by challenging the rumors. Saul has been listening to men who say David wants to harm him. Slander feeds suspicion, and suspicion drives Saul. David lets the facts of the cave answer the accusation.
BSA: words (“utterances, reports”): Saul acts on reports from others, not on what he has seen of David.
1 Samuel 24:10
David points to what Saul has just seen: the LORD put him into David’s hand, and David spared him. Some urged him to kill Saul, and David refused. He gives his reason, not that it would be unwise, but that Saul is the LORD’s anointed.
BSA: spared (“showed you compassion, had pity on you”): David’s mercy came from pity, not weakness.
1 Samuel 24:11
David holds up the cut piece of robe as proof. It shows both how close he came and that he did not kill. He calls Saul ‘my father’, speaking as a loyal son-in-law. His hands are clean of evil and rebellion, though Saul is hunting his life.
BSA: rebellion (“transgression, disobedience”): David denies he is a rebel against the throne, the charge behind Saul’s pursuit.
1 Samuel 24:12-13
David leaves the judgment to the LORD. He does not ask to be the avenger. He quotes the old saying that wickedness comes from wicked people, meaning that if David were wicked, his hand would have struck. Since it did not, the charge is false.
BSA: judge (“Yehovah, the divine Judge”): David hands the case over to God as the true and fair judge between two men.
See also: Romans 12:19; 1 Peter 2:23.
1 Samuel 24:14
David describes himself in the humblest terms. A dead dog and a flea are worth nothing. Why would Israel’s king and his army chase someone so small? He is not boasting. He shows how foolish and unworthy Saul’s pursuit is.
BSA: flea (“something small and insignificant, a tiny insect”): David calls himself something trivial, to show he is no threat to the throne.
1 Samuel 24:15
David closes with a prayer. He asks the LORD to be judge, to take up his case like an advocate, and to rescue him. He does not trust his own cleverness or sword. His safety rests in God’s hands.
BSA: plead (“champion, advocate for”): David pictures God as a defender speaking for him in court.
See also: Psalm 35:1.
1 Samuel 24:16
Saul recognizes David’s voice and calls him ‘my son’. Then he weeps aloud. For a moment the hardness breaks. He sees clearly what he has been doing. Sadly, this repentance will not last, as later chapters show.
BSA: wept (“lifted up his voice and cried, overcome with emotion”): Saul’s grief is loud and open, a real if passing moment of conviction.
See also: 1 Samuel 26:21.
1 Samuel 24:17-19
Saul admits David is more righteous. David has repaid evil with good. Saul adds that no man lets his enemy go unharmed, which shows how remarkable David’s mercy is. He asks the LORD to reward David. Mercy has spoken louder than words.
BSA: righteous (“just, and fair”): Saul concedes that David is in the right and that he himself is in the wrong. evil (“harm, wrongdoing, injustice”): Saul names his own treatment of David honestly as wrong.
See also: Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:21.
1 Samuel 24:20
Saul now says what he has long feared: David will be king, and the kingdom will be firm in his hands. He knows God’s choice has fallen elsewhere. Even so, God’s purpose does not need David to grab the crown; it will come in God’s way.
BSA: established (“secured, made strong”): Saul admits the kingdom’s future is secure in David, not in his own family.
1 Samuel 24:21-22
Saul asks David to swear not to wipe out his descendants or his name. In the ancient world, a new dynasty often destroyed the old. David swears. Saul goes home, but David wisely does not trust him and returns to the stronghold. Mercy and caution walk together.
BSA: swear (“the covenant God, Yehovah”): The oath is made in the LORD’s name, which makes it binding before God. stronghold (“a secure place, a fortress, the hold”): David keeps to a safe refuge because Saul’s change of heart is uncertain.
See also: 2 Samuel 9:1.