Why did Saul go into the cave?KJV: "cover his feet"NKJV: "attend to his needs"NASV: "went in to relieve himself"What exactly is covering his feet?
_________________Leonardo Santana
huh... maybe his feet were cold. Old man, poor circulation??
Did Saul go into the cave to use the men's room?
_________________Ron Halverson
From what I have read (not that I have spent much time studying this!) is that this is exactly what Saul was doing.An interesting side note is that with each new modern version to come out (some 80 new ones since 1881) this passage of scripture seems to get more and more vulgar. Why?Krispy
Amazing! You want to deal with this vulgar topic. But you don't want to talk to me about the Bible?
Catholic, sorry but I'm not sure what you mean. I was just wondering how we went from "covering his feet" to "relieving himself".
o.k. we can have some.....this is supposedly from Weslys notes: Wesley's Notes24:3 Went in - To sleep there: Saul being a military man, used to sleep with his soldiers upon the ground. And it is not improbable, that being weary with his eager and almost incessant pursuit, first of David, then of the Philistines, and now of David again, he both needed and desired some sleep, God also disposing him thereto, that David might have this eminent occasion to demonstrate his integrity to Saul, and to all Israel. Of the cave - For that there were vast caves in those parts is affirmed, not only by Josephus, but also by Heathen authors; Strabo writes of one which could receive four thousand men.However I think there are more important issues to occupy our time. Just my opinion.
Well, to answer your question. In Hebrew, to cover one's feet is a polite way of saying using the restroom. The KJV often translated it 'taking a nap' or sleeping...not really sure why. They translated it that way too when Elijah was taunting the prophets of Bale. Where he suggests that maybe he's taking a nap the Hebrew reads 'Covering his feet'.
_________________Jeremy Hulsey
Let's just say that Saul went into the cave...and leave it at that. :-P
_________________Christopher
If everyone got their mind out of the gutter, you'd be able to see that "relieving" yourself can mean much more than going to the bathroom. If my feet are cold, I can go into a cave and relieve myself. In otherwords, I can put a blanket on them to relieve myself of the cold. If someone is on fire, you can relieve them by throwing water on them.Haven't you ever said, "Oh, I feel great relief!" Does that mean you feel like you really need to go to the bathroom? No. You get what I'm saying? I hope so.
