1 Samuel 18:6

SAUL'S JEALOUSY AROUSED BY THE SONG OF THE WOMEN

"As they were coming home, when David returned from slaying the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with timbrels, with songs of joy, and with instruments of music. And the women sang to one another as they made merry:

`Saul has slain his thousands,

And David his ten thousands.'

And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him; he said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands; and what more can he have but the kingdom"? And Saul eyed David from that day on."

We are well aware that some very able commentators take this paragraph as a record of what happened immediately after David slew Goliath; but it appears to this writer that there are substantial objections to that viewpoint. Not even the enthusiastic women could have referred to the victory over one man as his slaying his "ten thousands." The most likely occurrence of this celebration was at the end of the whole military campaign, the temporary end of the war.

"When David returned from the slaying of the Philistine" (1 Samuel 18:6). The ASV margin here notes that the plural "Philistines" is an alternate rendition, and we believe that to be correct. "The allusion here is not to the combat with Goliath but to one of the expeditions mentioned in 1 Samuel 18:5. The women would not have described the slaughter of one champion as the slaying of ten thousand, nor would there have been any contrast between David's act and the military enterprises of Saul."[3]

Keil also agreed that, "Saul took David into his service immediately after his defeat of Goliath, and before the war had been brought to an end; but the celebration of the victory in which the women excited Saul's jealousy did not take place until the return of the people and of the king at the close of the war."[4]

"And Saul eyed David from that day on" (1 Samuel 18:9). This means that from that day forward, Saul's jealous envy and hatred of David would never be diminished. Saul probably guessed, at this point of time, that David would be his successor. His Majesty resolved to do everything in his power to prevent that from happening.