1 Samuel 24:8

DAVID TELLS SAUL THAT DAVID HAD SPARED SAUL'S LIFE

"Afterward David also arose, and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, "My lord, the king"! And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and did obeisance. And David said to Saul, "Why do you listen to the words of men who say, `Behold David seeks your hurt.'? Lo, this day you have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave; and some bade me kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is the Lord's anointed. See, my father, see the skirt of your robe in my hand; for by the fact that I cut off the skirt of your robe, and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you, and may the Lord avenge me upon you; but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, `Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness'; but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog! After a flea! May the Lord therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see to it, and plead my cause, and deliver me from your hand."

"And David bowed with his face to the earth, and did obeisance" (1 Samuel 24:8). "By this action, David showed that, so far from being a rebel, he still acknowledged Saul's lawful authority, and was true to his allegiance."[9]

"Why do you listen to the words of men" (1 Samuel 24:9)? Saul was being grossly misled and misinformed by the evil slanderers of David who were among the retinue of his followers at Gibeah. However, Saul was not the only one, either then or at the present time, who desperately needed to take these words to heart. "Why do men listen to the words of men? men who deny everything the Bible says, who vaunt their authority above that of God Himself, who this very day are leading countless millions of souls to eternal death? Why? Why? We shall cite only one example of this. Christ the Son of God said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." But men say ... ... ...!

"See, my father" (1 Samuel 24:11). On two counts, these words were appropriate in David's mouth. The king was his father-in-law; and custom required that an inferior address the king in such language.

"`Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness'; but my hand shall not be against you" (1 Samuel 24:13). Some able scholars have interpreted these words to mean that David said, "Your wickedness will bring divine destruction, but I will not take vengeance into my own hand."[10] It appears to this writer that The Interpreter's Bible has a better explanation: "The proverb means simply that `wicked deeds come from wicked men,' and if David had been the inveterate enemy Saul took him for, he would have killed Saul without compassion."[11]

"After a dead dog! After a flea!" (1 Samuel 24:14). These expressions were used by David as metaphors of his own insignificance relative to the importance of the king of Israel. The implied question is, "Does not the king of Israel have anything more important to do than to chase after a flea"? "The Hebrew word here has the article before the word `flea,' stressing that the meaning is "a single flea"![12]

This paragraph presents one of the most sublime situations in all the Bible. Let the reader picture if he can the Magnificent David standing on some rocky promontory of the cliffs of Engedi, a man proscribed, outlawed and hunted as a wild beast by the man whose life he had just spared, the very man who had given his beloved wife to another, who had repeatedly tried to kill him, and who at that very moment stood not very far away. David held on high the skirt of Saul's robe, a convincing trophy of David's triumph over the temptation to destroy his enemy, but also an indictment of' Saul's wicked hatred of a man who loved him and never did him any harm whatever! There is no wonder that Saul burst into tears.

"This speech of David has so much natural eloquence in it, such warmth and persuasiveness, that it can be read by no one without emotion."[13]