1 Samuel 26:1

DAVID SPARED SAUL'S LIFE A SECOND TIME

The critical canard that would relegate this chapter to the status of a "mere variation" of that other report of Saul's life being spared by David (1 Samuel 24) is an example of the same kind of "scholarship" that might identify the Battle of New Orleans with the Battle of Waterloo! Oh, but those battles were at different times, different places, involving different personnel and with different results. The same differences mark these two accounts of David's refusal to kill Saul when he had an excellent opportunity to do so. It is true, of course, that a limited number of the personnel participated in both events, those battles, and these two Biblical episodes, but that is no license to claim that these events are contradictory accounts of only one event or only one battle. The only alleged reason for this radical critical claim is that given by Canon Cook, "The incident is of a nature unlikely to have occurred more than once."[1] Indeed! If that was true, why would the Sacred Text have included both narratives?

THE ZIPHITES BETRAYED DAVID A SECOND TIME

"Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, "Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the east of Jeshimon"? So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, with three thousand chosen men of Israel, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul encamped on the hill of Hachilah, which is beside the road on the east of Jeshimon. But David remained in the wilderness; and when he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, David sent out spies, and learned of a certainty that Saul had come. Then David arose and came to the place where Saul had encamped; and David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army; Saul was lying within the encampment, while the army was encamped around him."

Porter stressed some remarkable differences here as contrasted with the event in 1 Samuel 24. "In the first encounter Saul went alone, unarmed and by chance, into a cave where David and his men were; here David and Abishai were reconnoitering in search of Saul, finding him at night where he was sleeping with Abner his commander. The first incident happened in the day time, this one at night. In the first event, David cut off part of Saul's robe; here they took Saul's spear and the jar of water that was beside him. The conclusion supported here is that there were two occasions."[2] D. F. Payne also supported "The historicity of both accounts."[3] "Jeshimon is the barren country between the hills of Judah and the dead sea. The Hill of Hachilah is perhaps El-kolah, six miles west of Ziph and on the eastern edge of the wilderness where it begins to fall toward the Dead Sea."[4]

"With three thousand chosen men of Israel" (1 Samuel 26:2). "This is the number of men that Saul always had in attendance with him (1 Samuel 13:2; 24:2; 26:2)."[5] This so-called "similarity" between the two narratives is of no consequence. Saul always had that number of men with him.

"When he saw that Saul came after him" (1 Samuel 26:3). This is an idiomatic expression meaning that David had heard that Saul was coming after him. If he had seen Saul doing so, he would not have needed to send out spies.

"David sent out spies and learned of a certainty that Saul had come" (1 Samuel 26:4). David's reluctance to believe that Saul had actually come out with an army to hunt him on this occasion, and which he would not believe until his spies confirmed it, proves the truth of the previous narrative. After all that Saul had said then, David could hardly believe the reality of this additional attack.

"David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner ... commander of his army" (1 Samuel 26:5). Willis suggested that David must have arrived in daylight; but as both the king and Abner were asleep, it appears more likely that a brilliant moonlight enabled, not David, but the spies he sent to come back with this report. The word "saw" here is idiomatic as in 1 Samuel 26:4. David did not enter Saul's camp until later in the night.