1 Samuel 26:6

DAVID SPARED SAUL'S LIFE A SECOND TIME

"Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Joab's brother Abishai, "Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul"? And Abishai said, "I will go down with you." So David and Abishai went to the army by night; and there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the army lay around him. Then said Abishai to David, "God has given your enemy into your hand this day; now therefore let me pin him to the earth, with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice." But David said to Abishai, "Do not destroy him; for who can put forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless"? And David said, "As the Lord lives, the Lord will smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should put forth my hand against the Lord's anointed; but take now the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go." So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head; and they went away. No man saw it, or knew it, nor did any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them."

"Ahimelech the Hittite" (1 Samuel 26:6). This man and Uriah are the only Hittites named in First Samuel. Esau had Hittite wives, whose names are not given. Those people were one of the seven great nations displaced by Israel in their occupation of Canaan.

"Abishai" (1 Samuel 26:6), along with Joab and Asahel were children of Zeruiah, who according to 1 Chronicles 2:16 was a sister of David. David, being the youngest in the family of Jesse probably had a number of cousins his own age or older. "Abishai saved David's life in one of the Philistine wars (2 Samuel 21:17), was implicated in the murder of Abner (2 Samuel 3:30) and remained faithful to David during the rebellion of Absalom."[6]

"There lay Saul, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head" (1 Samuel 26:7). "The lance standing upright is still the sign of the Sheik's quarters among the Arabs."[7]

Abishai here eagerly wanted to kill Saul, but David forbade it, because Saul was "the Lord's anointed." This establishes the fact, as mentioned by Paul, that "The powers that be are ordained of God" (Romans 13:1), and regardless of how wicked and tyrannical a duly-authorized head of government may be, he should not be murdered by his subjects.

"The Lord shall smite him, or his day shall come to die" (1 Samuel 26:10). This from the mouth of David was a prophecy, fulfilled eventually in the death of Saul in battle. At this point in David's life, he was honoring the prohibition in the Pentateuch against one's taking vengeance into his own hands, a lesson which was emphasized in his ears by Abigail.

"A deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them" (1 Samuel 26:12). This was no ordinary sleep. It was God's providential protection of David. As Young said, "The same term is used of the sleep of Adam while the Lord created Eve from a rib taken from Adam's side while he slept."[8]

A passage in one of the Psalms seems applicable to what happened here, although the usual interpretation applies it to the destruction of the army of Sennacherib.

The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil;

They sank into sleep;

All the men of war were unable to use their hands.

At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob,

Both rider and horse lay stunned.

- Psalms 76:5-6 (RSV).

"How easily can God weaken the strongest, befool the wisest, and battle the most watchful! Let all of God's friends therefore trust him and all his enemies fear him."[9]