You may subscribe yourself at the Ascension site here and receive notifications in your email, or just follow along on my blog. Bible in One Year Readings Index
Chapter 26: David Spares Saul's Life a Second Time
1 Samuel 26:1-5 ~ David is betrayed by some men from Ziph
Some men from Ziph went to Saul and offered to betray David. The Ziphites are descendants of Caleb, the hero of the conquest (Josh 14:6-15; Judg 1:10-15; 1 Chr 4:16) and chieftain of the tribe of Judah. Their city was located in the hill country of southern Judah (Josh 15:55) and gave its name to the Judean wilderness between the city and the Dead Sea at En-Gedi (1 Sam 23:14-15, 24; 26:2). Saul's remorse for the way he has treated David in 24:17-22 and his thankfulness for David sparing his life is short-lived. He is back to relentlessly hunting down David and his men with an army of three thousand men to David's six hundred.
Question: Who is Abner son of Ner?
Answer: He is Saul's cousin and the commander of Saul's army.
1 Samuel 26:6-12 ~ David goes down into Saul's Camp
David had a Hittite named Ahimelech serving in his band. The term "Hittite" is a designation for one of the groups of Canaanite peoples, and in this case does not necessarily refer to the Indo-European state that originated in Anatolia (Turkey).
Question: Who is Zeruiah and who are her sons?
Answer: Zeruiah is David's sister and Abishai, Joab, and Asahel are her sons and David's nephews.
Zeruiah is an elder sister and her sons, who are David's nephews, are probably about his same age. David will make them commanders in his small army, and Joab will become David's commanding general when David is king. All three men are courageous. Abishai and Asahel are also impetuous while Joab is both ruthless and calculating.
Question: What does Abishai suggest in verse 8 and how is what he says very similar to what David's men said in 1 Samuel 24:5?
Answer: Abishai suggests that God has put Saul into David's hands. His words echo the words of David's men when they discovered Saul alone in the cave in chapter 24.
Question: Abishai's boast that it will only take one blow to "pin him to the ground" with Saul's spear recalls what event in 18:11 and 19:10?
Answer: In 18:11 Saul twice tried to "pin David to the wall" with the same spear and tried again in 19:10.
David forbids his nephew to raise his hand against Yahweh's anointed. Abishai is apparently so shocked by David's refusal that David feels it is necessary to explain to him that God will judge Saul and his death is in God's hands.
In the literal Hebrew text David tells Abishai to take the spear and the water pitcher; but then David takes them himself, perhaps deciding that it would be too much of a temptation for the impetuous Abishai to have the spear in his hands. David takes Saul's spear and the pitcher of water as proof that he has entered the camp and that Saul's life was again spared by David. It is an action similar to cutting a piece of Saul's cloak in 24:5, 12. No one in the camp awoke because God's deep slumber had fallen upon them. The Lord has again intervened directly to aid David.
David Spares Saul a Second Time
1 Samuel 26:13-20 ~ David addresses Saul's Camp
David retreats to the safety of the other side of a gorge from Saul's camp. He shouts from the prominence across the gorge to Abner in Saul's camp. It is dark since it is the middle of the night or very early morning. *Some versions omit "to the king" in verse 14 because David has called out to Abner and not to Saul. But David's shouting across the gorge occurs in the middle of the night and has awakened the men in Saul's camp from not just a sound sleep but a God-induced stupor, so Abner may not have understood what David first shouted.
As you will recall, Abner is Saul's cousin and the commanding general of his army. Abner hears the voice and demands to know who is disturbing the king's rest (verse 14b).
Question: What charge does David make against Abner?
Answer: Abner has not adequately protected his king from intruders into the camp, meaning David and Abishai.
Once again, Saul calls out affectionately to David with the identical words he used in his last encounter with David outside the cave near En-Gedi. However, his expression of affection means as much as it did in 24:17 which is nothing.
In verses 17b-20 David makes his second appeal to Saul to stop pursuing him (see 24:9-16). In verse 18 David asks: Why is my lord pursuing his servant and what evil is in my hand?" in the literal Hebrew text. As elsewhere in Scripture, "hand" and "in my hand" have multiple meanings.
Question: What is it that David has in his hand that has symbolic significance?
Answer: He is holding Saul's spear, an instrument of death and the sign of Saul's kingship.
1 Samuel 26:18b-19a ~ he said. "What have I done? What crime have I committed? 19 May my lord king now listen to his servant's words: if Yahweh has incited you against me, may he be appeased with an offering; but if human beings have done it, may they be accursed before Yahweh ...
David again asks two of the three rhetorical questions he put to Jonathan in 20:1. They are similar to the two questions Jonathan asked Saul concerning David in 20:32 that addressed David's state of innocence and questioned the motive for Saul's pursuit of David.
Question: In verse 19 David puts forward what two alternatives that give Saul a way out of being responsible for persecuting David?
Answer:
- God has incited Saul against David for some mysterious reason.
- Human beings have lied about David and have caused this state of events.
David's two alternatives are a diplomatic maneuver. He doesn't want to put the blame solely on Saul because that will only make Saul angrier. Instead, David proposes that he king either was incited by God for some unknown reason or incited by malicious servants.
Question: David even presents a solution to the two alternatives; what is the solution?
Answer:
- If God causes the division, He can be appeased with a sacrifice.
- If men are the cause of the division let there be a trial before Yahweh.
In the case of a trial, the two or three witnesses will either offer proof against David or according to the Law the false witnesses will pay the price with their lives (Dt 17:15-21).
1 Samuel 26:12b-20 ~ since they have as effectively banished me today from sharing in Yahweh's heritage as if they had said, 'Go and serve other gods!' 20 So I pray now that my blood shall not be shed on soil remote from Yahweh's presence, when the king of Israel has mounted an expedition to take my life [seek a single flea], as one might hunt a partridge in the mountains!"
Question: What is David's point if the current situation is to continue?
Answer: He has been in effect excommunicated from his people and from worshiping his God.
The language in this passage is an echo of the words David used to conclude his speech outside the cave, "On whose trail is the king of Israel campaigning? Whom are you pursuing? On the trail of a dead dog, of a flea! 16 May Yahweh be the judge and decide between me and you; may he examine and defend my cause and give judgment for me by rescuing me from your clutches" (24:15-16), but the dead dog has been replaced by a partridge. Several commentators have commented that this second speech contains a witty pun in that the Hebrew word for partridge (qore') is a homonym for "he who calls out" (qara). David is "he who calls out" to the king on the mountain (verse 14); the pun being "he who calls out" on the mountain is being pursued like a "partridge" on the mountain (Alter, Anceint Israel, page 398).
1 Samuel 26:21-25 ~ Saul's response to David's Plea
21 Saul replied, "I have done wrong! Come back, my son David; I shall never harm you again, since today you have shown respect for my life. Yes, I have behaved like a fool; I have been profoundly in the wrong." 22 In reply, David said, "Here is the king's spear. Let one of the men come across and get it. 23 May Yahweh reward each as each has been upright and loyal. Today Yahweh put you in my power but I would not raise my hand against Yahweh's anointed. 24 As today I set great value by your life, so may Yahweh set great value by my life and deliver me from every tribulation!" 25 Saul then said, "May you be blessed, my son David! In what you undertake, you will certainly succeed." David then went on his way and Saul returned home.
This is the second time Saul has confessed to having been guilty of wronging David (see 24:18-21), but this time he does say he shall never harm David again. 22 In reply, David said, "Here is the king's spear. Let one of the men come across and get it. Notice that David does not immediately respond to Saul's renewed profession of regret; he has heard it before.
Question: In the last encounter in chapter 24, David swore he would not harm Saul's descendants. What does David do symbolically to show he intends to keep that oath?
Answer: He returns Saul's spear, the symbol of Israelite kingship.
At this point, David no longer trusts Saul or his promises. Instead David expresses the hope that God will take note of his proper conduct and will protect him, saying: "May Yahweh reward each as each has been upright and loyal. Today Yahweh put you in my power but I would not raise my hand against Yahweh's anointed. 24 As today I set great value by your life, so may Yahweh set great value by my life and deliver me from every tribulation!"
1 Samuel 26:25 ~ Saul then said, "May you be blessed, my son David! In what you undertake, you will certainly succeed." David then went on his way and Saul returned home.
These words of fatherly blessing are the last word Saul will ever speak to David. It is a blessing God will fulfill. This is the end of the Saul versus David narrative. David continues on the path God had set for him while Saul goes back to being Saul.
+++
A Daily Defense
Day 117 Four-Legged Insects?
CHALLENGE: “Leviticus mistakenly describes insects as having four legs, but everyone knows they have six.”
DEFENSE: Everyone does know they have six. The Hebrews knew it, too. Little boys everywhere have the curiosity and cruelty needed to count and pull off the legs of insects. Hebrew boys were no exception. Even for children who don’t do this, the discovery that insects have more legs than the four we see on other animals is a notable discovery everyone makes in childhood. So what does Leviticus 11:21 mean when it refers to insects that walk “on all fours” (Hebrew, ‘al ’arba‘)?
In English, walking “on all fours” is a standard idiom based on the fact that most animals we interact with walk on four legs rather than standing erect and walking on two. Describing the crawling motion of insects, an English speaker might use the standard expression “on all fours” rather than switching to the awkward, unfamiliar phrase “on all sixes.” If queried, “Don’t you mean on all sixes?” he might reply, “It’s just an expression. Don’t be a pedant” (or he might use a less polite word than “pedant”).
A Hebrew speaker might say the same thing, and “on all fours” may be nothing more than an expression to describe insects’ movement that is not meant literally.
We also need to comment on Leviticus 11:23’s reference to insects that have “four legs” (Hebrew, ’arba‘ raglayim). Here it is noteworthy that the word for “legs” is in the dual number. This is a grammatical feature of Hebrew that English doesn’t have.
In English, we have two grammatical numbers: singular (for one item) and plural (for more than one item), but Hebrew also has a dual number for referring to things that come in pairs, like hands, eyes, and lips. Thus some scholars have taken the phrase as meaning “four pairs of legs.” This would not be a reference to the eight legs that spiders have—not because spiders aren’t insects in modern animal taxonomies (which the ancient Hebrews didn’t have), but because the verse is referring to winged insects.
However, insects do have another pair of appendages—their antennae—and these are sufficiently leglike that they might be described that way phenomenologically. In any event, Hebrews could count and knew insects have six legs.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
No comments:
Post a Comment