CHAPTER 25
1. Then Shmu’el died, and all of Israel gathered and mourned for him and buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David got up and went down to the wilderness of Pa’ran.
It is not clear whether David was among those who went to Shmu’el’s “funeral”. Pa’ran either means “place of caverns” or “gloriously beautified”. It is south of the inhabited part of Israel. Yishma’el was living here when his mother took an Egyptian wife for him. (Gen. 21:21) Under Moshe all Israel camped here twice (Num. 12:16; 13:3), and from here the twelve spies were sent to search out the Land and bring back samples of its fruit. David may have been going here in part to walk in the footsteps of his ancestors and regain perspective on what it would mean to be king over this great Land.
2. Now there was a man in Maon, and his business enterprise was in Karmel. Now the man was very wealthy—that is, he had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats—and he was [involved in] shearing his sheep at Karmel.
These towns are only about a mile apart, and both are only a few miles south of Hevron and Zif at the summit ridge near the southern end of the mountain range that forms Israel’s “backbone”.
3. Now the man’s name was Naval, and his wife’s name was Avigayil, and the woman had excellent sense and a beautiful figure, but the man was harsh and injurious in his dealings, and he was a Kalevite.
Sense: understanding that comes from being aware of what is going on around oneself. Kalevite: His ancestor’s name means “like the heart”—for like David, Kalev was a man after YHWH’s own heart. But here the other way of reading his name comes out, for “Kalevite” is spelled literally like “his dog”. Naval’s heart was not where it should have been, and so he was indeed acting like a dog. But nearby Hevron had indeed been given to Kalev as his inheritance. (Y’hoshua 14) His descendants had now spread out to several towns.
4. When David (in the wilderness) heard that Naval was shearing his sheep,
5. David sent ten young [servants], and said to the young [men], “Go up to Karmel and approach Naval, and ask him in my name about his welfare.
In my name: This would give him reason to pay attention to these strangers who otherwise might just seem to be more of the beggars who probably swarmed him every day.
6. “And say [something] like this: ‘To life and peace for you! And peace to your household! And peace to all that belong to you!
7. “‘Now then, I have heard that you have shearers. When shepherds who belong to you were [once] with us, we did not insult them, nor was anything of theirs missing the whole time they were in Karmel.
Insult: or put to shame, taunt, humiliate, dishonor. David’s men would have appeared to be bandits, and human experience even as recently as the days of the “wild west” shows that when bandits came upon cowboys (who were much like these shepherds—the weak and lowly who worked for someone wealthy), they would often, starving for entertainment, “make them dance” by firing bullets near them just for a laugh, like cats that play with their wounded prey before devouring them. After all, they had swords and the shepherds probably did not. The Romans did the same with Yahshua. David’s men had done them no such cruelty. After all, David had been a shepherd, so he probably found it rather calming to be back among shepherds after all he had been through, like Shim’on Keyfa, who went fishing a few days after the trauma of Yahshua’s crucifixion.
8. “‘Ask your young [servants], and they will tell you. And may the young [men] find favor in your eyes, because we have come around a festival-day. Please donate to your servants and your son David whatever you can afford.’”
Whatever you can afford: literally, what your hand finds.
9. So David’s young [men] came and spoke to Naval in David’s name in accordance with all these words, then remained quiet.
They did not say any more than David did, but stopped and waited silently for Naval’s response.
10. But Naval answered David’s servants and said, “Who is David and who is the son of Yishai? These days there are a growing number of servants who are breaking away from their respective masters!
Not that he did not know who David was; he was the equivalent of a movie star today! His wife realized he had already been chosen by YHWH to be king. (v. 30) He is intentionally insulting David, considering himself to be a king (v. 36) because he was so wealthy. He saw David as a Robin Hood, for he’d heard what type of people were joining David, who had also run from his master. Being on the other end of the economic scale than those who fled oppression, he knew he stood to be hurt by this trend, so he did not want to encourage its continuation.
11. “So should I take from my bread, my water, and my meat that I have butchered for my shearers, and give it to men whom I have never met, [nor do I] know where they come from?”
It should have been enough to know they were fellow Israelites who wanted to keep a feast properly but were not in a position to do so. David was not begging for a “free lunch”, but calling in a favor Naval owed him for having already guarded his servants, even if Naval had not asked him to do so, or written him a contract for this service. He had been in a position to rob Naval of all he had, and did not, so it was the least Naval could do to, out of gratitude, give him a small portion of what he had kept others from stealing. Like the man Yahshua told to prepare the place for his students to keep the Passover with him, he was saying, “You owe me one.” This is not arrogance, for he was the man’s teacher. It was true humility for him to expect his students to do what he needed in return. It will take a strong king to enforce righteousness, for people by and large do not voluntarily choose the right way. YHWH envied the Rekhavites’ ancestor (Yirmeyahu 35), for they at least respected him enough to honor his wish, even though the prophet told them to do the opposite, because they knew they had no choice but to do so, while Israel at that time was generally thinking obedience to YHWH’s Torah was optional.
12. So David’s young [men] turned around to the way they [had come], and returned, then came and recounted to him, in so many words, all of these things.
13. So David said to his men, “Each [of you] buckle your swords on!” So each of them buckled his sword on, and David also buckled his sword on, and about 400 men went up after David, while 200 remained [stationed] over the equipment.
In chapter 30, we will see that David considered those who stayed behind to guard what belonged to the whole community as valuable and essential as those who went out to fight.
14. But one lad from among the young [men] told Avigayil, the wife of Naval, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to salute our master, but he screamed at them!
Salute: or bless, but the most common greeting of welcome in Hebrew is “Blessed is the one who comes!”
15. “And the men have been very kind to us, and have not insulted us, and we haven’t been missing anything the whole time we were going around with them, when we were in the field.
16. “They were a wall [closed up] around us both night and day, the whole time we were with them feeding the sheep!
Wall: in this case, from a word for “joining together”--i.e., they protected us on every side and didn’t leave any gap by which we would be vulnerable.
17. “So now, discriminate and consider what you can do, because harm has been determined toward our master and in regard to his whole household, because he is too much a son of worthlessness to speak to!”
18. So Avigayil hurried and selected 200 [loaves of] bread, two skin-bottles of wine, five sheep prepared [to eat], five se’im of roasted grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 cakes of pressed figs, and put them on the donkeys,
Five se’im would equal about 67 liters in dry measure. In modern terms, that’s over 33 Coke bottles full of ready-to-eat “trail mix”. She is literally feeding an army! She did not merely send him five sheep, but those that were already butchered and divided up, and possibly even already cooked for Naval’s own feast; Naval could wait, in her opinion, but she would be hospitable! So she sent him not just raw materials, but catered food! Mere provision is a gift from YHWH; hospitality is putting some of oneself into it. Avigayil is acting like her ancestresses Sarah and Rivqah, feeding not just David, but his servants as well. What she could get away with was not enough, for this was Israel! Y'shua said that if we do not go above and beyond what is required to do our job adequately, we are worthless servants. So she feeds David like the king that he is, though he has not yet been declared so.
19. and she said to her young [servants], “Go on ahead of me; I’m right here behind you.” But she did not tell her husband Naval.
20. And it turned out that as she was riding the donkey and coming down [under] cover of the mountain, sure enough, David and his men were coming down to take her by surprise, when she encountered them.
21. And David was saying, “It’s nothing but in vain that I’ve guarded all that belongs to this man in the wilderness, so that of all that belonged to him, not a thing was missing, and he’s [paid] me back viciousness for kindness!
22. “Let Elohim do the same to the enemies of David and add more of the same, if, out of all who belong to him, I leave one of those who urinate against a wall [alive] until the light of the morning!”
I.e., if even one male from his household survives. David was fed up with people returning evil for the benefits he had brought them. Sha’ul was his master, so he had put up with him, but this man was simply an idiot, and David had run out of patience and mercy. Kalevites were even attached to the tribe of Yehudah, so there was all the more reason for Naval to treat his fellow Judahite well.
23. When Avigayil saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell down on her face before David, and bowed herself to the ground.
She was not only recognizing him as king, but humbling herself before one who had the power to destroy her whole household.
24. And she fell at his feet and said, “On me—myself—[is] the guilt, my master! And please let your female servant speak in your ears, and listen to the words of your female servant!
25. “I beg you, don’t let my master set his heart toward this worthless man—on Naval—because as his name is, so he is—that is, there is foolishness in him. And I, your female servant, did not see the young [men], my master, whom you sent.
Naval’s name means “fool”.
26. “So now, my master, [as surely as] YHWH lives and your soul lives, [in] that YHWH has held you back from coming in with blood and delivering yourself with your own hand, so now let your enemies be like Naval, along with those who are seeking to harm my master.
27. “So now let this blessing which your female servant has brought to my master be given to the young [men] who are going around at the feet of my master.
28. “Please forgive where your female servant has crossed the line, because YHWH will certainly bring about a well-established [lasting] household for my master, because my master has fought the battles of YHWH, and wickedness will not be found in you from your days.
Forgive: literally, lift off. Did she think she was at fault for failing to influence Naval to be more hospitable? What part of the guilt was hers? None, but being Naval’s wife, she cannot be separated from his household, and everyone in a household is guilty by association when one is.
29. “Now a human being has risen up against you to pursue you or seek your life, but my master’s soul has been bound up in the bundle of life with YHWH your Elohim, and he will hurl the soul of your enemies from within the hollow of the sling!
She not only shows great deference—possibly out of fear—but also shows that she knows much about what David enjoys.
30. “And may it be, when YHWH does for my master according to all the benefits He has promised concerning you, and has put you in charge as ruler over Israel,
31. “that this will not become something that makes you stagger or an occasion for my master’s heart to stumble—that is, to spill blood for no reason or for my master to deliver himself. And when YHWH has treated you well, then remember your female servant!”
Delivering yourself with your own hand: literally, delivering your own hand for yourself. Is she referring to David’s decision to spare Sha’ul and not make himself the king? Or his not taking matters into his own hand regarding Naval? Probably both. A fellow Israelite should be judged by a court according to Torah before being executed. Stumble: an idiom for causing someone to sin. Being the highest-ranking man in Yehudah at this time, David might have thought he could kill whomever he decided, but she reminded him that this would be sin. Naval certainly deserved punishment for his failure to show hospitality, but his servants were certainly not deserving of death. They actually did speak up on his behalf, so to kill the innocent with the guilty would certainly be out of character for him and at the very least dampen his reputation after his record of righteousness. Killing a man for simply being a fool would not be honorable.
32. Then David said to Avigayil, “Blessed is YHWH, Elohim of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today.
33. “And blessed is your discretion, and blessed are you, in that you have held me back this day from coming in with blood or delivering myself [by] my own hand!
Discretion: better judgment or tastefulness.
34. “Because it is very certain that YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, who has kept me from doing you harm, is alive, because if you had not hurried and come to meet me, certainly not one of those belonging to Naval who urinates against a wall would have been left [alive] until the light of morning!”
35. So David accepted from her hand what she had brought to him, and said to her, “Go up to your house in peace; see, I have listened to your voice and will let your face endure.”
Let your face endure: David had not seen how beautiful Naval’s wife was, and realized what a work of art she was, and was glad he had neither killed her nor even brought to her the indirect harm that would have come from being widowed with no male heir, for whatever was Naval’s would go to his brothers or other male relatives of his, and she would have no one left to provide for her.
36. When Avigayil came to Naval, there he was at a drinking-banquet in his own house like a feast of the king, and a pleasant heart came over Naval, and he had become excessively drunken, so she did not tell him a word, small or large, until the light of morning.
Because he was not generous in sharing his plenty with those who deserved to be fed, his table became a snare! (Psalm 69:22) Yahshua might have built his parable of “the rich fool” who was “not rich toward YHWH” () around this story.
37. But in the morning, when the wine had gone out from Naval, his wife did tell him these things, and his heart died within him and he became like a stone.
Or, he turned into a stone. Did he have a paralyzing stroke?
38. And then about ten days [later], YHWH struck Naval down so that he would die.
The festival he was celebrating must have been Yom T’ruah (Rosh haShanah). This also explains why David said the feast was nearing (v. 8), but he was uncertain of the exact day and wanted to be prepared when the moon would be sighted. By the time Avigayil got back, the feast day must have been declared. The news he heard from her struck him like the awakening blast of the shofar, and his already-hardening heart became completely so, and the final opening to repent was not presented to him, for he was counted altogether wicked at the very beginning of the time of judgment, since he had not repented during the time given him prior to the feast day to do so. Now, on Yom Kippur, the finalization of his judgment takes place. The only question was why he would be shearing his sheep that late in the summer. He may have had long-haired sheep that may have needed more frequent shearing, or he may simply have been preparing a large number of sheep for slaughter for all his servants to eat at the feast. Or it may simply be that this was not the feast being mentioned, but the analogy merely follows the same progression.
39. When David heard that Naval was dead, he said, “Blessed is YHWH, who has contended for the cause of my disgrace from the hand of Naval, and has held His servant back from doing wrong, and has caused Naval’s wickedness to turn back on his own head!” Then David sent and spoke with Avigayil, to take her for himself as a wife.
Contended for the cause: or pleaded the case, terminology of a lawyer in a courtroom. He has rendered a decisive judgment on David’s behalf, vindicating David for being in the right though he had not taken justice into his own hands. David realized that Avigayil had compensated for his blind spots, and therefore would be a worthwhile complement to have as personal advisor!
40. So David’s servants came to Avigayil at Karmel and spoke to her to say, “David has sent us to you to take you for himself as a wife!”
41. So she got up and bowed down [with her] nostrils to the ground, and said, “Here is your female servant as a slavegirl to wash the feet of my master’s servants!”
She humbles herself and says she does not deserve such an exalted place, so that he can raise her to a higher position. (Luqa 14:10) The term for “slave-girl” is related to the Hebrew word for “family”.
42. Then Avigayil got up and mounted a donkey, with five of her young women who walked at her feet, and she followed David’s messengers, and she became his as a wife.
To complete the festival picture, Sukkoth, the season of joy, followed Naval’s judgment day. Because she “set the table” so well, she got to marry the “Messiah” (anointed one) of her day.
43. He also took Akhinoam from Yizre’el, so both of them became his wives,
This wife would bear him his first son. (2 Shmu’el 3:2) Avigayil would not be far behind. This is a picture of YHWH taking two peoples as His bride. Avigayil means “my Father is glad”; since the Ba’al Shem-Tov taught that one is not serving YHWH with joy, he is not serving Him at all, most of orthodox Judaism has been built on this principle. Akhinoam means “my brother is pleasant”, and Yizre’el means “those YHWH has scattered”, an in Hoshea 1:4-11 it is clearly used to denote the Northern Kingdom, whose brother from Yehudah has acted as redeemer to bring us back from this very exile. This time in David’s life is also prophetic of the time Yahshua is “on the run” from the one who is recognized as king, with a band whom he protects and who protect him.
44. as Sha’ul had given his daughter Mikhal, David’s wife, to Palti, the son of Layish, who was from Gallim.
Since she was still living near her father, as part of his insult to David, pretending to think that he had abandoned her. David would later right this wrong, but it would not be easy to undo, because Sha’ul had tied a convoluted knot through this injustice.
CHAPTER 26
1. Then the Zifites came to Sha’ul at Giv’ah, saying, “Isn’t David concealing himself on the hill of Hakhilah, on the face of the desert?”
Zifites: This is the second time they have betrayed their brother to the northern king. The term “Zifites” means “smelters”, so they were probably metallurgists who supplied King Sha’ul with weaponry, which is probably why they were so loyal to Sha’ul, though they were from the tribe of Yehudah, which he does not seem to have ruled directly. They were thus protecting their business interests. If Sha’ul has another reason to go to war, he will need more weapons, so they stir his jealousy back up after it has died down. David has little money, so they are afraid he might come steal the swords they have made, so they appeal to Sha’ul for protection from this bogus threat. It is a win-win situation for them. As long as his regime remains stable, so will their business. If David were to overthrow him, he would hardly buy weapons from them because of what they had already done to him in chapter 23. The face: i.e., the edge; the Aramaic targum takes it as the “front”, or east side. Some read it as “overlooking”.
2. So Sha’ul rose up and went down to the wilderness of Zif, and with him were 3,000 men, the select of Israel, to search for David in the wilderness of Zif.
3. And Sha’ul encamped at the hill of Hakhilah, which is on the face of the desert—on the road, while David was staying in the wilderness. When he saw that Sha’ul had come into the wilderness after him,
4. David sent out spies and ascertained that Sha’ul had in fact arrived.
Spies: literally, footmen, i.e., people to go around on foot and explore. He wanted to confirm how far they had come and if it was truly against him. Psalm 54 was written either at this time or the previous time the Zifites betrayed him. His prayer therein that he be avenged of his enemies was soon to be answered.
5. So David got up and came to the place where Sha’ul had encamped, and David discerned the spot where Sha’ul as well as Avner, the son of Ner, the captain of his army, had lain down. Now Sha’ul was lying down within the entrenchment, with the people encamped all around him.
Entrenchment: or, barricade, enclosure, track, something that encircles, possibly a temporary embankment; Aramaic, encampment. The historian Josephus explains that the armed men were lying around Sha’ul in a circle.
6. And David responded by saying to Akhimelekh the Hittite and Avishai the son of Iruyah, the brother of Yoav, “Who will go down into the camp with me—to Sha’ul?” And Avishai said, “I will go down with you.”
Iruyah: evidently a misspelling of Tz’ruyah (“balsam”), the name of Yoav’s mother according to 2 Shmu’el, Kings, and Chronicles. The letter ayin is very similar to the tzadhe, the initial letter of the name. Avishai means “my father is a gift offered as homage”, or simply “Yishai is my ancestor”, which would be fitting since Tz’ruyah was David’s sister (1 Chron. 2:16). Avishai was thus David’s nephew. This seemingly simple request for a volunteer turned out to be a defining moment for Avishai, for he turned out to be one of David’s right-hand men, while this Akhimelekh is never again mentioned in Scripture. One who was faithful in the least matter was rewarded by being given much responsibility. David probably actually wanted both of them to go with him as witnesses of what he was going to do—and what he was not going to do. Tz’ruyah had a third son, Asahel, who would also become a war hero. Their father is mentioned only anonymously in a curse when relations between them went bad. (2 Shmu’el 3:29; the matter was resolved by Shlomo in 1 Kings 2:31)
7. So David and Avishai came to the people at night, and there was Sha’ul lying within the entrenchment asleep. Now his spear was stuck in the ground near his head, and Avner and the people were lying all around him.
Verse 12 explains why no one encamped around the entrenchment was alert to the fact that outsiders were arriving in their camp and making their way toward the king.
8. And Avishai said to David, “Today Elohim has closed up your enemy into your hand! So now let me strike him with the spear right into the earth one time, and I will not do it to him a second time.”
9. But David said to Avishai, “Do not injure him, because who can stretch out his hand against YHWH’s anointed and be guiltless?”
On another occasion, Avishai was eager to kill one who insulted David, but David, though a killer of tens of thousands, was not as bloodthirsty as he. (2 Shmu’el 16:9; 19:21) In fact, he wanted to kill Avshalom, David’s son, as well. (2 Shm. 18:5) So we might say he was more loyal than David wanted him to be.
10. David also said, “[As surely as] YHWH lives, unless YHWH strikes him down or his day comes to die, or he goes down in battle and is swept up,
YHWH had been responsible for putting Sha’ul in power, and had not told David to dispossess him. He still respects Sha’ul’s abilities as a fellow warrior, and that goes a long way in his willingness to spare him over and over. He also would not want to be accused of killing Sha’ul to take his place. He is not forgiving Sha’ul, for Sha’ul has not made restitution of any type—a mechanism the Torah has put in place to ensure a platform for justice and renewed brotherhood when wrongs are done to a fellow Israelite.
11. “it would be a violation [of honor] from YHWH for me to stretch out my hand against YHWH’s anointed. But now, please do take the spear that is by his head and the jug of water, so that we can go!”
Jug: from a word meaning to expand, so it was probably made from an animal skin, though a different term is often used for that in Hebrew.
12. So David took the spear and the jug of water from by Sha’ul’s head and they left, and no one saw, and no one knew; no one even woke up, because they were all asleep, since a deep sleep from YHWH had fallen on them.
Deep sleep: The same word used for the sleep YHWH put Adam into when He took Chawwah from his side.
13. Then David crossed over to the other side and stood on the top of the mountain in the distance; there was a wide space between them.
The other side: Josephus says there was a brook between Sha’ul and where he went.
14. Then David called to the people and to Avner the son of Ner, saying, “Won’t you answer, Avner?” And Avner responded, “Who are you who has called out to the king?”
Was Avner reprimanding him for waking the king up from his sleep? But he in turn reprimands Avner for his negligence. He called Avner, but was really wanting to show Sha’ul that Avner, the one Sha’ul had put in the position David used to have, was not doing his duty as well as David had.
15. And David said to Avner, “Aren’t you a man? And who is like you in Israel? But why haven’t you been guarding your master, the king? Because one of the people came to injure the king—your master!
Who is like you: David had respect for Avner despite his incidental enmity, because he knew he was just doing his job and being faithful to his master. David would later make him one of his own generals. One of the people: David was rubbing in the fact that it was Avishai, not himself, who wanted to kill the king.
16. “This thing that you have done is not right, [as surely as] YHWH lives, because you are sons of death who have not kept guard over YHWH’s anointed! And take a look! Where are the king’s spear and the jug of water that was by his head right now?”
He probably held them up for him to see as he spoke, as if to say, “Look what I got past you!” But he was not satisfied to get the best of them unless they would recognize it and learn from it. Sons of death: the Aramaic explains this as an idiom meaning men who deserve to die for what they have done.
17. And Sha’ul recognized David’s voice, and said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” So David said, “My [very own] voice, O my master the king!”
This parallels 24:16. My son: Sha’ul calls him this because he had joined himself to Sha’ul’s household.
18. And he said, “Why is it that my master is chasing down his servant? What have I done, and what guilt is in my hand?
19. “So now, please let my master the king listen to the words of his servant. If [it is] YHWH [that] has incited you against me, then let Him [smell and] accept a tribute-gift! But if [it is] the sons of Adam, they are cursed before YHWH, because they have driven me out today from being joined to YHWH’s inherited possession, saying, ‘Go, serve other elohim!’
I.e., if it is YHWH who sent you to kill me, allow me an occasion to repent and make things right with him. YHWH’s inherited possession: the congregation of Israel. He recognizes that he cannot properly worship YHWH in isolation. Sha’ul has kept him on the run so that he is unable to visit the sanctuary, and it would bring him great shame to die in exile before being able to go back there again. Though Sha’ul had killed all the priests at Nov, there must have been others who had come in to fill the gap. There is still apparently an active sanctuary. We know there was one priest with an efod with David, but it is not necessarily the high priest’s efod. There may have been many at that time, without the full breastplate—possibly one for each household who might qualify to be priests. In any case, David feels that Sha’ul is trying to drive him to be a pagan, because the only other temples available are pagan ones. This is what is most important to David:
20. “So now, don’t let my blood fall to the earth [while I am away] from [being] in YHWH’s presence, because the king of Israel has come out to look for a flea, as one hunts a partridge in the mountains!”
Flea: Aramaic, one weak man. He calls himself insignificant, yet is also demonstrating that he is a far more skillful warrior than any of them are.
21. And Sha’ul said, “I have missed the target! Come back, my son David, because I will never again do you harm, owing to the fact that my life has been highly valued in your eyes this [very] day. Look, I have acted foolishly and made a very big mistake!”
David’s voice brings him out of his delirium just as it had when he was playing the harp. Might he have sung out his “greeting” to Avner, and Sha’ul recognized the melody? It is as if he keeps being awakened from a dream, saying, “Where am I? What am I doing here? How did I get here?” If he had continued in the vein of thought that analyzed how he got to this point when he clearly still has some love for David, he might have done better. There had to be something there that the evil spirit from YHWH was latching onto, because the spirit needs something to build with. When YHWH brought out the latent wish in David to number his people because he really trusted in that for his security (2 Shmu’el 24), he responded in the right way, despite the need for punishment, because he ended up gaining the Temple Mount in the process.
22. So David responded by saying, “Here is the king’s spear! Let one of the young men come over and get it!
This is enough to remind Sha’ul of why David cannot take him up on his offer. The last few times David saw that spear, it was aimed at him. But the fact that David will not even kill the servant who comes to get it should confirm to Sha’ul that David has no malice toward him.
23. “And may YHWH return to each his righteousness and hid faithfulness, in that YHWH gave you into my hand today, yet I would not consent to stretch out my hand against YHWH’s anointed.
24. “And indeed, just as your life was magnified in my eyes today, let my life be likewise magnified in the eyes of YHWH so that He may snatch me out of every tight spot!”
It might make more sense to say, “May my life be magnified in your eyes”, but David knows it is more important that YHWH be the one to compensate him for the right attitude he demonstrated.
25. And Sha’ul said to David, “You are blessed, my son David; you will certainly both accomplish [this] and be able to prevail [much further]!” So David went on his way, and Sha’ul returned to his place.
Aramaic, “You will indeed rule and you will indeed be successful.” This time Sha’ul did turn out to be right in that he would never harm David again, though this may not have been to his credit, as he did not have much longer to live and no one got to see whether he would go back to his old ways again. David wisely did not feel it was safe to return home yet, but stayed “on the road”.
CHAPTER 27
1. And David said to his heart, “[As it is] now I will be swept up one day by the hand of Sha’ul. There’s nothing better for me than to slip [away] into the land of the Filistines. That will cause Sha’ul to despair of seeking me any longer within the border of Israel, and I will have slipped out of his grasp.”
David was probably not acting chiefly from fear. He may simply have not wanted to tempt YHWH; since YHWH had not specifically told him not to leave the Land at all, he took wise steps toward safety and YHWH took care of the part he could not guarantee. This appeared to be his best option, because he has had two close calls with Sha’ul, and it seemed foolish to stay there. His own countrymen have betrayed him twice, YHWH has told him not to stay in Moav to the east. To the north was Sha’ul’s kingdom, and to the south, desert. There was only one place left—the territory to the west. Sha’ul was probably not strong enough without David to follow him into Filistine territory. But the mere fact that this is called Filistine territory is tragic, for it was deeded to the Israelite tribe of Yehudah. But because it was not guarded, it became in fact someone else’s. This is a sobering warning to us about our stewardship of the things YHWH “talents” us with.
2. So David (he and the 600 men who were with him) arose and went over to Akhish, the son of Maokh, the king of Gath,
Akhish was a Filistine king. Again David seeks refuge right in the very hometown of Golyath!
3. and David remained with Akhish in Gath—he and his men (each with his household, and David with both of his wives, Akhinoam the Yizre’elitess and Avigayil the wife of Naval the Karmelitess).
With the prospect of settling down for a change, David’s men can all bring their families.
4. When it was reported to Sha’ul that David had gotten through to Gath, he no longer searched for him any more.
5. And David said to Akhish, “Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the countryside so I can live there, because why should your servant live in the royal city along with you?”
In the countryside: i.e., away from the main hubs of Filistine life. There was undoubtedly a large bounty on his head in Gath. This may have been one reason David did not stick around there, and he also would not have wanted those under his charge to be unduly influenced by Filistine ways. But he is the master diplomat in the way he presents his request. Josephus says he was ashamed to be a burden to one who had received him so hospitably.
6. So Akhish gave him Tziqlag on that [very] day; therefore Tziqlag has belonged to the kings of Yehudah to this day.
I.e., to the day this historybook was written, apparently a substantial number of generations after David. Now he has a place to call “home” again. Note that hereby David is already being called the king of Yehudah. Everyone he meets seems to be convinced that he will one day be king—even Sha’ul! As a foreshadowing of Yahshua, then, his kingdom is being established from outside his territory, while he is surrounded by foreigners. He is essentially already a king in exile, and now he has a city-state full of subjects already. Akhish has unwittingly arranged for this to be facilitated by their seclusion there. Tziqlag means “winding”, and is located east of the area more densely populated by the Filistines, and about 8 miles (13 km.) north of Be’er-Sheva.
7. Now the [total] amount of time David lived in the Filistine countryside was [a full year of] days and four months.
Days: often an idiom for a full year in Hebrew, but Josephus has “four months and twenty days”.
8. Then David and his men went up and raided the G’shurites, the Girzites, and the Amaleqites, because they had been the inhabitants of the land for ages as you come to Shur and the land of Egypt.
The Geshurites had not been fully defeated after Y’hoshua began the conquest. (Y’hoshua 13:2, 13) Girzites: thought to be a variant of Gezerites, the Kanaanite inhabitants of a city between Dan’s and Efrayim’s tribal territories, just north of where the Filistines lived. YHWH had specifically targeted the Amaleqites for annihilation. (Ex. 17:14-16; Deut. 25:17-19) So David was not wasting his time while in exile. He did not let self-pity or thoughts of revenge against Sha’ul clutter his plans, so he could clearly see how he could best serve Israel’s interests even while he could not live there himself. After Y’hoshua, Israel had left the Torah’s command to rid the Land of its Kanaanite inhabitants unfinished, so he picks up where they left off.
9. And David attacked the land and left neither man nor woman alive, and he took sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing. Then he returned and approached Akhish,
He apparently gave some of the spoils to Akhish.
10. and Akhish said, “Didn’t you make a raid today?” And David said, “On the south [side] of Yehudah, and on the south [side] of the Y’rakhme’elites, and to the south of the Qenites.”
Didn’t you…? The implication seems to be, “Where did you…?” The Y’rakhme’elites are a branch of the tribe of Yehudah (1 Chron. 2:9ff), and the Qenites were the tribe from which Moshe’s in-laws had come, and had been allied with Israel to varying degrees ever since. (15:6; Judges 4:11) David was clearing the extremities of Yehudah of the remnants of the pagan Kanaanite nations, preparing it for when he would reign over it, while reporting to the Filistine king that he was attacking his own people, apparently to ingratiate himself to Akhish so he could continue to live in a place that was under his jurisdiction.
11. But David did not leave [either] a man or a woman alive to bring [word] to Gath, saying, “…Lest they bring a report concerning us, saying, ‘This is what David did.’” And this was his practice the whole time he lived in the Filistine countryside.
If he left any survivor to escape, Akhish might found out that he had lied to him about where he was making the raids. He had no qualms about committing what would today be considered war crimes, for this is exactly what YHWH had said to do to the Kanaanites living within the actual Land of Israel, without asking any questions. (e.g., Deut. 7:2)
12. And Akhish believed David, saying, “He has caused [too big a] stink among his people in Israel, and he has become a permanent servant to me!”
He may have assumed Naval’s attitude toward David was more widespread, since most people preferred peace and stability, everything else being equal. Though he knew David was powerful, he thought David had overdone things to the point of falling out of favor with his own people, not just with the king, probably because he was now a renegade, which only appeals to a certain few. We have already seen with the Zifites that people who are interested in protecting their interests prefer stability even if it is not ideal over too much upheaval, and David, he thought, was just too unpredictable for most peace-loving people to tolerate. Surely he would not consider himself welcome back in his own land, and where else could he go? Akhish thought he had him “all sewn up in the bag”! But this was the same attitude the Sh’khemites had about Israel when it was still a tiny nation, and look what became of them. We are not told that Akhish met a similar end, but note how everyone wants David to be their servant! Sha’ul had a legitimate claim to him, albeit temporary, but no one else but YHWH does. But the fact that David is so tuned in to serving is what would make him such a great king.
CHAPTER 28
1. Now what took place in those days was that the Filistines assembled their army-camps to fight against Israel. So Akhish said to David, “Of course you know that you must go out with me into the camp—[both] you and your men!”
This was no small matter, for, though they were from different tribes than his own, these were still his brothers. But David seems to have little choice at this moment but to take the next step and go along with Akhish, who has been more of a benefactor to David than his own countrymen, and see what doors YHWH might open.
2. So David said to Akhish, “Therefore you know what your servant will do.” So Akhish said to David, “For [doing] the same I will appoint you as permanent guardian of my company.”
You know what your servant will do: i.e., then I’ll be there for you. Alt., “This way you will know what your servant can do”, as if to demonstrate his skill. Company: idiomatic in military settings where two or more divisions are present; literally, head. He could be saying, “You will be my personal bodyguard.” And essentially there would be little difference, because the king’s personal guard would be second in rank in the nation anyway. This was designed to give David added incentive to do a job he knew would have to be distasteful to him.
3. Now when Shmu’el had died and all of Israel were mourning him and burying him in Ramah (his [home]town), Sha’ul had banished from the Land all who evoked the dead and [all] mediums.
All who evoked the dead: the term is a feminine one, implying that only women normally filled this role. Mediums: literally, knowers—necromancers, wizards, soothsayers, those with familiar spirits. This term is a masculine one. Both of these are punishable by stoning in the Torah. (Lev. 20:27) Because one should seek YHWH for such matters instead (Yeshayahu/Isa. 8:19), He considers going to such soothsayers or fortune-tellers an abomination (Deut. 18:10-13) and a form of prostitution, saying He will cut off from their people those who do so. (Lev. 20:6) Had Sha’ul banished them at this time because Shmu’el’s trainees were not as strong as Shmu’el had been against his counterparts on the dark side? Were they less able to counter their influence? Was he rising to the challenge because he had no prophet left to counsel him to keep Torah and so he had to act on his own? Or did he simply want no one to be able to divine what he was up to?
4. When the Filistines were in the process of assembling and coming to encamp at Shunem, Sha’ul assembled all of Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa.
Shunem is in the middle of the Yizre’el Valley—a very wide plain where there is plenty of room to stage a battle. Gilboa is a short mountain range that forms part of the southern border of the Yizre’el Valley where it joins the Yarden River Valley near the city of Beyth-She’an. From here it would have been easy to see how large the Filistine army was.
5. When Sha’ul saw the Filistine camp, he was afraid and his heart was extremely anxious.
Anxious: literally, trembling, being full of terror. This intimidation was the effect the Filistines intended in moving their army in such an open and obvious way. Because David was with them, they knew Sha’ul was no longer a match for them, and did not need to come stealthily. Their army may also have been much larger than he anticipated, so this mighty warrior was now cowering. The first time we find the word “afraid” in Scripture, it is immediately after Adam had disobeyed YHWH. (3:10) Avram was told not to fear because YHWH would be his shield. (15:1) Because Sha’ul was inconsistent in his obedience to YHWH’s instruction, he had no such confidence. If we are walking in Torah, we have nothing to fear.
6. So Sha’ul inquired of YHWH, but YHWH did not answer him, either by dreams, by urim, or by prophets.
This tells us that these were the ways YHWH normally did answer inquiries. There was not a question of whether to defend Israel or not, so he is probably mainly interested in what the outcome will be for himself personally, or he may have been asking for a particular strategy. The priests were probably unwilling to seek an answer for Sha’ul since he had killed so many of them. Shmu’el was gone, and the other prophets were probably still occupied with mourning for him. So when Sha’ul needs light, none is offered. Urim: the special form of lots that the high priest (and possibly other priests at this time) carried in the pocket behind their efod by which YHWH gave some form of answer, either “yes/no” or possibly somehow spelling out words by reflecting a gleam on the letters of the names of the tribes of Israel on the breastplate. The exact method is not known. But it may be significant that there is only one other passage in which urim (“lights”) are mentioned without their counterpart, thummim (“perfections”), and that is in Numbers 27:17-21, where YHWH was about to take Moshe from Israel. The urim speak of YHWH’s revelation. The root meaning behind thummim is “integrity” or “innocence”. In 14:41, Sha’ul had used it to try to prove his innocence. That he knew he was no longer innocent may be why he did not even ask for the thummim here. He wanted YHWH’s revelation for a specific situation, but did not want YHWH’s intervention in every aspect of his life—the “completeness” the thummim represent. He has not taken the time to know the Torah well, because he is used to depending on someone else to know it for him, so he wants a quick fix—a sign rather than understanding. But YHWH’s people perish for lack of knowledge. (Hoshea 4:6) He is not prepared, so he needs a plan. He is lost without a guide, and unlike David, who is able to go with the flow because he has the underlying preparation of a strong knowledge of the Torah, Sha’ul is so unprincipled that he even breaks the rules he himself has correctly made:
7. So Sha’ul said to his servants, “Search out for me a woman possessing a familiar spirit so that I can go to her [as a last] resort.” And his servants told him, “Here at Eyn Dor is a woman possessing a familiar spirit!”
Familiar spirit: or, a bottle made of animal skins—possibly just a homonym, but possibly an essential part of the trade of necromancy (calling up the dead) as practiced at that time. It may have been filled halfway and the noises it made interpreted as voices telling one what to do, just as some in the church have used the sound of the shofar in our own day. The exact nature of how it worked is deliberately left vague, because we are not meant to know how this works. We are not to get anywhere near it. Eyn Dor (“wellspring of a generation”) is just across the Yizre’el Valley, 4 miles (6.5 km.) north of Mt. Tavor (others say 6 km. south of Mt. Tavor), the highest mountain that sits in isolation in the middle of the wide valley that runs from the Yarden River all the way to the Mediterranean. It is right along the main trade route from Egypt to Mesopotamia. But though Eyn Dor was assigned to the tribe of Menashe, they were unable to subdue it except to make the Kanaanite inhabitants pay tribute. (Y’hoshua 17:11-13), so the reason this woman to which he resorted had not already been stoned for such activity was that she was probably a Kanaanite, not an Israelite.
8. So Sha’ul disguised himself and put on other clothing, and went—he and two of the men with him. And they came to the woman at night, and he said, “Please divine for me by the familiar spirit, and bring up for me whomever I tell you!”
Clothing: the particular word itself means “a cloak”, from a root word meaning “treachery” or “deceit”.
9. But the woman told him, “Look, you know what Sha’ul has done—how he has cut off from the Land all who evoke the dead and [all] mediums! So why are you laying a snare for my life, to have me executed?”
At least she was obeying the law, however unwillingly it might have been.
10. But Sha’ul swore to her by YHWH, saying, “[As surely as] YHWH lives, if any consequence [for wrongdoing] befalls you for this matter…”
Not only does he go to a woman for advice; he promises not to punish her for something the Torah says must be punished.
11. So the woman said, “So whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring up Shmu’el for me!”
12. When the woman saw Shmu’el, she started crying out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Sha’ul to say, “Why have you set me up, when you [yourself] are Sha’ul?”
Set me up: beguiled, misled, betrayed, hurled upward. When she recognized that this was the real Shmu’el, as opposed to whatever impostor-spirits she was used to calling up, she knew this was no ordinary session with her clientele. This time she heard a real voice. Did she know it was Sha’ul because no one else would be foolish enough—or have the clout—to call up the real prophet? She then deduced that Sha’ul was conducting a “sting” in person to hunt out the mediums who were still willing to use their “art” when paid enough.
13. And the king said, “Do not be afraid, because--what did you see?!” And the woman said to Sha’ul, “I saw elohim coming up out of the earth!”
It seems he realizes it is not only himself that is terrifying her. Elohim: “mighty ones”, a term used for human judges and quite often of YHWH himself. This may give some indication of how awe-inspiring a righteous person would look to mortals after they have put on immortality! It may give us a hint as to why Thomas reacted like he did upon seeing the resurrected Y'shua, and why so many have been tempted to worship him. Y'shua was therefore not the first to be thought of in this way, for elohim often means “mighty ones” or “judges”, but in a Hebraic context, there are clear limits on how far the concept of a man as elohim can be taken.
14. And he said to her, “What does he look like?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in an outer garment [bespeaking rank]!” When Sha’ul recognized that it was Shmu’el, he stooped with his nostrils to the earth and prostrated himself.
What does he look like: literally, What is his shape, form, figure, or outline? Garment: specifically of the type a high priest would wear over his robe and under his efod—the one with the bells and pomegranates on it. (Ex. 28:4ff) Y’honathan also wore a similar garment (18:4) and gave it to David, and Sha’ul himself had been wearing such a garment when David cut off its corner. (24:4) Shmu’el’s mother had made one for him each year (2:19), and it was this type of garment that Sha’ul had torn when he was begging him not to let YHWH forsake him. (15:27) No wonder Sha’ul recognized it!
15. But Shmu’el said to Sha’ul, “Why have you bothered me, to bring me up?” And Sha’ul said, “I am in dire straits, and the Filistines are engaging me in battle, and Elohim has turned away from being upon me, and has not answered me anymore, either by the hand of prophets or by dreams, so I summoned you to let me know what I should do.”
Bothered me: It is as if his rest is being disturbed.
16. But Shmu’el said, “Why would you ask me, when YHWH has turned away from you and become the one who is irritating you?
Irritating you: as an adversary; from a root word meaning to arouse, awaken, or incite. He had done just that to Shmu’el! YHWH had turned away from him long ago (14:37; 15:23-26), but he was still answering David. (23:4; 30:8)
17. “And YHWH has accomplished for Himself what He spoke through my hand—that is, YHWH will tear the dominion out of your hands, and give it to your fellow [citizen]—to David.
Fellow: though Sha’ul was from Israel and David from Yehudah, they are counted members of the same nation.
18. “As you did not obey the voice of YHWH or carry out the full fury of His anger on Amaleq, on account of the same, YHWH is doing this thing to you this day.
David had not been told directly to destroy Amaleq as Sha’ul had, but because he knew the Torah (Ex. 17:14; Deut. 25:17-19), he was doing so anyway.
19. “And YHWH will deliver Israel along with you into the hand of the Filistines, and tomorrow you and your sons [will be] with me; YHWH will also give the camp of Israel into the hand of the Filistines.”
With me: that is, in the ground. Shmu’el had warned Sha’ul once (15:23) that rebellion was as bad as witchcraft in YHWH’s eyes, and since he did not deal with that in himself, he comes fully into witchcraft, filling up the cup of YHWH’s wrath toward him.
20. And Sha’ul quickly fell his full height to the earth and was greatly frightened by Shmu’el’s words. Also, there was no strength left in him, because he had not eaten any bread the whole day or the whole night.
Apparently he did not kneel down slowly, but fell on his face from the full extent of his stature, which was great.
21. Then the woman came to Sha’ul, and saw that he was very harried. And she said to him, “Look, your maid-servant has obeyed your voice, and I have been putting my life in my own hands when I listened to your words which you spoke to me.
22. “So now, please, you listen to the voice of your maid-servant too, so that I can set before you a piece of bread, and eat, so there will be strength in you when you walk on the road!”
23. But he started to refuse and said, “I’m not going to eat!” But when both his servants and the woman got through to him, so he listened to them and got up from the ground and sat on the couch.
Got through to him: i.e., compelled him, prevailed on him; literally, broke in on him. He had been offered bread on several occasions (10:4; 16:20), but then it was always accompanied by wine—a symbol of joy, which he is not meant to have at this time. But bread is a picture of community (1 Qorinthians 10:17), and it is designed to strengthen a man’s heart (Psalm 104:15). This was to remind him that though he now knew that neither he nor his sons would survive another day, he still had the responsibility to motivate his army to be heroic in battle, so he had to rally his energies for their sake, despite his personal grief. (Proverbs 31:4-5 also says it is not fitting for kings to drink wine at times when they need to exercise judgment, and leading his whole army into battle was definitely one of those times.)
24. Now the woman had a stall-fattened calf at home, so she hurried and slaughtered it, and took some flour and kneaded it, and baked it into unleavened loaves.
As at the Passover, there was no time to let the bread rise. And the death angel would indeed meet him that very day (as the Hebrew day begins at sunset, which had already passed). But though leaven is a picture of sin during that week, when it is not the feast of Unleavened Bread, leaven is a picture of the permeation of the kingdom (Mat. 13:33), so this is symbolic of the fact that the kingdom is being taken from Sha’ul.
25. And she presented it before Sha’ul and before his servants, and they ate, and got up and went during that night.
One would expect her to be paid by Sha’ul for her services, but she is the one giving to him. Whether her motivation was pure or out of fear of being slaughtered herself, it is noteworthy that in Israel, even the condemned show hospitality after the fashion of Avraham; how dare we do any less?
CHAPTER 29
1. Now the Filistines had assembled all their [army] camps at Afeq, while the Israelites were encamping at a spring that is in Yizre’el.
Afeq is in the westernmost part of Efrayim’s territory about 8 miles north of today’s Ben Gurion Airport and ten miles from the coast. To get to Shunem, they would cross the pass over Mt. Karmel at Megiddo into the Yizre’el Valley. At this point they were still 35 miles away from Shunem, so this is apparently a flashack. Yizre’el would later be King Akhav’s capital. It is located, as one would suppose, right on the southern edge of the Yizre’el Valley near the end of Mt. Gilboa barely three miles from Shunem, where the Filistines would camp. (28:4)
2. And the rulers of the Filistines were traveling by hundreds and thousands, but David and his men were traveling the furthest to the rear with Akhish.
3. But the captains of the Filistines said, “What’s [with] these Hebrews?” And Akhish said to the Filistine captains, “Isn’t this David, the servant of Sha’ul, king of Israel, who has been with me these days—or [rather] these years? And I have not found anything [wrong] with him since the day he fell [away to me] until this day!”
Though there were only 600 with David, these thousands of soldiers still felt threatened by David’s presence. They must have continued to dress as Hebrews—with untrimmed beards and tzitziyoth—to still be recognizeable as such. Hebrews literally means “those on or from the other side”, so their very ethnicity sounded foreboding to these Filistines. However, they were hypocrites, because the word for “traveling” in v. 2 is from the same root word as “Hebrews”, so they too had just been Hebrews in the loosest sense. But in Scripture when people are called Hebrews, it is often in the context of being servants (e.g., Gen. 39:14; 41:12; Ex. 1:15; Deut. 15:12) Thus what we cross over from is self—into servanthood.
4. But the captains of the Filistines were displeased with him. So the captains of the Filistines said to him, “Make this man go back so he can return to his place where you have assigned him [to be], and he can’t go down to war with us, so he won’t turn into an adversary to us in the battle, since with what could he get himself [back] in favor with his master? Wouldn’t it be with these men’s heads?!
Displeased: the term does not mean “mildly”! They were seeing the obvious, which Akhish was blissfully ignoring. They have the same type of concern that the Pharaoh of the Exodus had when the Israelites were multiplying in their midst. It seems there was somewhat of a democracy among the Filistines, that the king could not overrule the rulers of smaller groupings within his kingdom.
5. “Isn’t this David, to whom they respond with dances, saying, ‘Sha’ul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands?’”
Respond: Possibly singing antiphonally. It does not escape them that it was tens of thousands of Filistines in particular that he had been killing when this song made its rounds among Israel. But Akhish is so oblivious to David’s tricking him (28:7-12) that the obvious irony is lost on him.
6. So Akhish called David and said, “[As surely as] YHWH lives, though you are straight up, and as I see it your going out and coming in with me in the camp [has been] valuable (because I haven’t found [any] mischief in you since the day you came to me until this day)—still, the way the rulers of the Filistines see it, you’re not appropriate.
As YHWH lives: It was in YHWH’s name that Golyath has been killed, so even Akhish knows He is indeed alive, though he is probably just playing to David’s beliefs, knowing that it would be offensive to him if he said, “As Dagon lives…”! Haven’t found: David kept his mischief well-hidden.(28:7-12), as it was not directed against Akhish in particular, but neither were his actions on his behalf, but rather for YHWH and Israel.
7. “So now, go back—and go peacefully so the rulers of the Filistines won’t see anything wrong with your behavior.”
If David left quietly, the king insinuates that next time he might be able to go to battle with them. Or he may be saying they will let David live if he does not show himself upset over this ruling.
8. But David said to Akhish, “But [why?] What have I done? And what have you found [wrong] with your servant since the day I came to be in your presence until this day, that I shouldn’t go and fight against the enemies of my master, the king?”
David does not specify which king he is talking about, thus added to the Filistines’ uncertainty about him. He is intentionally vague so that Akhish does not have too much information to work with.
9. And Akhish replied and said to David, “I know—because, as I see it, you’re as valuable as an angel of Elohim! It’s just that the captains of the Filistines have said, “He can’t go up with us into battle!”
Angels of Elohim won many battles for Israel! (e.g., 2 Kings 6:17; 2 Chron. 32:21) He was probably just speaking flattery in order to make his excuse, but he knows David could help him win his battles as well. However, his men prefer to be certain about the loyalties of all who are with them, even if it diminishes their numbers. This story is a picture of the fact that in the Church, some think Yahshua will belong to them forever, while in fact he is only exiled among them. Others, who notice that he still does resemble a Hebrew, are aware that he is not really one of them, and that he can only be tolerated if he stays in the place they have assigned to him (v. 4); of course, he will do no such thing. Over 600 years after Yahshua they were still some who saw past the Roman smokescreen to what he had really been like, and they were called “neo-Jews”. It is the same for those who are returning to Torah today.
10. “So now, bite the bullet! You and the servants of your master who have come with you get up early in the morning [as soon as] there is light for you, and go.”
Bite the bullet: literally, shoulder the burden, but often also an idiom for “rise early” (as the same phrase is translated later in the sentence).
11. So David arose early—[both] he and his men—to leave in the morning to go back to the territory of the Filistines, while the Filistines proceeded up to Yizre’el.
Thus David was not with Akhish by the time Sha’ul could literally see the armies assembling, though certainly his watchmen would have reported the Filistines’ positions to him long before that. Things might actually have turned out better for Sha’ul if David had been with Akhish; he might have only been taken prisoner of war. YHWH got David off the hook from being in the position to have to choose between two loyalties—one to a benefactor and one to his flesh and blood. Imagine how much harder it would have been for David to win the hearts of the northern kingdom if he had been fighting against Israel in Sha’ul’s last battle; he would have indeed been suspected of trying to take his throne forcefully after all. This was not his battle; it was topave the way for him to step into the role already promised him. (Compare Yeshayahu/Isa. 26:20.) But He also had another reason David needed to be back at Tziqlag…
CHAPTER 30
1. But when David and his men arrived at Tziqlag on the third day, it turned out that the Amaleqites had made a raid into the Negev and into Tziqlag, and had attacked Tziqlag and burned it with fire.
2. But they took the women who were in it captive, from the least to the greatest; they didn’t kill anyone, but led them away and went on their way.
Didn’t kill anyone: literally, didn’t kill a man. Yet they only took women, because the men were all with David. This was only a raid for plunder, not a militarily-motivated attack, although it might have been for the purpose of revenge against David, who had raided some of the Amaleqite towns.
3. So while David and his men were coming toward the city, lo and behold, it had been burned with fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive!
They could probably see the smoke still going up while they were at a distance, though most of the city would have been constructed of stone and would not burn well.
4. Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until there was no strength left in them to weep.
5. Now the two wives of David had been taken captive–Akhinoam the Yizreelitess and Avigayil the wife of Naval, the Karmelitess,
6. and it put David in dire straits, because the people were talking about stoning him [to death], since the soul of all the people was embittered—[each] man about his sons and daughters. But David [started] taking a firmer hold on YHWH his Elohim.
This raid added injury to the insult of being excluded from the battle, and to top it off, the men were blaming him that it had taken place! Remember that besides his own brothers, many of the people who joined themselves to David’s army were of the bandit or pirate sort, running from their responsibilities. They were not the cream of society’s crop! David, however, had channeled their energies in a positive direction, but it is not surprising that when the protection he had seemed to promise was removed, they became mutinous. Taking a firmer hold: or, strengthening himself, encouraging himself. This is the best thing we can do in any such situation. He knew his own limits and the limits of human strength or comfort, and went to the true source of help. He did not let the distress overpower him. He knew YHWH had a purpose even in this, and that he belonged to YHWH. He undoubtedly drew on his reserve of Torah knowledge to recall what YHWH had done for all of Israel in the past, and what He had done in his own life. He may have written a psalm in the vein of Psalm 42:5. It is to our shame that we often wait until all our other resources run out to remember to call on YHWH, but because David habitually turned to Him, he was able able to keep his head about him when everyone else was speaking out of their emotions. The army was no longer unified, so he chose not to remain in depression, but did something about the problem so that they would not all begin killing one another. When we strengthen ourselves in YHWH instead of buckling under pressure, we strengthen ourselves in other men’s eyes as well, as David did here, recovering his control of those under his leadership.
7. And David said to Evyathar the priest (the son of Akhimelekh), “Please bring the efod near to me.” So Evyathar brought the efod to David,
Part of strengthening himself in YHWH was simply remembering that he had at his disposal the ability to inquire of Him rather than be left to his own devices alone. Since Sha’ul had gone to another priest to inquire, this seems to be evidence that there were more than one set of urim and thummim in use throughout the Land—or at least urim, as Sha’ul had not mentioned thummim among his means of seeking YHWH’s revelation. (28:6)
8. and David inquired of YHWH, saying, “Should I chase after this band of marauders? Can I overtake it?” And He said to him, “Pursue, because you will certainly overtake and fully recover [everything].”
9. So David went—he and 600 men who were with him. When they came to the seasonal torrent of the B’sor, those who had been left behind remained [there],
Who had been left behind: apparently those whom the Amaleqite raiders did not consider valuable enough to take across the deep canyon. (see note on v. 10.)
10. but David [kept up the] chase—he and 400 men, while 200 men who were too exhausted to cross over the torrent of the B’sor stayed [behind].
B’sor: the wadi that runs past Be’er-sheva’ to the Mediterranean south of ‘Azzah (Gaza). On the other side was the Amaleqite territory. Being a seasonal streambed, it was dry most of the year, but now it may have been in its flood stage and too dangerous to cross if one was not strong. Even if it was dry, because of flash floods, such valleys became deeper with each rainy season, and had high cliffs on both sides so that they had to descend a steep bank and ascend another after crossing the possibly-raging river. So this was no easy feat.
11. Then they found an Egyptian man in the field and took him to David, and they gave him bread, and he ate it, and they had him drink water.
Most of the others left behind would have been women, children, or the aged. This man was young, so he stood out as one who was not taken in the raid and likely to know of the marauders’ route. Had him drink: or, made him drink. They needed to revive him to be able to get information from him.
12. And they gave him a piece [they] sliced off a lump of pressed figs and two raisin clusters, and when he had eaten, his spirit came back to him, because he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.
Spirit: breath or vigor. It seems he was very near death, as this is about the limit of how long one can go without water. They gave him bread and water, symbols of community and the Torah, as well as figs and the fruit of the vine, symbols of the Kingdom, and he was “resurrected”.
13. And David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?” And he said, “I am an Egyptian youth, a servant belonging to an Amaleqite man, but my master abandoned me because I became sick three days [ago].
Belong: He must have had some mark of being a slave. Knowing the Amaleqites’ cruelty, he may have even been branded. Youth: often another term for a low-ranking servant. Three days ago: literally, the day three or today three. The Amaleqites were best known for preying on the weakest, who straggled behind (Deut. 25:17-18)—omething YHWH especially hated them for--but now they were leaving some of their own behind to be prey for others!
14. “We stripped the Negev of the Kherethites and [made raids] on what belongs to Yehudah and on Kalev’s Negev, and we burned Tziqlag with fire.”
Kherethites: or executioners; another name for the proto-Filistines. The Egyptians or Amaleqites may still have called the Filistines by this name. They later became mercenary soldiers who served as a bodyguard for David. When he heard him mention Tziqlag, he had David’s full attention.
15. So David said to him, “Can you bring me down to this band of raiders?” And he said, “Swear to me by Elohim [that you will] neither have me killed nor deliver me, bound, into the hand of my master, and I will bring you down to this raiding band.”
He expected David to want to kill him since he had destroyed his home. He used what leverage he had to benefit himself as well as David. Apparently David did swear not to return him to a master who did not care enough for him to treat him when ill. David did as much as he could; he would have been able to follow the tracks of so many people and cattle until they came to the river, where the Amaleqites could have gone upstream or downstream to “lose” anyone who might follow their trail. But now YHWH had provided guidance in the form of a guide.
16. When he brought them down, there they were, hanging loose over the whole surface of the land, eating, drinking, and staggering in dance [at a feast] with all the great plunder that they had taken from the land of the Filistines and from the land of Yehudah.
Apparently David did swear to it, whether out of compassion or because he had little choice. Hanging loose: having let down their guard completely, assuming there was no one who would bother them, since the Filistines, Sha’ul’s army, and supposedly David, were all occupied elsewhere. They were also engaged in loose living. Josephus adds the details that they lay scattered all over the ground, some drunk, and all divested of their armor, some asleep because of their full bellies, so that even those who had time to put their armor back on were easy to kill.
17. So David attacked them from the [first] breeze [of morning] all the way up to the evening twilight of their next day, and not a man of them escaped, except 400 young men who mounted the camels and fled.
It sounds as if they might have fought them for two whole days. This must have been a very large army, if 400 is a mere “drop in the bucket” that is hardly worth mentioning. Yet 400 is still an idiom for an army, indicating that there were still enough to recover their strength and remain a threat. These 400 were young—possibly the only ones not too drunk to keep their balance on camels! One of these Amaleqites who survived may have been Agag’s son, from whom Haman would later have been born. Sha’ul must have spared more than Agag, too, unless this particular clan of Amaleqites had not been among those present when Shmu’el told him to annihilate them.
18. Thus David recovered all that Amaleq had taken, and David rescued both of his wives,
19. and nothing of theirs was missing from the insignificant to the important—both sons and daughters, neither spoils nor anything that they had taken for themselves—David brought it all back.
“The blessing of YHWH enriches, and He adds no hardship with it.” (Prov. 10:22)
20. And David seized the whole flock and the whole herd that they drove ahead of these possessions, and they said, “This is David’s spoil.”
Had David been off battling with Akhish, he probably would never have caught up with the Amaleqites before the women were ravished, so though he was disappointed that he could not go to war, it was a blessing after all to be sent back. Possessions: or, cattle/herds.
21. When David came to the 200 men who followed David who had been too exhausted to go [on]—those whom they had let stay at the seasonal torrent of the B’sor, they came out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. So David approached them and asked about their welfare.
This was his welcoming party. Making sure they had recovered their strength was more of a priority to him than telling them what YHWH had allowed them to do in the battle.
22. But every evil and worthless man [among] the people who had gone with David responded by saying, “Because they did not go with us, we won’t give them any of the plunder that we have snatched, except [to give] each man his wife and children, and they can lead them away and go!”
Some of the stronger ones may have been Shim’onites, known for their military prowess, and who lived among the tribe of Yehudah. In any case, they despised their weaker brothers, forgetting that it was YHWH who had given them any strength they had to go on. Josephus says they accused those who had stayed behind of pretending to be weak because they did not want to go on and fight, and said they should be glad to just have their families back!
23. But David said, “My brothers, you’ll do no such thing with what YHWH has given us, when He has protected us and given the band of raiders that came over us into our hands!
24. “So who should listen to you in this matter? Because the share of the one who goes down into battle is the same as the share of the one who stays with the equipment. They will [all] divide the plunder together.”
This way they could all give tithes to the priest among them. David recognized that both roles were integral to an army’s smooth functioning. If they were not fit for one aspect of the battle, they could be faithful in another, and so they proved to be. Knowing the Torah, he recognized that if their minds were elsewhere, they would not be able to focus on fighting. None of them had houses or wives to go back to (cf. Deut. 20:5-8), but the stress of their loss coupled with their anger and the strenuous chase must have “taken the fight out” of some, and only those with more natural endurance were able to keep going, aided onward, no doubt, by YHWH’s promise of success. This would have channeled their remaining energy into this more profitable goal than that of killing David. What a wise and benevolent king he would make! He proved he deserved to be a leader of all of YHWH’s people, not just those who were as strong or adept at battle as himself.
25. And so it was from that day forward that he made it a decree and a ruling for Israel to this day.
Forward: literally, “and upward”. Note that he was already enacting laws in Israel, though he did not yet wear the crown, for he knew he had the right to do so. At this point it only applied to those who were with him, but now, if our king’s ancestor has established this decree, it applies to us as well, since it does not contradict the Torah. He trusted his people to know the Torah well enough to be honorable and not hope for the easier task each time.
26. When David arrived at Tziqlag, he sent some of the spoils to the elders of Yehudah—his fellows—saying, “Look! Here’s a blessing for you from the plunder of YHWH’s enemies!”
His fellows: literally, those of the same flock—i.e., those who supported him and would not betray him. Before he even rebuilds his city, he sends a tribute to those who rule over him, out of gratitude for shaping him into what he is. He was also a masterful politician; knowing that the throne would soon be his, he endeared himself to those he would soon need to rule, while they still ruled over him, showing that he valued the advisory role they would have toward him. These were the “dividends”—the literal “shares” of “stock” from YHWH’s “profits”. What looked like a very bad situation actually turned out to be an occasion to bless his friends as well.
27. [He sent it] to those who were in Beyth-El [“house of Elohim”], to those in the Negev Heights, to those in Yathir [“plenty”],
He gave a share to those who already had plenty, because, as with the half sheqel Temple tribute, rich and poor alike have a part in what belongs to YHWH.
28. to those in Aroer [“ruins”], to those in Sifmoth [“fruitful”], to those in Eshtemoa [“I will make myself heard”],
29. to those in Rakhal [“trade/traffic”], to those in the cities of the Y’rakhme’elites, to those in the cities of the Qeynites,
Y’rakhme’elites, Qeynites: These are the peoples he told King Akhish he had plundered (27:10); instead, he was actually enriching them! Some of these peoples might have been others who had been raided at the same time as Tziqlag.
30. to those in Hormah [“devotion”], to those in Khor-Ashan [“smoky furnace”], to those in ‘Atakh [“lodging place’],
31. to those in Hevron [“best friend”], and to all the places where David had gone along with his men.
He was repaying their hospitality as soon as he was able. Hevron would soon become David’s “best friend”, and YHWH’s best friend, Avraham, was buried there.
CHAPTER 31
1. When the Filistines waged war on Israel, the men of Israel fled from the presence of the Filistines, and were falling down, mortally wounded, at Mount Gilboa,
2. and the Filistines pursued Sha’ul and his sons closely [and overtook them], and the Filistines struck down Y’honathan, Avinadav, and Malkhishua, Sha’ul’s sons.
We now resume the story of Sha’ul and his army at Yizre’el. The historian Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews 6:14:7) says they fought bravely and killed many men in the process, knowing all they could hope for was to die honorably. Avinadav: seems to be the same as the Yishwi of 14:49.
3. And the battle was heavily-weighted against Sha’ul, and the shooters--men with bows--found him, and he was badly wounded by [these] archers.
Wounded: literally, made to writhe in anguish. Sha’ul was recognizable because he had his crown on (2 Shmu’el 1:10), and may have been the only Israelite with a chariot. David fought YHWH’s battles (25:28; 27:8), so YHWH fought his. (17:47-50; 25:39) The day had finally come when David’s request that YHWH judge between himself and Sha’ul (24:12) was being granted. Shooters: from the same root word from which “Torah” stems, so Sha’ul was now being judged by the Torah that he had not learned well! Found him: i.e., hit their target.
4. So Sha’ul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, lest these uncircumcised [ones] come and thrust me through and make a fool of me.” But his armor-bearer was not willing [to do so], because he was very afraid. So Sha’ul took the sword and fell on it.
Make a fool of me: or, abuse me, deal severely with me, play with me like a child. His worst fear was of not being quite killed by the Filistines. The term has the sense of inserting something, and some have even rendered it “roll themselves on me”, hinting that the Filistines might sodomize him. (It is used in a similar way in Judges 19:25.) The fact that they were uncircumcised made the thought even worse. So he robbed the Filistines of the occasion for their games. A precedent for this type of suicide is found in Gid’on’s son Avimelekh. (Judges 9:54) Afraid: David confirmed that he very well should have been. (2 Shmu’el 1:14) Sha’ul was supposed to kill the king of Amaleq, but since he did not, he ended up killing the king of Israel instead.
5. When his armor-bearer saw that Sha’ul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him.
Was this to honor his master with the idea that “If I can no longer serve you I no longer wish to live”? The practice of a widow dying with her husband has survived in the east until very recently, and this may be another instance of the same basic sentiment. Egyptian pharaohs have been known to have had up to 400 of their servants sealed into their tombs with them. The servant may have been desperate, fearing abuse by the enemy as Sha’ul had, but he may simply have felt that he had nowhere else to go now that his master, who had been providing for him, was dead. Despite how difficult it must have been to work for Sha’ul, this man showed devotion to him until the end.
6. So Sha’ul, three of his sons, his armor-bearer, and all of his men died together that day.
He lost his entire army. Should he, upon knowing that he was going to die that day, have dismissed his men to a safer place and hoped salvation would come for them from some other source, or did he do the only thing that could be done by trying to defend the rest of his nation, even though it would cost him his life? Shmu’el had told him twice that his army would be lost with him (28:19), indicating that it would be very difficult to change, but the fact that it was not said three times might have still left the door open for Sha’ul to repent. But he did not. Not all of his sons died with him (2 Shmu’el 2:8; 21:8), so David would still have some intrigues to deal with from would-be heirs to Sha’ul’s throne. But the only son who would be truly worthy of the position (even if not as militarily savvy as David) had died with him, due to no fault of his own, but simply because of his father’s failures.
7. When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and who were on the other side of the Yarden saw that that the men of Israel had fled and that Sha’ul and his sons had died, they abandoned the cities and escaped, and the Filistines came and lived in them.
“Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.” (Zkh. 13:7) They no longer had a professional army to defend them. This had only become the norm since Sha’ul came to power; prior to that the people of each city or even each wealthy landowner defended his own territory. Since there had been a full-time army to represent them, most people had probably become lazy about their military skills and thus had no confidence about attacking such a large army. So the Filistines greatly expanded their holdings and cut Israel’s territory in two—the very thing a “covenant cutting” specifies as the penalty for the party that fails to keep its side of the agreement. David was the reason they had been doing so well prior to this; with him away from the army, they could not expect YHWH’s favor, just like those who think they are doing well enough in Torah to be able to dispense with Yahshua altogether.
8. And it turned out that on the next day when the Filistines came to strip the slain, they found Sha’ul and his three sons fallen at Mount Gilboa.
9. So they cut off his head and stripped off his weapons, and sent them all around the territory of the Filistines, to announce the glad news to the house of their carved [idols] and to the people [as a whole].
Most ancient cultures (other than Israel) saw great warriors as semi-divine, so to defeat them would be considered a great feat. Cutting off his head may have been a direct retaliation for what Israel did to Golyath. 1 Chron. 10:10 adds the detail that they fastened his head in the temple of Dagon. Verses 13 and 14 of that chapter clarify that Sha’ul died specifically for his sin of consulting the medium instead of YHWH.
10. And they put his weapons in the house of Ashtaroth, and fastened his corpse to the wall of Beyth-Shan.
Ashtaroth: a plural feminine term for a fertility goddess-- or possibly even trinity of goddesses. The name is based on the word for “increase”, associated in particular with sheep-breeding, and its name also came to imply wealth, flocks, ewes, or young in a more generic sense. Also known as Ashtoreth, Ishtar, or Astarte (from all of which the term “Easter” is derived), she was also a goddess of love and war, hence their honoring her in this way. This temple is thought to have been located among the ruins of Beyth-Shan. Fastened: implying to stick on with a strong thrust or blow. Josephus says they were hung on “crosses” by the wall—a common form of execution in his own day, but seemingly anachronistic here. The term might also refer to their being impaled, a known practice of the Assyrians only 300 years after this time. Beyth-Shan: often alternately called Beyth-She’an (ironically meaning “house of ease or security”), located right at the juncture of the Y’zre’el and Yarden valleys’ trade routes (the probable reason for their normally “easy” life), would have been one of the cities taken by the Filistines, unless this was a gesture much like David’s sending Golyath’s head to Yerushalayim (17:54), to strike fear into the remaining residents and remind them “who was in charge”.
11. And when the inhabitants of Yaveysh-Gil’ad heard about what the Filistines had done to Sha’ul,
12. all the capable men rose up and walked all night and took the body of Sha’ul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beyth-Shan. When they came to Yaveysh, they burned them there,
Capable: ranging in meaning from valiant to military, mighty, or wealthy. Yaveysh-Gil’ad was only about ten miles southeast of Beyth-Shan, but across the Yarden River, which, if chapter 30 indicates the B’sor was in the flood stage, would also have risen very high, thus slowing their progress, especially if there was little moonlight. They would have undoubtedly also finished the task of removing the bodies under cover of night, so the “all night” probably encompasses this as well. It was common for large memorial fires to be built for the kings of Israel and Yehudah, but only spices were usually burnt (Yirmeyahu/Jer. 34:4-5), not the kings’ bodies. Either this was a pagan custom picked up from the neighboring peoples (since there had never been another Israelite king as such, so any precedents for how to deal with a king at death would have come from elsewhere) or their bodies may have been too badly decayed, or considered unfit for burial since their heads were missing. They did not cremate them, however, but only burned off the flesh at a much lower temperature.
13. and took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Yaveysh, and fasted for seven days.
Sha’ul had been under a tamarisk tree when he decided to pursue David. (22:6) The term may sometimes refer to a grove of trees at a pagan cultic site. These men who had been spared a terrible humiliation by Sha’ul’s military action (chapter 11), and were probably his relatives (Judges 21:1-14), showed their tremendous gratitude to him by this great act of bravery to rescue his memory in turn from this humiliation. They “owed him one” for saving their dignity, not to mention their peripheral vision, and demonstrated their mourning through more extreme measures than most. Despite his many failures, Sha’ul’s right choices lived on, bearing fruit worthy of honor in the eyes of those they had benefited. A rabbinic adage says that the greatest act of love for a friend is to bury him, since he could never pay one back for this. His body would later be returned to his own tribal land. (2 Shmu’el 21:14)
THE FIRST BOOK OF
Shmu'el
the prophet
INTRODUCTION: This book begins in the 11th century B.C.E. Some place Shmu'el's birth as early as 1096 B.C.E., while others estimate 1028 or 1025. Shmu'el has been called "the last judge". The title of the book may be a slight misnomor, for, though his life extends throughout most of the book, King Sha'ul and David take center stage, and 2 Shmu'el is almost entirely about David, Shmu'el having died before it begins. Actually, the division of the book of Shmu'el into two parts originated with the Greek Septuagint (LXX) in the second century B.C.E. It was not until the 15th century C.E. (A.D.) that it was divided into two parts in the Hebrew scriptures. The book recounts the transition in Israel's history from the era of the judges to the era of the united kingdom.
