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And it came to pass, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David [is] in the wilderness of Engedi.

It was told him, saying. — They that told him knew what would please him - they found him out some new game: they knew his implacable spirit fraught with malice, and fomented it. Mithridates was so mad a hunter that, taken with that sport, for seven years’ space, neque urbis neque ruris tecto sit usus, saith the historian, he came not within any house in city or country. Saul was as madly set against David, whom he had lately seen must strangely snatched out of his hands.

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Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats.

Upon the rocks of the wild goats. — Per rupes rupicaprarum: where they ventured their necks at every step almost, so steep and craggy were those cliffs. The wild goats hanging on them, and sometimes falling down, are said to pitch upon their horns without hurt. Plin., lib. viii. cap. 53.

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And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where [was] a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet: and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave.

And Saul went in to cover his feet. — To ease nature. See Judges 3:24 , See Trapp on " Judges 3:24 " Alexander Medices, duke of Florence, and son-in-law to Charles V, Emperor, was slain by his near kinsman Laurentius, as he was doing his easement. a

And David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. — Here and at this time it was that David said, "I will cry unto God most High, unto God that performeth all things for me," Psalms 57:2 where the Chaldee hath, Unto God who sent the spider to make a web in the mouth of the cave for me. It may very well be that Saul, seeing the entrance of the cave overgrown with cobwebs, might think that no David lurked there. The like providence is reported for the preservation of Felix, a martyr, one time from his persecutors, whereupon Paulinus singeth -

“ Sic ubi Christus adest, nobis et aranea muro est:

At cui Christus abest, et murus aranea fiet ”

a Gal, Hist. Epit.

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And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the LORD said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily.

Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee. — But when and where did the Lord say this to David? Either not at all, but they spoke it of their own heads, to move him to make an end of Saul, the cause of all their sorrows and sufferings; or else they collected it from God’s general promise to deliver all David’s enemies into his hands; their fingers even itched to be doing at Saul, and therefore they urge the matter so hard upon David to despatch him out of the way: the present opportunity here thrust into his hands they looked upon as an oracle and warrant good enough, and therefore not to be slighted or let slip. Thus we see how ready we are to hasten the Lord’s promise, if the occasion serve never so little, saith the Geneva note here.

And cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily. — Sine impetu aut strepitu alam pallii abscidit. Abulensis thinketh that God at this time made David extraordinarily nimble, and Saul extraordinarily deaf; but the noise of Saul’s soldiers without the cave, and Saul’s upper garment lying at some distance from him as then, might easily give David this opportunity of cutting a lap of it undiscerned.

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And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.

David’s heart smote, — i.e., His conscience, which keeps court in every faculty of the soul, checked him: such was his tenderness then. Bee masters tell us that those are the best hives that make the greatest noise; so is that the best conscience that checketh for smallest sins. David feared that what he had done to the king might be taken for an ignominy and an injury: he is therefore pricked inwardly. Bonorum enim mentium est culpam agnoscere ubi culpa non est, saith Bernard. Good men are afraid of the least show of sin, being jealous over themselves with a godly jealousy.

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And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he [is] the anointed of the LORD.

The Lord forbid that I should do this thing. — Thus he blesseth himself from such a disloyalty to his master and sovereign. The Janizaries have learned of the Jesuits to kill their king if he please them not. Peter du Moulin said truly of many of the priests of France, that they were for their loyalty not beholden to the maxims of Italy.

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So David stayed his servants with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on [his] way.

So David stayed his servants. — Dispescuit, diffidit: He staved them off, when they rose from both sides of the cave to lay violent hands upon Saul; and this was a greater victory, saith Chrysostom, than that he once got over Goliath, because now he overcame himself, and manfully repressed his unruly soldiers with a word in season.

But Saul rose up out of the cave. — Little thinking how near he had been to a mischief, and how easily he might have died before his time; Ecclesiastes 7:17 that is, than when it had been better for him to have done anything than have died. See Ecclesiastes 9:12 .

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David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, My lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed himself.

And went out of the cave. — That by his just apology he might make his own innocency to triumph in the tyrant’s conscience, as indeed it did.

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