a woman · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
answered
וַֽתַּעֲנֶ֛ינָהva.ta.'a.Nei.nah
H6030
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
played
הַֽמְשַׂחֲק֖וֹתham.sa.cha.Kot
H7832
to laugh (in pleasure or detraction) · definite article + verb, piel active participle, feminine plural absolute
said
וַתֹּאמַ֑רְןָva.to.Mar.na
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
Saul
שָׁאוּל֙sha.'Ul
H7586
Shaul · proper noun, a man's name
slain
הִכָּ֤הhi.Kah
H5221
to strike (lightly or severely · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
thousands
בַּאֲלָפָ֔יוba.'el.fov
H505
hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · preposition + noun, common both genders plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
David
וְדָוִ֖דve.da.Vid
H1732
David · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
thousands
בְּרִבְבֹתָֽיוbe.ri.vo.Tav
H7233
abundance (in number) · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Samuel 21:11 And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying,…
Exodus 15:21 And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
1 Samuel 29:5 Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
Psalms 24:7-8 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 18:6-11
Now begin David's troubles, and they not only tread on the heels of his triumphs, but take rise from them, such is the vanity of that in this world which seems greatest.
I. He was too much magnified by the common people. Some time after the victory Saul went a triumphant progress through the cities of Israel that lay next him, to receive the congratulations of the country. And, when he made his public entry into any place, the women were most forward to show him respect, as was usual then in public triumphs (Sa1 18:6), and they had got a song, it seems, which they sang in their dances (made by some poet or other, that was a great admirer of David's bravery, and was more just than wise, in gi…
SAUL ENVIES HIS PRAISE. (Sa1 18:5-9)
the women came out of all cities of Israel--in the homeward march from the pursuit of the Philistines. This is a characteristic trait of Oriental manners. On the return of friends long absent, and particularly on the return of a victorious army, bands of women and children issue from the towns and villages, to form a triumphal procession, to celebrate the victory, and, as they go along, to gratify the soldiers with dancing, instrumental music, and extempore songs, in honor of the generals who have earned the highest distinction by feats of gallantry. The Hebrew women, therefore, were merely paying the customary gratulations to David as the deliverer of t…
Saul hath slain his thousands - As it cannot literally be true that Saul had slain thousands, and David ten thousands; it would be well to translate the passage thus: Saul hath smitten or fought against thousands; David against tens of thousands. "Though Saul has been victorious in all his battles; yet he has not had such great odds against him as David has had; Saul, indeed, has been opposed by thousands; David, by ten thousands." We may here remark that the Philistines had drawn out their whole forces at this time: and when Goliath was slain, they were totally discomfited by the Israelites, led on chiefly by David.
The Church Fathers
You shall not be a hypocrite, lest your "portion be with them." You shall not be ill-natured or proud, for "God resists the proud." "You shall not accept persons in judgment; for the judgment is the Lord's." "You shall not hate any man; you shall surely reprove your brother, and not become guilty on his account"; and, "Reprove a wise man, and he will love you." Eschew all evil, and all that is like it: for he says, "Abstain from injustice, and trembling shall not come close to you." Do not grow angry quickly, or spiteful, or passionate, or furious or daring, lest you undergo the fate of Cain, and of Saul and of Joab. The first of these killed his brother Abel, because Abel was found to be preferred before him with God, and because Abel's sacrifice was preferred; the second persecuted holy David, who had slain Goliath the Philistine, being envious of the praises of the women who danced; the third killed two generals of armies—Abner of Israel and Amasa of Judah.
But now notice in this incident how much trouble the passion of envy caused: when the king saw this young man enjoying such popularity and the dancing crowds calling out, "Saul's conquests ran into thousands, David's into tens of thousands," he didn't take kindly to their words … but overwhelmed by envy, he now repaid his benefactor with the opposite treatment, and the one whom he should have recognized as his savior and benefactor he endeavored to do away with. What an extraordinary degree of frenzy! What excess of madness! The man who had won him the gift of life and had freed his whole army from the foreigner's rage he now suspected as an enemy, and, instead of the man's good deeds remaining fresh in his memory and prevailing over passion, the clarity of his thinking was dulled with envy as though by a kind of drunkenness, and he regarded his benefactor as his enemy.That is what the evil of this passion is like, you see: it first has a bad effect on the person giving birth to it.
Why do you grieve, my friend, when you yourself have suffered no misfortune? Why are you hostile to someone who is enjoying prosperity, when he has in no way caused your own possessions to decrease? If you are vexed even upon receiving a kindness [from the object of your spite], are you not quite clearly envious of your own good? Saul is an example of this. He made David's great favors to himself a motive for enmity with him. First, after he had been cured of insanity by the divine and melodious strains of David's harp, he attempted to run his benefactor through with a spear. Then, on another occasion, it happened that he and his army were delivered from the hands of the enemy and saved from embarrassment before Goliath. In singing the triumphal songs commemorating this victory, however, the dancers attributed to David a tenfold greater share in the achievement, saying, "Saul killed his thousands and David his ten thousands." For this one utterance and because truth itself was its witness, Saul first attempted murder and tried to slay David by treachery, then forced him to flee.
Dictionary and topics
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Music — Jubal was the inventor of musical instruments (Gen. 4:21). The Hebrews were much given to the cultivation of music. Their whole history and literature afford abundant evidence of this. After the…
Armies Of Israel, The · Congratulated on returning victorious — Congratulated on returning victorious
Music · The Jews used: To celebrate victories — The Jews used: To celebrate victories
Prudence · .David, in his conduct toward Saul — .David, in his conduct toward Saul
Victories · By women — By women
Woman · Often engaged in: Celebrating the victories of the nation — Often engaged in: Celebrating the victories of the nation
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on 1 Samuel 18:7
And the women answered one another as they played,.... They sung vocally to their instruments, and that by turns, one rehearsing one line or verse in the song, and then the other another:
and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands; which, if to be referred to the battle in the preceding chapter, as it commonly is, must be understood thus, that though Saul, in pursuit of the Philistines, slew many thousands of them, and David but one, even Goliath; yet the slaying of him was the occasion of slaying ten thousands, and therefore it is ascribed to him: but it seems rather that in some after battles David had been more prosperous and victorious than Saul, and therefore…
Saul's jealousy towards David.
(Note: The section Sa1 18:6-14 is supposed by Thenius and others to have been taken by the compiler from a different source from the previous one, and not to have been written by the same author: (1) because the same thing is mentioned in Sa1 18:13, Sa1 18:14, as in Sa1 18:5, though in a somewhat altered form, and Sa1 18:10, Sa1 18:11 occur again in Sa1 19:9-10, with a few different words, and in a more appropriate connection; (2) because the contents of Sa1 19:9, and the word ממּחרת in Sa1 19:10, are most directly opposed to Sa1 18:2 and Sa1 18:5. On these grounds, no doubt, the lxx have not only omitted the beginning of Sa1 18:6 from their version, but also S…
thousands . . . ten thousands: This dramatic increase in number between two lines of Hebrew poetry was a way of intensifying the statement (cp. Deut 32:30; Ps 91:7). Because of his great military victories, David was beginning to eclipse Saul (1 Sam 18:16, 30; 21:11).
Rashi on 1 Samuel 18:6
And cymbals. Targum Yonoson renders, 'and with cymbals,' a type of musical instrument.1Perhaps a three [=שָׁלשׁ] stringed harp.—Radak.
