to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Blessed
בְּרוּכִ֥יםbe.ru.Khim
H1288
to kneel · verb, qal passive participle, masculine plural absolute
LORD
לַֽיהוָ֑הla.Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · preposition + proper noun, a title
compassion
חֲמַלְתֶּ֖םcha.mal.Tem
H2550
to commiserate · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
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 22:8 That all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that sheweth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there…
Judges 17:2 And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also…
Psalms 10:3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.
Isaiah 66:5 Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LO…
Micah 3:11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean up…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 23:19–end
Here, 1. The Ziphites offer their service to Saul, to betray David to him, Sa1 23:19, Sa1 23:20. He was sheltering himself in the wilderness of Ziph (Sa1 23:14, Sa1 23:15), putting the more confidence in the people of that country because they were of his own tribe. They had reason to think themselves happy that they had an opportunity of serving one who was the ornament of their tribe and was likely to be much more so, who was so far from plundering the country, or giving it any disturbance with his troops, that he was ready to protect it and to them all the good offices that there was occasion for. But, to ingratiate themselves with Saul, they went to him, and not only informed him very pa…
SAUL PURSUES HIM. (Sa1 23:19-29)
Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us?--From the tell of Ziph a panorama of the whole surrounding district is to be seen. No wonder, then, that the Ziphites saw David and his men passing to and fro in the mountains of the wilderness. Spying him at a distance when he ventured to show himself on the hill of Hachilah, "on the right hand of the wilderness," that is, the south side of Ziph, they sent in haste to Saul, to tell him of the lurking place of his enemy [VAN DE VELDE].
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 23:16
And Jonathan - strengthened his hand in God - It is probable that there was always a secret intercourse between David and Jonathan, and that by this most trusty friend he was apprised of the various designs of Saul to take away his life. As Jonathan well knew that God had appointed David to the kingdom, he came now to encourage him to trust in the Most High, and to assure him that the hand of Saul should not prevail against him; and at this interview they renewed their covenant of friendship. Now all this Jonathan could do, consistently with his duty to his father and his king. He knew that David had delivered the kingdom; he saw that his father was ruling unconstitutionally; and he knew tha…
And Saul said: Blessed be you of the Lord, etc. They promise the blessing of the Lord to themselves and their Jewish supporters when, having a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, they either pursue the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with hatred, or with arms. And as the Lord says elsewhere about them and their accomplices: "The time is coming that anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God" (John 16). But woe to their blessings, who, plotting against the Church, or at least against any of the Church's members, to scandalize anyone of the little ones of Christ, are proven to harm in the place of persecutors. Woe to those who, reaching to that flower rising from the root of Jesse only in name, seek with all their mind the withering and quickly perishing comforts of the present life; forgetting the blessing of Him, which is to be seen and hoped for by all, of which it is written: "The Lord hath been mindful of us and will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel, he will bless the house of Aaron" (Psalm 113). But blessing both, he blessed all who fear the Lord. You ask: Whom both? It is answered, the small with the great, that is, the house of Israel with the house of Aaron; those indeed who from that very nation have believed in the Savior Jesus, because not all those pleased God; but if indeed not all of them believed, has their unbelief made the faith of God without effect? By no means. For not all who are of Israel are Israelites; nor are all children of Abraham's seed; as it is written, "The remnant shall be saved" (Isaiah 10). By that oracle of Isaiah, some of the Jews are foretold to attain this heavenly blessing, so that the greater part of them is blinded; whose type and figure Saul, rejected by God, bore, and in whose place the gentiles were appointed; for other sheep joined which were not of this fold, so that there might be one flock and one shepherd (John 10); the faith of all nations joined, and the number increased not only of wise shepherds but also of obedient peoples; to whom many blessings of God have been promised, as it is said: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1); but God has blessed us, not with one blessing, but with all. Not that we all attain everything, but while each of us…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on 1 Samuel 23:21
And Saul said, blessed be ye of the Lord,.... He highly commends them for the offer they made to him, blesses God for them, and desires the blessing of God upon them for it:
for ye have compassion on me; pitied him on account of the troubles he met with from his son-in-law, were sorry for him, and sympathized with him, which others did not, of which he complained, 1 Samuel 22:8.
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 23:21
For this treachery Saul blessed them: "Be blessed of the Lord, that ye have compassion upon me." In his evil conscience he suspected David of seeking to become his murderer, and therefore thanked God in his delusion that the Ziphites had had compassion upon him, and shown him David's hiding-place.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Samuel 23:20
Both Keilah (23:12) and Ziph (23:14; Ps 54:title) were located in Judah, but neither one provided sanctuary for David, a native of Judah. David’s ascension to power was not the result of his own tribe’s loyalty but because of the will of God.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 23:20
And it is ours to hand him over. It is our obligation to deliver him.
