to seven oneself · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Saul
לְשָׁא֑וּלle.sha.'Ul
H7586
Shaul · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
Saul
שָׁאוּל֙sha.'Ul
H7586
Shaul · proper noun, a man's name
went
יָלַךְyâlak
H3212
to walk (literally or figuratively)
home
בֵּית֔וֹbei.To
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
David
וְדָוִד֙ve.da.Vid
H1732
David · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
men
וַֽאֲנָשָׁ֔יוva.'a.na.Shav
H582
a man in general (singly or collectively) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
up
עָל֖וּ'a.Lu
H5927
to ascend · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
hold
הַמְּצוּדָֽהha.me.tzu.Dah
H4686
a net · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
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 23:29 And David went up from thence, and dwelt in strong holds at En-gedi.
Matthew 10:16-17 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
John 2:24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,
Proverbs 26:24-25 He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 24:16–end
Here we have,
I. Saul's penitent reply to David's speech. It was strange that he had patience to hear him out, considering how outrageous he was against him, and how cutting David's discourse was. But God restrained him and his men; and we may suppose Saul struck with amazement at the singularity of the event, and much more when he found how much he had lain at David's mercy. His heart must have been harder than a stone if this had not affected him. 1. He melted into tears, and we will not suppose them to have been counterfeit but real expressions of his present concern at the sight of his own iniquity, so plainly proved upon him. He speaks as one quite overcome with David's kindness: Is thi…
HE URGES THEREBY HIS INNOCENCY. (Sa1 24:8-15)
David also arose . . . and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul--The closeness of the precipitous cliffs, though divided by deep wadies, and the transparent purity of the air enable a person standing on one rock to hear distinctly the words uttered by a speaker standing on another (Jdg 9:7). The expostulation of David, followed by the visible tokens he furnished of his cherishing no evil design against either the person or the government of the king, even when he had the monarch in his power, smote the heart of Saul in a moment and disarmed him of his fell purpose of revenge. He owned the justice of what David said, acknowledged his own gu…
Saul went home - Confounded at a sense of his own baseness, and overwhelmed with a sense of David's generosity.
David and his men gat them up unto the hold - Went up to Mizpeh, according to the Syriac and Arabic. David could not trust Saul with his life; the utmost he could expect from him was that he should cease from persecuting him; but even this was too much to expect from a man of such a character as Saul. He was no longer under the Divine guidance; an evil spirit had full dominion over his soul. What God fills not, the devil will occupy.
The Church Fathers
So Saul went to his house, etc. The people of the Jews who were able to repent from their faithlessness through the teaching of the apostles went to work on the care of their inner salvation. On the other hand, the Lord himself and his preachers, knowing that many from the same people would wage wars against the faith, having left the lowly and earthly things, soon ascended to safer and higher places, that is, those who would rightly believe and firmly persevere, by illuminating the hearts of the Samaritans and nearby nations. This reading's memory, and its spiritual reference to Christ, is taught by the title of the fifty-sixth Psalm, which is inscribed thus: To the end, do not destroy David, in the inscription of the title, when he fled from the face of Saul into the cave. Although it seems to be written about David in two words; it opens up in two others, because it truly signifies Christ entirely. That which says "Do not destroy David" seems to prohibit from destroying him, who had been prepared by the Lord's promise for the kingdom, from the insidious enemy. And what it adds in the closure: When he fled from the face of Saul into the cave, it smiles upon the particular moment of time in which he was thought to be able to be destroyed. Nevertheless, what is placed in the beginning, to the end, forewarns that everything should be referred to him, who remains the perfection of all good things for us, because when we came to him, there is no longer any need to seek anything beyond. And what follows, in the inscription of the title, expresses the very title of the Lord's passion, which Pilate wrote in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; and which itself, in figure of an unshakeable kingdom, could not be destroyed by any reasoning or by him who wrote it. Therefore, the sense of this entire title is the same, commanding the Jews not to suspect that they can take away the glory of Christ, even when he is killed and buried: To the end, do not destroy David, in the inscription of the title, when he fled from the face of Saul into the cave, understand the psalm as sung to him who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes; so that you may seek not to destroy Christ by taking away or diminishing his kingdom, which is marked by the true inscription of the title, even when you see him enter the closed tomb through his death due to the impious harassing…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
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.…
Hold — A fortress, the name given to David’s lurking-places (1 Sam. 22:4, 5; 24:22).
Oath · David swears to Saul — David swears to Saul
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 24:22
And David sware unto Saul,.... That he would not cut, off his posterity; which oath he religiously observed, in sparing Mephibosheth, 2 Samuel 21:7, and in punishing the murderers of Ishbosheth, 2 Samuel 4:12; and as for the seven sons of Saul, delivered up to the Gibeonites, 2 Samuel 21:6, it may be questioned whether they were his genuine legitimate offspring; and if they were, it was by the appointment and command of God, and according to his will and pleasure they were executed, who is not bound by the oaths of men, and to whom they must be submitted, 2 Samuel 21:1,
and Saul went home; to his palace in Gibeah:
but David and his men got them up unto the hold; in Engedi, 1 Samuel 23:29;…
When David had sworn this, Saul returned home. But David remained upon the mountain heights, because he did not regard the passing change in Saul's feelings as likely to continue. המּצוּדה (translated "the hold") is used here to denote the mountainous part of the desert of Judah. It is different in Sa1 22:5.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Samuel 24:21-22
Now swear to me . . . you will not kill my family: Having descendants was a way that Saul’s name would endure among the living. David had already sworn such an oath with Jonathan (20:14-17).
Rashi on 1 Samuel 24:21
I know that you will surely reign. For I see that the Holy One, Blessed is He, saves you from my hand. The Midrash Aggadah states, that Shmuel gave him this sign, that the one who tears his robe will reign after him.12See above 15:27–28.
