the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct
smote
וַיַּ֥ךְvai.Yakh
H5221
to strike (lightly or severely · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
off
כָּרַ֔תka.Rat
H3772
to cut (off · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Saul’s
לְשָׁאֽוּלle.sha.'Ul
H7586
Shaul · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
skirt
כָּנָ֖ףka.Naf
H3671
an edge or extremity · 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
2 Samuel 24:10 And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done:…
2 Samuel 12:9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and ha…
2 Kings 22:19 Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and again…
1 John 3:20-21 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 24:1-8
Here, I. Saul renews his pursuit of David, Sa1 24:1, Sa1 24:2. No sooner had he come home safely from chasing the Philistines, in which it should seem he had good success, than he enquired after David to do him a mischief, and resolved to have another thrust at him, as if he had been delivered to do all these abominations, Jer 7:10. By the frequent incursions of the Philistines, he might have seen how necessary it was to recall David from his banishment and restore him to his place in the army again; but so far is he from doing this that now more than ever he is exasperated against him, and, hearing that he is in the wilderness of En-gedi, he draws out 3000 choice men, and goes with them at…
the men of David said . . . Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand--God had never made any promise of delivering Saul into David's hand; but, from the general and repeated promises of the kingdom to him, they concluded that the king's death was to be effected by taking advantage of some such opportunity as the present. David steadily opposed the urgent instigations of his followers to put an end to his and their troubles by the death of their persecutor (a revengeful heart would have followed their advice, but David rather wished to overcome evil with good, and heap coals of fire upon his head); he, however, cut off a fragment from…
And the men of David said - We know not to what promise of God the men of David refer; they perhaps meant no more than to say,
"Behold, the Lord hath delivered thine enemy into thy land, now do to him as he wishes to do to thee."
Then David arose - Though I have a high opinion of the character of David, yet the circumstances of the case seem to indicate that he arose to take away the life of Saul, and that it was in reference to this that his heart smote him. It appears that he rose up immediately at the desire of his men to slay his inveterate enemy, and one whom he knew the Lord had rejected; but when about to do it he was prevented by the remonstrance of God in his conscience, and instead…
The Church Fathers
After these things, David's heart struck him, etc. The Lord groaned for the human race, from which he took flesh, with the affection of compassion, because by its merits he was compelled to take away some part of its royal ornament, preferring that it might have the kingdom here and always in the future age, preserved by divine law. Finally, seeing the sinful city, he wept over it saying: For if you also had known, and the rest (Luke 19). He lamented with human pious compassion the detestable loss of the kingdom, which he decreed by divine justice would come to pass.
This is why the coming together of Saul, who was in pursuit of murder, and of David, who was shunning murder, in the cave is described after many events which it had preceded. The authority to kill was reversed in this event, since the one who was being pursued for execution had authority over the slaughter of his killer, and although he had the right, so far as retribution against his enemy was concerned, he stayed his power so far as consisted with the right and killed his own anger in himself instead of his enemy. - "On the Inscriptions of the Psalms 2.14.224"
You have grounds for complaint against the leaders of our people, since you are redeeming those whom they very often permitted to be taken captive or even themselves reduced to servitude. Scripture gives us an example of singular praise when it extols David to the very skies because, having his enemy Saul in his power, he spared him, cutting off but the hem of his robe as evidence of both the opportunity that was his and of his loyalty. Good God, how munificently will You reward the deed of this man who now negotiates for the liberation of so many oppressed souls, you who have exalted David for sparing the life of a single man! - "Life of St. Epiphanius"
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
Apparel — In Old Testament times the distinction between male and female attire was not very marked. The statute forbidding men to wear female apparel (Deut. 22:5) referred especially to ornaments and…
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.…
Cave · En-gedi — En-gedi
Heart, Character Of The Renewed · Tender — Tender
Hyke Or Upper Garment · Was the garment: Of Saul which David cut — Was the garment: Of Saul which David cut
Magnanimity · .David to Saul — .David to Saul
Self-Control · Of David — Of David
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).
And it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him,.... His conscience accused him, and he repented of what he had done:
because he had cut off Saul's skirt; which though less than what his servants put him upon, and he might have thoughts of doing, yet was considered by him as a great indignity to his sovereign, and therefore sat uneasy on his mind.
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 24:1-7
Whilst Saul had gone against the Philistines, David left this dangerous place, and went to the mountain heights of Engedi, i.e., the present Ain-jidy (goat-fountain), in the middle of the western coats of the Dead Sea (see at Jos 15:62), which he could reach from Maon in six or seven hours. The soil of the neighbourhood consists entirely of limestone; but the rocks contain a considerable admixture of chalk and flint. Round about there rise bare conical mountains, and even ridges of from two to four hundred feet in height, which mostly run down to the sea. The steep mountains are intersected by wadys running down in deep ravines to the sea. "On all sides the country is full of caverns, which…
David’s conscience began bothering him because he had dishonored God’s anointed king.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 24:4
To relieve himself. To defecate.1Maseches Yevamos 103a states that the term ‘לְהָסֵךְ אֶת דַגְלָיו’ is a euphamistic expression. Because of his extreme modesty, Shaul covered himself like a succah [Maseches Berachos 62b], with his clothing. The word לְהָסֵךְ originates from סִכוּדְ, which means covered.—Radak.
