1 Samuel 26:16 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 26:16
This thing is not good that thou hast done. As the LORD liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the LORD’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster.
a word · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
good
ט֞וֹבTov
H2896
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · adjective, masculine singular absolute
done
עָשִׂיתָ֒'a.si.Ta
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֗הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
liveth
חַיchai-
H2416
alive · adjective, masculine singular absolute
worthy
בְנֵיve.nei-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
die
מָ֙וֶת֙ma.vet
H4194
death (natural or violent) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
kept
שְׁמַרְתֶּ֛םshe.mar.Tem
H8104
properly · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
master
אֲדֹנֵיכֶ֖ם'a.do.nei.Khem
H113
sovereign · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
LORD’s
יְהוָ֑הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
anointed
מְשִׁ֣יחַme.Shi.ach
H4899
anointed · noun, common masculine singular construct
see
רְאֵ֗הre.'Eh
H7200
to see · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
king’s
הַמֶּ֛לֶךְha.Me.lekh
H4428
a king · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
spear
חֲנִ֥יתcha.Nit
H2595
a lance (for thrusting · noun, common feminine singular construct
cruse
צַפַּ֥חַתtza.Pa.chat
H6835
a saucer (as flat) · noun, common feminine singular construct
water
הַמַּ֖יִםha.Ma.yim
H4325
water · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
bolster
מְרַאֲשֹׁתָֽיוme.ra.'a.sho.tov
H4763
properly · 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 20:31 For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unt…
1 Samuel 26:9 And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not: for who can stretch forth his hand against the LORD’s anointed, and be guiltless?
1 Samuel 26:11 The LORD forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’s anointed: but, I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his…
2 Samuel 12:5 And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall su…
2 Samuel 19:28 For all of my father’s house were but dead men before my lord the king: yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eat at thine own…
Psalms 79:11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die;
Psalms 102:20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
Ephesians 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; an…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 26:13-20
David having got safely from Saul's camp himself, and having brought with him proofs sufficient that he had been there, posts himself conveniently, so that they might hear him and yet not reach him (Sa1 26:13), and then begins to reason with them upon what had passed.
I. He reasons ironically with Abner, and keenly banters him. David knew well that it was from the mighty power of God that Abner and the rest of the guards were cast into so deep a sleep, and that God's immediate hand was in it; but he reproaches Abner as unworthy to be captain of the lifeguards, since he could sleep when the king his master lay so much exposed. By this it appears that the hand of God locked them up in this dee…
David said to Abner, Art not thou a valiant man: . . . wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king?--The circumstance of David having penetrated to the center of the encampment, through the circular rows of the sleeping soldiers, constituted the point of this sarcastic taunt. This new evidence of David's moderation and magnanimous forbearance, together with his earnest and kindly expostulation, softened the obduracy of Saul's heart.
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 26:15
Art not thou a valiant man? - This is a strong irony. Ye are worthy to die; ye are sons of death - ye deserve death for this neglect of your king. And had not Saul been so deeply affected with David's generosity in preserving his life, he had doubtless put Abner and his chief officers to death; though they were not to blame, as their apparent neglect was the effect of a supernatural sleep.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 26:16
This thing is not good that thou hast done,.... Yea, it was very bad, a great fault, and very blameworthy, if he had neglected to set a watch over the king, whose business it was as a general; the words are expressed in a figure called "meiosis", in which less is said than was intended:
as the Lord liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the Lord's anointed; if a watch was set, and these had fallen asleep, and neglected their duty, or had deserted their post; which to do was a capital crime, and deserving of death; wherefore he does not say this of Abner, but of the watch:
and now see where the king's spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster; whi…
The Church Fathers
Envy persecuted David, and jealousy the Son of David. David was blocked up in the depths of the cave, and the Son of David in the depths of the underworld. It was imagined that David was guilty and despised, and that death was conquered and laid low. David cried out, "Where is your spear, O King?" and the Son of David, "Where is your victory, O Death?" Saul hurled his spear against David, and, although it did not strike him, the wall was witness to its blow. The crucifiers struck the Son of David with a lance, and although his power was not injured, his body was a witness to their blow. David was not struck, nor was the Son of David injured.
Now therefore see where the king's spear is, etc. See, they say, now where the scepter of your power is, which you have lost both on earth and ceased to hope for in heaven; where is the shadowy observance of the law, which you have thirsted for with all your heart, in which you boasted that the hands of your deeds could be washed from all stain of sins. All alike, because you have lost Christ, and the temple itself is gone. Indeed, all these things, even if not yet completed in the times of the apostles, were for the most part begun in and before their times and still occurring while they were alive, as anyone who reads the history of old will find. For finally, Herod the Great, and his sons, amid the countless calamities they inflicted on the Jews, also took away the holy garment from the priests, and never allowed them the permission to minister in it; they changed the order of the priesthood at their whim, tearing up the legal order. Pilate defiled the temple by secretly introducing images of Caesar during the night, following the impiety of Herod, who had first profaned it by setting up a golden eagle in it and commanded that the young men who tried to remove it for religious reasons be burned alive. Caius [Caligula] ordered that both the temple and all their synagogues be profaned with the sacrifices of the gentiles and filled with statues and images, and commanded that he himself be worshipped as a god there. As for the degradation of the kingdom, until it perished utterly, there is no end to speaking of it.
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
Bolster — The Hebrew word kebir, rendered “pillow” in 1 Sam. 19:13, 16, but in Revised Version marg. “quilt” or “network,” probably means some counterpane or veil intended to protect the head of the sleeper. A…
Cruse — A utensil; a flask or cup for holding water (1 Sam. 26:11, 12, 16; 1 Kings 19:6) or oil (1 Kings 17:12, 14, 16). In 1 Kings 14:3 the word there so rendered means properly a bottle, as in Jer. 19:1,…
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.…
Hachilah — The darksome hill, one of the peaks of the long ridge of el-Kolah, running out of the Ziph plateau, “on the south of Jeshimon” (i.e., of the “waste”), the district to which one looks down from the…
Citizens · .David — .David
Loyalty · .David — .David
Pillow · 1. A cushion — 1. A cushion
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 David went over to the other side, and placed himself upon the top of the mountain afar off (the space between them was great), and cried to the people," etc. Saul had probably encamped with his fighting men on the slope of the ill Hachilah, so that a valley separated him from the opposite hill, from which David had no doubt reconnoitred the camp and then gone down to it (Sa1 26:6), and to which he returned after the deed was accomplished. The statement that this mountain was far off, so that there was a great space between David and Saul, not only favours the accuracy of the historical tradition, but shows that David reckoned far less now upon any change in the state of Saul's mind tha…
