1 Samuel 26:21

Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David: for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
said	וַיֹּאמֶר֩ vai.yo.Mer	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Saul	שָׁא֨וּל sha.'Ul	H7586	Shaul · proper noun, a man's name
sinned	חָטָ֜אתִי cha.Ta.ti	H2398	properly · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
return	שׁ֣וּב shuv	H7725	to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
son	בְּנִֽי be.ni-	H1121	a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
David	דָוִ֗ד da.Vid	H1732	David · proper noun, a man's name
harm	אָרַ֤ע 'a.Ra'	H7489	properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular
soul	נַפְשִׁ֛י naf.Shi	H5315	properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
precious	יָקְרָ֥ה ya.ke.Rah	H3365	properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
eyes	בְּעֵינֶ֖יךָ be.'ei.Nei.kha	H5869	an eye (literally or figuratively) · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
day	הַיּ֣וֹם hai.Yom	H3117	a day (as the warm hours) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
fool	הִסְכַּ֛לְתִּי his.Kal.ti	H5528	to be silly · verb, hiphil perfect, 1st person common singular
erred	וָאֶשְׁגֶּ֖ה va.'esh.Geh	H7686	to stray (causatively · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
exceedingly	הַרְבֵּ֥ה har.Beh	H7235	to increase (in whatever respect) · verb, hiphil infinitive 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 15:24 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, a…
1 Samuel 24:17 And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.
Exodus 9:27 And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people ar…
1 Samuel 15:30 Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that…
Matthew 27:4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.
Numbers 22:34 And Balaam said unto the angel of the LORD, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it dis…
1 Samuel 18:30 Then the princes of the Philistines went forth: and it came to pass, after they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all…
1 Samuel 26:24 And, behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the LORD, and let him deliver m…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 26:21–end

Here is, I. Saul's penitent confession of his fault and folly in persecuting David and his promise to do so no more. This second instance of David's respect to him wrought more upon him than the former, and extorted from him better acknowledgements, Sa1 26:21. 1. He owns himself melted and quite overcome by David's kindness to him: "My soul was precious in thy eyes this day, which, I thought, had been odious!" 2. He acknowledges he has done very wrong to persecute him, that he has therein acted against God's law (I have sinned), and against his own interest (I have played the fool), in pursuing him as an enemy who would have been one of his best friends, if he could but have thought so. "Her…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 26:20

as when one doth hunt a partridge--People in the East, in hunting the partridge and other game birds, pursue them, till observing them becoming languid and fatigued after they have been put up two or three times, they rush upon the birds stealthily and knock them down with bludgeons [SHAW, Travels]. It was exactly in this manner that Saul was pursuing David. He drove him from time to time from his hiding-place, hoping to render him weary of his life, or obtain an opportunity of accomplishing his destruction.

Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 26:21

I have sinned - Perhaps the word חטאתי chatathi, "I have sinned," should be read, I have erred, or, have been mistaken. I have taken thee to be a very different man from what I find thee to be. Taken literally it was strictly true. He often purposed the spilling of David's blood; and thus, again and again, sinned against his life.

John Gill on 1 Samuel 26:21

Then said Saul, I have sinned,.... Which is more than he acknowledged before, and yet, it is to be feared he had no true sense of his sin, and real repentance for it; but, like Pharaoh, his guilty conscience for the present forced this confession from him; see Exodus 9:27, return, my son David: meaning to his own house, or rather to his palace, since he had disposed of his wife to another man: for I will no more do thee harm: or seek to do it by pursuing him from place to place, as he had done, which had given him a great deal of trouble and fatigue: because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day; and therefore spared, when he could have taken it away; which showed that his life was…

The Church Fathers

And Saul said: I have sinned, etc. To David, who proposed two causes for his exile and inquired from Saul what was true, Saul himself, conscious of his own mind, responded that it was not by the Lord's incitement, but by his own foolishness that he had persecuted him. But now he begs him to return home, assuring that he will suffer no further harm from him. And many Jews, having confessed their crimes, took care to recall to themselves by faith the Lord whom they had driven away by their infidelity.
— Bede, Commentary on Samuel

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.…
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…
Enemies · Should be: Overcome by kindness — Should be: Overcome by kindness

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).

1 Samuel 26:21

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 26:21–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 26:20

Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 26:21

John Gill on 1 Samuel 26:21

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

1 Samuel 26:21

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 26:21–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 26:20

Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 26:21

John Gill on 1 Samuel 26:21

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 26:21–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Samuel 26:21

Rashi on 1 Samuel 26:20