1 Samuel 26:22

And David answered and said, Behold the king’s spear! and let one of the young men come over and fetch it.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
David	דָּוִד֙ da.Vid	H1732	David · proper noun, a man's name
answered	וַיַּ֤עַן vai.Ya.'an	H6030	properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
said	וַיֹּ֔אמֶר vai.Yo.mer	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
king’s	הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ ha.Me.lekh	H4428	a king · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
spear	חֲנִ֣ית ha.cha.nit	H2595	a lance (for thrusting · noun, common feminine singular construct
one	אֶחָ֥ד 'e.Chad	H259	properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
men	מֵֽהַנְּעָרִ֖ים me.ha.ne.'a.Rim	H5288	(concretely) a boy (as active) · preposition + definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
over	וְיַעֲבֹ֛ר ve.ya.'a.Vor	H5674	to cross over · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular
fetch	וְיִקָּחֶֽהָ ve.yi.ka.Che.ha	H3947	to take (in the widest variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine 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).

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 26:22

And David answered and said, behold the king's spear!.... And which perhaps was his sceptre, and which David therefore would not keep, lest it should be thought or said that he had deprived him of an ensign of his royalty, and be interpreted as a token of his design to seize his crown and throne: and let one of the young men come over and fetch it; for notwithstanding the acknowledgment Saul had made of his sin and folly, David did not choose to carry the spear to him; not caring to trust him, and put himself into his hands, lest the evil spirit should return and come upon him suddenly, and alter his disposition and carriage; nor would he send any of his men with it, whose lives were dear t…

The Church Fathers

And David answered and said: Behold, one of the king's servants shall pass over and take it, etc. The Lord, responding through His teachers to the repentant Jews and those who have turned from the crime of persecution, said: Behold, the power of your kingdom rests with me; let the unity of the faithful pass into the unbelieving hearts of the proud, and let the spiritual weapons of the heavenly kingdom promised to you long ago be brought back swiftly. This was fulfilled in no small part in the times of the apostles, and remains to be fully completed in the times of Elijah, who preached and brought back the hearts of the fathers to the children. He says nothing about taking the cup of water, because the Lord does not teach that the shadow of the law should continue to be observed. The title of Psalm 53 remembers the betrayal of the Ziphites, which seems to refer more to an earlier betrayal, whereas there it is said according to the title: Is not David hidden among us? But here it is different: Behold, David is hidden in the hill of Achilah.
— 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…
Nabal — Foolish, a descendant of Caleb who dwelt at Maon (1 Sam. 25), the modern Main, 7 miles south-east of Hebron. He was “very great, and he had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats...but the man was churlish and…

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 26:22

Word by word — the Hebrew

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 26:22

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

1 Samuel 26:22

Word by word — the Hebrew

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 26:22

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