Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
SAUL HATH SLAIN HIS THOUSANDS, AND DAVID HIS TEN THOUSANDS.—So when the Emperor Aurelian, who with his own hand had slain eight and forty Sarmatians, and on different days more than nine hundred and fifty, was acclaimed by boys dancing in military fashion on a feast day: “A thousand, a thousand, a thousand, a thousand, a thousand, a thousand we have beheaded; one man a thousand, a thousand, a thousand we have beheaded, a thousand, a thousand, a thousand; let him live who has slain a thousand, a thousand: no one has so much wine as he has shed blood.” So relates Theoclius, writer of the times of the Caesars, in Vopiscus on Aurelian. Vopiscus adds: The same (Aurelian) at Mainz, the tribune of the sixth legion, with “A thousand Franks, a thousand Sarmatians we have slain: a thousand, a thousand, a thousand, a thousand, a thousand Persians we seek.” Like to that is that from Libanus, my spouse, come: thou shalt be crowned from the top of Amana, from the top of Sanir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards.”
8. AND SAUL WAS EXCEEDING ANGRY,—both at the people so acclaiming, and at David acclaimed, and conceived against him envy and deadly hatred, especially because he saw that the people favoured David more than himself, and that David was directed by God as better, braver and more fortunate than himself; whence he conjectured that the kingdom was to be transferred to him, which Samuel had taken from himself. Wherefore, to secure the kingdom for himself and his posterity, he determined by all means to kill David as the rival of his kingdom; whence he says:
WHAT CAN HE HAVE MORE BUT THE KINGDOM?—as if to say: I see the grace of God, the favour of the people, the warlike virtue and fortune passed from me to David: what remains but that my kingdom be transferred to him? Now the desire of a kingdom is in kings most ardent; for the kingdom is all their dignity, glory, wealth and felicity. He who therefore aims at it or takes it away touches the apple of their eye, nay pierces their heart. This was the cause of Saul’s immense and perpetual hatred of David: and therefore the punishment, the companion of the fault, soon followed him. For again the evil spirit seized him, from whom David by the harp had freed him.
But from this hatred Saul ought to have been drawn back, says St. Chrysostom, in the homily On David and Saul: First, because the people said true things; for in truth David by slaying Goliath had struck down ten thousand of the enemy, and more. Secondly, because they gave part of the victory to Saul by saying: “Saul hath slain his thousands,” whereas it was wholly due to David. Thirdly, because David was innocent of this voice of the people; for he had not procured it, nor known that it would be. Fourthly, David’s modesty, by which he always showed himself obedient, subject and faithful to Saul in the wars.
9. NOT WITH RIGHT EYES (but sidelong, bitter, grim, envious) DID SAUL LOOK ON DAVID FROM THAT DAY AND FORWARD.
10. AND THE DAY AFTER THE EVIL SPIRIT FROM GOD CAME UPON SAUL, AND HE PROPHESIED,—in the manner in which the possessed, epileptics, madmen and ravished persons are said to prophesy and divine; because, namely, they do not speak of themselves, but rather mania and fury speak through them, namely the devil who seizes and agitates them; and because such men sometimes disclose and reveal certain hidden and secret things to man (but known to the demon). So Theodoret, Procopius, Abulensis and the Author of the Questions in St. Jerome, who interprets “prophesied” as, reported foreign things; the Chaldee, raved; Vatablus, played the fool, that is, spoke insane and foolish things, as madmen and furious persons do. It is a catachresis: for because prophets often seemed to the people to be mad, and to do or say deranged and absurd things, hence also madmen and energumens, who are out of their mind, and are driven by furies or demons, when they do and say insane and deranged things, are said to prophesy; nay the Turks hold epileptics and lunatics as true prophets and venerate them, because Mahomet their prophet, suffering from epilepsy, when he raved, seized by it, to make this disease credited among his people, said that he was then seized by the divine Spirit, and received revelations from it and prophesied. “He prophesied,” therefore, Saul, that is, he raved, was frenzied, did and said insane things. Nay Plato in the Timaeus, and Plutarch, in the book On Oracles, call enthusiasts, who, struck by an evil spirit, say and do wonderful things, Prophets: and Cicero, in the oration for Sextius, said “to prophesy and to rave.” So Theodoret. “False prophets,” he says, “agitated by an evil spirit are like Corybantes stirred by frenzy. This also Saul suffered, vexed by the demon.” So Seneca says in the Medea:
Uncertain, as an enthusiast (that is, inspired by the spirit of God) her course carried her, when now a Maenad rages with the god received.
And Virgil, book 6 of the Aeneid, of the Sibyl:
The prophetess raves, he says, if she can shake the great god from her breast; so much the more does he weary her rabid mouth, taming her wild heart, and shapes her by pressing.
Moreover Biblical Philo narrates that Saul truly prophesied these things of himself from the evil spirit. “The Spirit,” he says, “remained in Saul, and he prophesied, saying: Why art thou deceived, Saul? or whom persecutest thou in vain? The time of thy kingdom is fulfilled. Go to thy place; for thou shalt die, and David shall reign. Shall not thou and thy son die together, and then David shall appear in the kingdom.” And after this he adds: “And Saul departed, and knew not what he had prophesied.”
Morally, learn here that envy is a diabolical crime, and that the envious are possessed and tormented by the devil, as happened to Saul. For envy is proper to the devil; whence “by the envy of the devil death entered into the world,” Wisdom chap. 2.
AND DAVID PLAYED WITH HIS HAND,—striking psaltery or harp, to drive the evil spirit from Saul; but in vain, because Saul persisting in his envy and hatred of David, the evil spirit likewise persisted in him.
AND SAUL HELD A SPEAR,—which he used in wars, and which, as the ensign of his kingdom, he carried about with him everywhere, or had carried about, as elsewhere a sword is carried before kings.
11. AND THREW IT, THINKING TO NAIL DAVID TO THE WALL.—See here how envy made Saul ungrateful, savage and barbarous toward David, to whom he owed life and kingdom by the slaying of Goliath and by his harping. Hear St. Chrysostom, in the homily On David and Saul: “Through him the king conquered and obtained rule, and what thanks he returned! For if anyone should weigh the greatness of his famous deeds, even if the king had taken the crown from his own head and set it on David’s, he would never have repaid an equal favour, but would have owed a greater. For David gave him both life and kingdom; but Saul was only about to yield the kingdom to David.”
Allegorically, as David was sought by the spear of Saul, so Christ on the cross was sought by the spear of the soldier; but David fled unhurt; Christ, however, pierced by it, went on to his kingdom. So Rupert, book 2 on the books of Kings, chap. 7: “For this one indeed,” he says, “suffering in figure, not pierced, escaped by flight; but He whose passions are prefigured was indeed pierced with lance and nails, but escaped by rising again.”
This is the first persecution of Saul against David, which many others, but chiefly six, followed, which Rupert here recounts in this order, book 2, chap. 6: “The first,” he says, “is where now, Saul hurling the spear to pin him to the wall, he turned aside and fled. The second, where after he had struck the Philistines with a great slaughter, Saul tried to pin him as he played the harp likewise; and he turning aside, the spear was carried in an empty stroke into the wall. The third, where, when David had fled and come to Achis king of Geth, Saul on account of him slew the priests of the Lord. The fourth, where the Ziphites announced, saying: Behold David lieth hid with us, and Saul arose, and pursued David into the desert of Maon. And when David despaired of being able to escape, a messenger came to Saul, saying: Make haste and come, for the Philistines have poured themselves upon the land. The fifth, in the desert of Engaddi, where when Saul had entered a cave to ease nature, David arose and silently cut off the skirt of his robe. The sixth, where again the Ziphites announced, saying: Behold David is hidden in the hill of Hachila, and David arose, and went down into the desert of Ziph, where when Abisai said to him as Saul slept: God hath shut up thy enemy this day into thy hands. Now therefore I will run him through with a spear to the ground once, and there shall be no need of a second. David said: Kill him not. And henceforward may the Lord be merciful to me, that I put not forth my hand against the Lord’s anointed. Now therefore take the spear which is at his head, and the cup of water, etc. The seventh, which is the last, where David said in his heart: One day or other I shall fall into the hands of Saul. Is it not better that I flee, and be saved in the land of the Philistines, and that Saul despair, and cease to seek me in all the coasts of Israel? I will flee therefore from his hands. And David arose, and went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, to Achis the son of Maoch king of Geth.”