Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
Chapter Twenty-four. Synopsis of the Chapter
David flees to the desert of Engaddi: Saul pursues him; and while Saul relieves himself in a cave, David, lying hid in it, cuts off the edge of his cloak. Soon, verse 9, showing it to Saul, he complains that Saul unjustly persecutes him, an innocent man: for if he had wished to harm him, he could have killed him in the cave. Wherefore, verse 17, Saul, compunct and weeping, says: Thou art more just than I; and he declares that David shall reign after him: wherefore he exacts an oath from him that he will not destroy his seed, and so sends him away free.
1. David therefore went up from thence, and dwelt in strong places of Engaddi. 2. And when Saul was returned from pursuing the Philistines, they told him, saying: Behold David is in the desert of Engaddi. 3. And Saul taking three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, went out to seek David and his men, even upon the most craggy rocks, which are accessible only to wild goats. 4. And he came to the sheepfolds which were in his way; and there was a cave, into which Saul went to ease nature; and David and his men lay hid in the inner part of the cave. 5. And the servants of David said to him: Behold the day of which the Lord said to thee: I will deliver thy enemy into thy hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good in thy eyes. Then David arose, and secretly cut off the hem of Saul’s robe. 6. After this David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off the hem of Saul’s robe. 7. And he said to his men: The Lord be merciful to me, that I may do no such thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, as to lay my hand upon him, because he is the Lord’s anointed. 8. And David stopped his men with his words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul; but Saul, rising out of the cave, went on his way. 9. And David also arose after him; and going out of the cave, cried after Saul, saying: My lord the king. And Saul looked behind him: and David bowing himself with his face to the earth, adored, 10. and said to Saul: Why dost thou hear the words of men that say: David seeketh thy hurt? 11. Behold this day thy eyes have seen that the Lord hath delivered thee into my hand in the cave: and I had a thought to kill thee, but my eye hath spared thee; for I said: I will not put out my hand against my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed. 12. Moreover, my father, see and know the hem of thy robe in my hand; for when I cut off the skirt of thy robe, I would not put forth my hand against thee: understand and see that there is no evil in my hand, nor iniquity, neither have I sinned against thee; but thou liest in wait for my life to take it away. 13. The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord revenge me of thee; but my hand shall not be upon thee. 14. As also it is said in the old proverb: Out of the wicked shall wickedness come forth; but my hand shall not be upon thee. 15. Whom dost thou pursue, O king of Israel? whom dost thou pursue? a dead dog, and a flea. 16. The Lord be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and judge my cause, and deliver me out of thy hand. 17. And when David had made an end of speaking these words to Saul, Saul said: Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept; 18. and he said to David: Thou art more just than I; for thou hast done good to me, and I have rewarded thee with evil. 19. And thou hast showed this day what good things thou hast done to me, how the Lord delivered me into thy hand, and thou hast not killed me. 20. For who, when he hath found his enemy, will let him go on in a good way? But the Lord reward thee for this good turn, for what thou hast done to me this day. 21. And now, because I know that thou shalt surely be king, and have the kingdom of Israel in thy hand; 22. swear to me by the Lord, that thou wilt not destroy my seed after me, nor take away my name out of my father’s house. 23. And David swore to Saul. So Saul went to his house; and David and his men went up to more secure places.
3. UPON THE MOST CRAGGY ROCKS, WHICH ARE ACCESSIBLE ONLY TO WILD GOATS.—The ibex is a kind of wild goat, which flees to precipitous rocks: whence Maximilian the emperor, hunting such, was led into pathless rocks, and, being unable to come down, found a way down, as is believed, by the guidance of an Angel; and therefore ordered a cross to be set up in that place as an everlasting monument. This cross stands near Innsbruck, where it was shown to me when I was going to Rome. Hear Pliny, book 8, chapter 53: “Goats are changed into very many kinds. There are goats, there are rock-goats, there are ibexes of wonderful swiftness, though with head burdened by huge horns like sword-sheaths; on these they balance themselves, so that, whirled as by some engine, they seek chiefly on the rocks to leap from one mountain to another, and by rebounding spring wherever they please.”
4. AND HE CAME TO THE SHEEPFOLDS WHICH WERE IN HIS WAY,—that is, to one making his way, travelling, going along the road. Whence the Hebrew, the Chaldee and the Septuagint have, which were in the way.
AND DAVID AND HIS MEN LAY HID IN THE INNER PART OF THE CAVE:—“I will cry,” says David, “to God the most high, to God who hath done good to me,” Psalm 56:3. The Chaldee translates, to God who summoned a spider to weave a web at the mouth of the cave for me; as if interpreting that David, fleeing Saul, hid himself in a cave, the entrance of which God so covered with the sudden webs of spiders that Saul, suspecting no hiding-place there, passed by in vain. As also once in the law of grace God hid the martyr Felix in a narrow place when he was absolutely unwilling to be killed, with the web of spiders divinely spread, from the pursuing enemies:
And the iron force yielded to the airy thread, says St. Paulinus, in the Natalis 5 of Felix, who also fittingly concludes:
So where Christ is with us, even a spider makes a wall.
But to whom Christ is absent, even a wall becomes a spider’s.
But the credit of this spider’s web covering David’s cave must rest with the Chaldee. For to this web the Rabbis attach their inventions about a fly and a madman, which Abulensis, Question 6, relates and refutes as fabulous.
5. BEHOLD THE DAY OF WHICH THE LORD SAID TO THEE: I WILL DELIVER THY ENEMY INTO THY HAND.—Where and when God spoke to him, Scripture nowhere says. Some think God said it to David through Gad the prophet, others through Nathan, others through Samuel, others think that it was revealed to David himself by God because of his patience, that he might be encouraged to greater struggles. Abulensis thinks it was said by Nathan; Serarius by Gad, Sanchez by Samuel.
THEN DAVID AROSE AND SECRETLY CUT OFF THE HEM OF SAUL’S ROBE.—Abulensis thinks that lightness was given by God to David, and deafness to Saul, so that he should not hear David approaching and cutting. Abulensis adds that David arose and went to Saul with the intention of killing him, not of merely cutting off the hem of his robe; but that in this cutting God changed his heart, so that he grieved and repented of that will, though not fully deliberate, and that this is signified in those words: “David’s heart struck him.” But Scripture immediately adds in the same place, “because he had cut off the hem of his robe.” David therefore repented of this cutting, not of the will to kill Saul, which he never absolutely had. For he always detested it; nay, in chapter 26, verses 10 and 11, David swears that he will never stretch forth his hand against Saul all his life. Wherefore this was the order of events: When his companions urged David to kill Saul, whom he had in his hand, he felt indeed the first movements and the inclination of the irascible appetite toward killing him; but by the rational appetite and deliberate will he did not consent to them. He rose therefore and went to Saul, not with a determined mind to kill him or to cut off the hem of his robe, but in doubt of mind on the way, to deliberate and take counsel what he would do when he came to Saul; and when he came, seeing the hem of the robe, he cut it off as a light matter and the first at hand. But at once his conscience bit him for having cut off the hem of his king’s robe; wherefore, opening the eyes of his mind with God’s enlightenment, and seeing how shameful it would be to kill the king, he firmly resolved neither to kill him nor to hurt him in anything else; whence he strongly resisted his companions who wished to kill Saul, and wholly restrained them from slaughter and wound. Hence, verse 11, he says he thought indeed to kill him, but not that he had determined or decreed it: for “I thought” signifies simple thought and inclination of the sensitive appetite, such as the temptation of anger and revenge suggests to us, before its examination and deliberate consent.