Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

But Samuel declared: “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal.

“Samuel hewed Agag--This cruel tyrant met the retribution of a righteous Providence. Never has it been unusual for great or official personages in the East to perform executions with their own hands.”

Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel?

“Saul was the people's choice, the fruit of their wayward and sinful desires for their own honor and aggrandizement.”

“How can I go?” Samuel asked. “Saul will hear of it and kill me!”

“How can I go?--This is another instance of human infirmity in Samuel. Since God had sent him on this mission, He would protect him in the execution.”

When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and said, “Surely here before the LORD is His anointed.”

“Samuel said, Surely the Lord's anointed is before him--Here Samuel, in consequence of taking his impressions from the external appearance, falls into the same error as formerly (1Sa 10:24).”

So Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.”

“Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David--In the East the command of a king is imperative; and Jesse, however reluctant and alarmed, had no alternative but to comply.”

And Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and array yourselves for battle?

“I defy the armies of Israel . . .; give me a man, that we may fight together--In cases of single combat, a warrior used to go out in front of his party, and advancing towards the opposite ranks, challenge someone to fight with him.”

So David got up early in the morning, left the flock with a keeper, loaded up, and set out as Jesse had instructed him.

“David left the sheep with a keeper--This is the only instance in which the hired shepherd is distinguished from the master or one of his family. trench--some feeble attempt at a rampart.”

David added, “The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

“It is probable that Saul's coat of mail, or corslet, was a loose shirt, otherwise it could not have fitted both a stripling and a man of the colossal stature of the king.”

When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him because he was just a boy, ruddy and handsome.

“This kind of abusive dialogue is common among the Arab combatants still. David's speech, however, presents a striking contrast to the usual strain of these invectives. It was full of pious trust, and to God he ascribed all the glory of the triumph he anticipated.”

As Saul had watched David going out to confront the Philistine, he said to Abner the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this young man?”

“Saul . . . said unto Abner . . . whose son is this youth?--A young man is more spoken of in many Eastern countries by his father's name than his own.”

Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.

“Then Jonathan and David made a covenant--Such covenants of brotherhood are frequent in the East. They are ratified by certain ceremonies, and in presence of witnesses, that the persons covenanting will be sworn brothers for life.”

And Jonathan removed the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, his sword, his bow, and his belt.

“Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David--To receive any part of the dress which had been worn by a sovereign, or his eldest son and heir, is deemed, in the East, the highest honor which can be…”

As the troops were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing…

“The Hebrew women, therefore, were merely paying the customary gratulations to David as the deliverer of their country, but they committed a great indiscretion by praising a subject at the expense of their sovereign.”

Therefore Saul sent David away and gave him command of a thousand men. David led the troops out to battle and back,

“Therefore Saul removed him from him--sent him away from the court, where the principal persons, including his own son, were spellbound with admiration of the young and pious warrior.”

Then Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage. Only be valiant for me and fight the LORD’s battles.”

“But the fickle and perfidious monarch broke his pledge at the time when the marriage was on the eve of being celebrated, and bestowed Merab on another man (see on 2Sa 21:8); an indignity as well as a wrong, which was calculated deeply to wound…”

Saul replied, “Say to David, ‘The king desires no other dowry but a hundred Philistine foreskins as revenge on his enemies.’”

“Saul's willingness to accept a public service had an air of liberality, while his choice of so difficult and hazardous a service seemed only putting a proper value on gaining the hand of a king's daughter.”

David and his men went out and killed two hundred Philistines. He brought their foreskins and presented them as payment in full to become the king’s son-in-law.

“David . . . slew of the Philistines two hundred men--The number was doubled, partly to show his respect and attachment to the princess, and partly to oblige Saul to the fulfilment of his pledge.”

he grew even more afraid of David. So from then on Saul was David’s enemy.

“Saul was yet the more afraid of David--because Providence had visibly favored him, by not only defeating the conspiracy against his life, but through his royal alliance paving his way to the throne.”

Then Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David; he has not sinned against you.

“As he was still susceptible of good and honest impressions, he bound himself by an oath to relinquish his hostile purpose; and thus, through the intervention of the noble-minded prince, a temporary reconciliation was effected, in consequence of which David was again employed in the…”

Then Michal took a household idol and laid it in the bed, placed some goat hair on its head, and covered it with a garment.

“And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed--"an image," literally, "the teraphim," and laid, not in the bed, but literally on the "divan"; and "the pillows," that is, the cushion, which usually lay at the back of the divan and was stuffed…”

So David ran away and escaped. And he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him.

“It was a retreat congenial to the mind of David; but Saul, having found out his asylum, sent three successive bodies of men to apprehend him.”

Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman!

“The principle on which it is founded seems to be, that to a genuine filial instinct it is a more inexpiable offense to hear the name or character of a parent traduced, than any personal reproach.”

Then Jonathan gave his equipment to the boy and said, “Go, take it back to the city.”

“Jonathan gave his artillery unto his lad--that is, his missive weapons. The French word artillerie, signifies "archery." The term is still used in England, in the designation of the "artillery company of London," the association of archers, though they have long disused bows and arrows.”

“The king has given me a mission,” David replied. “He told me no one is to know about the mission or charge.

“David probably supposed, like many other persons, that a lie is quite excusable which is told for the sole purpose of saving the speaker's life.”

The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod.

“The giant's sword was deposited in that safe custody as a memorial of the divine goodness in delivering Israel.”