John Wesley

“What does he look like?” asked Saul. “An old man is coming up,” she replied. “And he is wearing a robe.”

“A mantle - The usual habit of prophets, and particularly of Samuel, chap. xv, 27. If it was not Samuel, but an other spirit in his shape, it is not true, that Saul perceived it was Samuel.”

Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” “I am deeply distressed,” replied Saul.

“Called Samuel - Happy had it been, if he had called Samuel sooner, or rather the God of Samuel! It was now too late: destruction was at hand and God had determined, it should not be stayed.”

Immediately Saul fell flat on the ground, terrified by the words of Samuel. And his strength was gone, because he had not eaten anything all that day and night.

“Fell - As if the Archers of the Philistines had already hit him, and there was no strength in him, to bear up against these heavy tidings: especially, as we cannot doubt, but all his past sins were now brought to his remembrance and what…”

So Achish summoned David and told him, “As surely as the LORD lives, you have been upright in my sight, and it seems right that you should march in and…

“The princes - The Lords of the other eminent cities, who were confederate with him in this expedition. These days or years - That is, did I say days? He hath now been with me a full year and four months, chap.”

Achish replied, “I know that you are as pleasing in my sight as an angel of God.

“Angel of God - In whom nothing is blame-worthy. The Heathens acknowledged good spirits, which also they worshipped as an inferior sort of deities, who were messengers and ministers to the supreme God;”

So David and his men got up early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

“Rose up early - David did not then know, how necessary this was, for the relief of his own city. But God knew it well, and sent him thither accordingly.”

And David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of every man grieved for his sons and daughters.

“Encouraged himself - That is, in this that the all-wise, and all-powerful Lord, was his God by covenant and special promise, and fatherly affection, as he had shewed himself to be in the whole course of his providence towards him.”

Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought it to him,

“The ephod - And put it upon thyself, that thou mayst inquire of God according to his ordinance, David was sensible of his former error in neglecting to ask counsel of God by the ephod, when he came to Achish, and when he went out…”

and David inquired of the LORD: “Should I pursue these raiders? Will I overtake them?” “Pursue them,” the LORD replied, “for you will surely overtake them and rescue the captives.”

“He answered - Before, God answered more slowly and gradually, chap. xxiii, 11, 12, but now he answers speedily, and fully at once, because the business required haste.”

because two hundred men were too exhausted to cross the brook. But David and four hundred men continued in pursuit.

“Four hundred - A small number for such an attempt: but David was strong in faith, giving God the glory of his power and faithfulness.”

a piece of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins. So he ate and was revived, for he had not had any food or water for three days and…

“Three days and nights - One whole day and part of two others, as appears from the next verse, where he saith, three days ago I fell sick, but in the Hebrew it is, this is the third day since I fell sick.”

Then David asked him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” “I am an Egyptian,” he replied, “the slave of an Amalekite.

“Egypt - God by his providence so ordering it, that he was not one of that cursed race of the Amalekites, who were to be utterly destroyed, but an Egyptian, who might be spared.”

We raided the Negev of the Cherethites, the territory of Judah, and the Negev of Caleb, and we burned down Ziklag.”

“Cherethites - That is, the Philistines. Caleb - This is added by way of explication: that part of the south of Judah which belongs to Caleb's posterity.”

And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man escaped, except four hundred young men who fled, riding off on camels.

“Twilight - The word signifies both the morning and evening twilight. But the latter seems here intended, partly because their eating, and drinking, and dancing, was more proper work for the evening, than the morning; and partly, because the evening was more convenient for David…”

Who will listen to your proposal? The share of the one who went to battle will match the share of the one who stayed with the supplies.

“Part alike - A prudent and equitable constitution, and therefore practiced by the Romans, as Polybius and others note.”

The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

“There was also a special providence of God, in taking away Jonathan, (who of all Saul's sons, seems to have been the fairest for the crown) for preventing divisions, which might have happened amongst the people concerning the successor: David's way to the crown being…”

They cut off Saul’s head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among…

“Cut off his head - As the Israelites did by Goliath, and fastened it in the temple of Dagon, 1 Chron. x, 10. Idols - To give them the glory of this victory.”

Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.

“But you must not understand this word of fasting strictly, as if they eat nothing for seven whole days; but in a more large sense, as it is used both in sacred and profane writers; that they did eat but little, and that but mean…”