1 Samuel18chapter 18

1 Samuel 18:10

“The evil spirit from God - See on 1Sa 16:14 (note), etc. He prophesied in the midst of the house - He was beside himself; made prayers, supplications, and incoherent imprecations: “God preserve my life,” “Destroy my enemies,” or such like prayers, might frequently escape from him in his agitated state. The Arabic intimates that he was actually possessed by an evil spirit, and that through it he uttered a sort of demoniacal predictions.”

1 Samuel 18:10

“The very next day after he conceived envy at David, the evil spirit was permitted by God to seize him again. Such is the fruit of envy and uncharitableness. Prophesied - That is, he used uncouth gestures, and signs, as the prophets often did.”

1 Samuel 18:10-11

“No life is thought too precious to be sacrificed to malice. If a grateful sense of the great service David had done to the public could not assuage Saul's fury, yet one would think he should have allowed himself to consider the kindness David was now doing him, in relieving him, as no one else could, against the worst of troubles.”

1 Samuel 18:11

“Saul cast the javelin - The javelin or spear was the emblem of regal authority; kings always had it at hand, and in ancient monuments they are always represented with it. In ancient times, says Justin, kings used a spear instead of a diadem: Per ea tempora reges hastas pro diademate habebant, Hist. lib. xliii. And as spears were the emblems of supreme power, hence they were reputed as attributes of the Divinity, and were worshipped as representatives of the gods.”

1 Samuel 18:12

“Perhaps he pretended to be afraid that David would do himself mischief, to force his way to the crown. Those that design ill against others are commonly willing to have it thought that others design ill against them.”

1 Samuel 18:13

“Saul therefore removed him from himself, etc. Just as those who are in charge of fifty soldiers are called centurions; so they are called chiliarchs in Greek, who are in charge of a thousand soldiers, whom the Latin custom delights in calling tribunes rather than …”

1 Samuel 18:13

“Made him his captain - This was under pretense of doing him honor, when it was in effect only to rid himself of the object of his envy.”

1 Samuel 18:13

“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. made him captain over a thousand--gave him a military commission, which was intended to be an honorable exile.”

1 Samuel 18:14

“And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways,.... Both in the court and in the camp, in whatsoever service he was employed; or "prospered" (u), as the word also signifies; for, generally speaking, those that behave wisely succeed well; in this he was a type of Christ, Isa 52:13; the reason of it follows: and the Lord was with him; from whom he had his wisdom and success; the Targum is,"the Word of the Lord was for his help.'' (u) משכיל "prospere admodum res gerebat", Vatablus; "secundabatur", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so the Targum and Jarchi.”

1 Samuel 18:14

“2 , where it is David's promise, I will behave myself wisely; and that promise he here performed; and it is his prayer, O, when wilt thou come unto me? And that prayer God here answered: The Lord was with him.”

1 Samuel 18:16

“And all Israel and Judah loved David,.... The verb is singular, and denotes that everyone of them loved him in all the tribes of Israel, as well as in Judah his own tribe; in such general esteem was he, and so much had he got the hearts and affections of the people: because he went out and came in before them; the people, as in 1Sa 18:13; so the Septuagint version, in which, according to the Vatican copy, the verses 1Sa 18:17 are wanting.”

1 Samuel 18:17

“Saul had not hitherto fulfilled the promise of which David had heard (marginal reference); nor was it unnatural that Saul should delay to do so, until the shepherd’s boy had risen to a higher rank.”

1 Samuel 18:17

“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 the feelings and provoke the resentment of David. Perhaps it was intended to do so, that advantage might be taken of his indiscretion.”

1 Samuel 18:18

“As [David] looks on the greatness of God's lovingkindness, he is struck with amazement. He considers himself with all his soul to be unworthy of the vision of such goodness and does not wish to look closely at them or fully understand them. He is …”

1 Samuel 18:18

“What is my life - How little is my life worth, that by the exposing of that to some hazard, I should purchase a king's daughter! In these expressions David sheweth not only his humility, but also his wisdom, in discovering so deep a sense of his own meanness, that Saul might see how far he was from aspiring at the kingdom.”

1 Samuel 18:19

“Adriel - The son of Bar-zillai, as he is called, 2 Sam. xxi, 8. This was an act of great injustice; and accordingly this marriage was accursed by God, and the children begotten in it, were, by God's appointment cut off, 2 Sam. xxi, 8, 9.”

1 Samuel 18:19

“This was as great an affront as he could possibly put upon him, and touched him both in his honour and in his love. He therefore thought David's resentment of it would break out in some indecency or other, in word or deed, which might give him an advantage against him to take him off by the course of law.”

1 Samuel 18:21

“And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him,.... The cause and occasion of his fall and ruin, by means of what he should propose to him as the condition of marriage; but instead of proving a snare to him, as he hoped, she was the means of his deliverance, when Saul sent messengers to slay him, 1Sa 19:11, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him; provoked by what he should put him upon doing to them.”

1 Samuel 18:21

“In the one of the twain - Some prefer “the second time” Job 33:14. The first contract had been broken by giving Merab to Adriel.”

1 Samuel 18:23

“A poor man and lightly esteemed - Compare Psa 119:141. Poor, and therefore unable to pay a sufficient dowry. See 1Sa 18:25.”

1 Samuel 18:23

“Though his king was but an upstart, in his original as mean as himself, in his management no better than he should be, yet, being a crowned head, he speaks of him and the royal family with all due respect. Note, Religion is so far from teaching us to be rude and unmannerly that it does not allow us to be so. We must render honour to whom honour is due.”

1 Samuel 18:25

“An hundred foreskins - This is merely another expression of the spirit which led to the constant application of the epithet uncircumcised to the Philistines 1Sa 14:6.”

1 Samuel 18:25

“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. But he covered unprincipled malice against David under this proposal, which exhibited a zeal for God and the covenant of circumcision.”

1 Samuel 18:26

“The days were not expired - David was so rapid in his attack upon the Philistines that he was able to bring the required dowry within the time, and to receive his wife (Michal), before the time had expired within which he was to receive Merab.”

1 Samuel 18:27

“Slew - two hundred men - The Septuagint has only one hundred men. Saul covenanted with David for a hundred; and David himself says, 2Sa 3:14, that he espoused Michal for a hundred: hence it is likely that one hundred is the true reading.”

1 Samuel 18:27

“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.”

1 Samuel 18:27

“David was then pleased with the thoughts of being the king's son-in-law when he found the honour set at this high price, being more solicitous how to merit it than how to obtain it; nor could he wear it with satisfaction till he had won it. Even after he was married he continued his good services to Israel.”

1 Samuel 18:29

“And Saul was yet the more afraid of David,.... Because the Lord was with him, and his wife loved him; so that he feared he should never be able to accomplish his designs, and that this marriage, which he intended as the means of his ruin, would pave the way for his ascending the throne: and Saul became David's enemy continually; was every day giving fresh evidence of his enmity against him; before it was by fits, and at certain times, there were some intervals; but now enmity was rooted and habituated, and was constant and continually showing itself.”

1 Samuel 18:29

“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.”

1 Samuel 18:29

“Men think the way to be feared is to hector and threaten, which makes them feared by fools only, but despised by the wise and good; whereas the way to be both feared and loved, feared by those to whom we would wish to be a terror and loved by those to whom we would wish to be a delight, is to behave ourselves wisely.”

1 Samuel 18:30

“Then the princes of the Philistines went forth - Probably to avenge themselves on David and the Israelites: but of this war we know no more than that David was more skillful and successful in it than any of the other officers of Saul. His military skill was greater, and his success was proportionate to his skill and courage; hence it is said, he behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul.”

1 Samuel 18:30

“Observe how God brought good to David out of Saul's project against him. Saul gave him his daughter to be a snare to him, but in this respect that marriage was a kindness to him, that his being Saul's son-in-law made his succeeding him much the less invidious, especially when so many of his sons were slain with him, ch. xxxi.”