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1 Samuel 26:7

in 1 Samuel 26

That night David and Abishai came to the troops, and Saul was lying there asleep in the inner circle of the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. And Abner and the troops were lying around him.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people lay round about him.

KJV

So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster: but Abner and the people lay round about him.

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This verse in 1 Samuel 26

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Basil of Caesarea

CONCERNING ENVY · Written before 379.

If Saul had been asked the reason for his hostility, he would have been compelled to admit that it was the favors received from David's hand. Moreover, even though Saul had been found asleep by David during the very time that the latter was being pursued, and although Saul lay, an easy victim, before his enemy, his life was again spared by that just man, for he refrained from doing him violence.

This site's exposition

Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp

on 1 Samuel 26:6-8

David asks who will go down with him into the camp, and Abishai, his sister's son and Joab's brother, answers at once. Once inside, Abishai reads the sleeping king and the spear at his head as a verdict already handed down, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand, and offers to end it in one stroke and never need a second. His words echo the exact language David's own men used in the cave at Engedi in chapter 24, and David's answer will echo his own from that same chapter.

This site's exposition

his spear stuck in the ground by his head

Saul had thrown his spear at David at 18:11 and 19:10, and now it stands in the ground within David's reach. Basil of Caesarea marks how easy a victim the sleeping king made for David. John Gill adds that David took only Abishai, for secrecy.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on Samuel · Written before 735.

proposed

Therefore, David and Abisai came to the people by night, etc. The Lord and his disciples came to visit the people, who were sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, and found his kingdom entirely depressed in kinship, and torpid with blind stupor, …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

So David and Abishai came to the people by night,.... Josephus (l) wrongly says, that he took with him both Abishai and Ahimelech; he chose to have but one, for the greater secrecy.

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

Came - That is, to Saul's host. It might seem a bold and strange attempt; but it may be considered: 1. That David had a particular assurance that God would preserve him to the kingdom.

The words behind it

19 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיָּבֹא֩and he went

    vaiyavo'H935 →2568 times

  • דָוִ֨דDavid

    davidH1732 →999 times

  • וַאֲבִישַׁ֥י׀and Abishai

    vaavishaiH52 →25 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • הָעָם֮the people

    haamH5971 →1873 times

  • לַיְלָה֒night

    laylahH3915 →233 times

  • וְהִנֵּ֣הand there!

    vehinehH2009 →843 times

  • שָׁא֗וּלSaul

    shaulH7586 →402 times

  • שֹׁכֵ֤ב[was] lying

    shokhevH7901 →212 times

  • יָשֵׁן֙sleeping

    yashenH3463 →

  • בַּמַּעְגָּ֔לin the camp

    bama'galH4570 →16 times

  • וַחֲנִית֥וֹand spear his

    vachanitoH2595 →47 times

  • מְעוּכָֽה־[was] thrust

    meukhah-H4600 →

  • בָאָ֖רֶץin the ground

    vaaretzH776 →2504 times

  • מְרַאֲשֹׁתָ֑יו[the] place of head his

    meraashotovH4763 →8 times

  • וְאַבְנֵ֣רand Abner

    veavnerH74 →63 times

  • וְהָעָ֔םand the people

    vehaamH5971 →1873 times

  • שֹׁכְבִ֖ים[were] lying

    shokhevimH7901 →212 times

  • סְבִיבֹתָֽיו׃ סaround him

    sevivotovH5439 →336 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

About 1 Samuel

David Slays Goliath, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
David Slays Goliath, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
1 Samuel: the study guide →Read 1 Samuel 26 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Basil of Caesarea, CONCERNING ENVY; Bede, Commentary on Samuel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in 1 Samuel 26 →