And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not; for who can stretch forth his hand against Jehovah's anointed, and be guiltless?
David stands over a sleeping king, and his companion Abishai offers to end the long chase with one blow. David refuses, and his reason is a title — "the LORD's anointed" — behind a question with only one answer.
Saul and his whole camp lay asleep, and Abishai took that as God handing over an enemy. But God had His own reason for sending that sleep.
The deep sleep that God had caused to fall on Saul and on all the camp might have given birth to the thought of taking advantage of such a moment. This was not so. God had sent this sleep to preserve His beloved and not to give him an occasion to avenge himself. God would save him in view of the work of grace He would call him to do toward Saul. Grace is reserved for David; judgment is reserved for the Lord.
Abishai offers to do the killing himself, so David's own hand stays clean.
"Now let me strike him," says he, "please, with the spear, pinning him to the ground at once, and I will not strike him a second time."... It is clear therefore that David has grown in the sense of the grace of God. Not only will he not do the deed himself, but he will not allow it in another of his company.
Abishai took the correction:
Abishai heeded the word and was kept back from this sin, though he thought God had delivered David's enemy into his hand. We may be tested today in a similar way, but the word of the Lord will preserve us.
By now Saul deserved nothing from David. Yet David's reason never touches Saul's conduct.
Again David refuses outright to stain his hands with the blood of "the Lord's anointed." Who could be guiltless, he says, who did this? This is a marked and beautiful trait in David's character: respect for authority that God has set up. Such respect looks not at the character of the man who holds the office, but at the position he occupies. Meanwhile he reminds Abishai that God will one day remove Saul. God may strike him, or his end may come in the ordinary way, or he may fall in battle. This is enough for him. He will not take his case out of God's hands.
David's question treats the act as guilt, however deserved the punishment looks. His refusal also ruined a plan that would have worked either way.
His follower advises the slaying of Saul. This would have been sin. He would not avenge himself. Saul might be a wicked man, but he was the LORD's anointed, and David would not take the matter into his own hands. "The LORD lives," he says, and that is enough for David... Faith committed it to God. "Beloved, never avenge yourselves." But see how plainly Satan's craft is defeated! Whether Saul killed David, or David killed Saul, either way would have suited Satan's purpose and hindered God's purpose.
The danger here came from a friend, not from Saul.
Saul is on the verge of judgment, yet to David he remains the Lord's anointed until God gives the final signal... Abishai, David's companion, sets a trap for him here without realising it himself. He probably does it out of the very love he has for his master. Knowing that David will not avenge himself, Abishai offers to avenge him. If that had happened, David's gracious character as the rejected king would have been completely compromised once again. This is one of Satan's main aims with believers. If he can get us to take our own interests in hand, to avenge ourselves, to demand our rights in this world, he makes us fall from faith... This principle stayed with David until just after Saul's death, when he had the man who claimed to have killed the king struck down, asking how he was not afraid to stretch out his hand to destroy the Lord's anointed (2 Samuel 1:14). So to his last breath Saul stayed untouchable for David, as the Lord's anointed.
- Opportunity. The sleep God sent over the camp protected David. It was not permission to strike. An open door is not a command to walk through it.
- Guilt. David treats killing Saul as sin, not overdue justice. His question — "who can put out his hand against the LORD's anointed and be guiltless?" — has only one answer.
- Office. David's reason ignores what Saul is like. It rests on the position Saul holds. Respect for authority looks at the office, not the man.
- Restraint. David has grown in grace, so he stops Abishai as well as himself. Abishai listens, and is kept from a sin he had called God's doing.
- Trust. God will strike Saul, or his day will come, or he will fall in battle. David leaves the timing to God and will not take his case out of His hands.
And David said, [As] Jehovah liveth, Jehovah will surely smite him; either his day shall come to die, or he shall descend into battle and perish.
David is standing over the sleeping Saul, and his companion Abishai has just told him that God has handed the enemy over. David refuses, and his answer raises the question this verse turns on: who sets the time for judgment, you or God?
(Some writers quoted below use older wording, such as "Jehovah" where the ESV reads "the LORD.")
David's refusal does not start with an argument. It starts with the living God, and one writer shows why that was enough.
Saul might be a wicked man, but he was Jehovah's anointed, and David would not take the matter into his own hand. "Jehovah lives," he says, and that is enough for David. "Jehovah shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go down into battle and perish." Would it not have been a lasting reproach that he had killed the king while he slept? Faith committed it to God.
David lists three ways Saul might die. Each one leaves the timing with God.
He assures Abishai that as surely as the Lord lives, they could depend on the Lord to remove Saul at His own time. It might be by a direct stroke from the Lord (as with Nabal), by an ordinary natural death, or by death in warfare.
Saul was already close to judgment. That did not make him fair game.
Saul, although on the verge of judgment, remains the Lord's anointed to David as long as God has not given the final signal.
Saul had hunted David for years. David's restraint has nothing to do with Saul's own character. One writer explains what David respects instead.
Again David absolutely refuses to stain his hands with the blood of "the Lord's anointed." Who, he asks, could do this and be guiltless? This is a marked and beautiful trait in David's character — respect for authority set up by God. Such respect looks not at the character of the man holding the office, but at the position he occupies. Meanwhile he reminds Abishai that God will one day remove him.
Abishai's offer sounds like loyalty. He knows David will not strike, so he offers to strike for him. One writer sees a trap in that offer.
Abishai, David's companion, sets a trap for him here without even realising it himself. He probably does it out of the very affection he has for his master. Knowing that David will not avenge himself, Abishai offers to avenge him. Had this happened, it would once again have completely ruined the rejected king's character of grace. This is one of Satan's main aims with believers. If he can get us to take our own interests in hand, to avenge ourselves, to demand our rights in this world, he makes us fall from faith.
God put the whole camp to sleep. That could look like an open door. The same writer reads God's purpose the other way.
God had sent this sleep to preserve His beloved and not to give him an occasion to avenge himself. God would save him in view of the work of grace He would call him to do toward Saul. Grace is reserved for David; judgment is reserved for the Lord.
This is the second time Saul has been at David's mercy. What David forbids this time shows how far he has grown.
"So let me strike him, please," he says, "with the spear, right down to the ground at one stroke. I will not strike him twice." David said to Abishai, "Do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against Jehovah's anointed and be guiltless?" It is clear therefore that David has grown in the sense of the grace of God. Not only will he not do the deed himself, but he will not allow it in another of his company.
One writer sets David's answer beside the way the Lord Jesus met ill-treatment.
David had led a miserable, sorrowful life because of Saul. But when Abishai says, "God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day," he answers, "The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed." … So it was with the Lord Jesus. "When He was reviled, He did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed His cause to Him who judges righteously."
- The living Lord. David's oath is his whole argument — that the Lord lives is enough to settle the question of Saul's future.
- The Lord's time. A stroke, old age, or battle: David names three exits and claims none of them as his to open.
- The Lord's office. David respects the position God set up, not the character of the man filling it.
- The Lord's sleep. God sent the sleep to protect David and to keep him for a work of grace, not to hand him a sword.
- The Lord's portion. Grace belongs to David; judgment belongs to God. The Lord Jesus kept the same line when He committed His cause to Him who judges righteously.
Jehovah forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against Jehovah's anointed! But now take, I pray thee, the spear that is at his head, and the cruse of water, and let us go.
David and Abishai stand over a sleeping king. Saul's own spear is stuck in the ground beside his head, and one word from David would end years on the run — but he refuses, and his reason is not Saul's character but the One who anointed him.
David had every personal reason to strike. What held him back was a principle that took no account of what Saul had become.
Again David refuses outright to stain his hands with the blood of "the Lord's anointed." Who could be guiltless, he says, who did this? This is a clear and beautiful trait in David's character: respect for authority that God has set up. Such respect looks not at the character of the man who holds the office, but at the position he occupies.
David had already spared Saul once, at En-gedi. Only God could set the limit on this respect, and God had not yet moved.
Saul is on the edge of judgment, yet to David he remains the Lord's anointed until God gives the final signal. For David to treat him with anything other than grace would be to deny his own character — and all the more so, since the Lord had already approved him at En-gedi.
Abishai's offer sounds like loyalty. One writer calls it a trap, and a trap that reaches far beyond David.
Abishai, David's companion, sets a trap for him here without realizing it, and likely out of the very affection he has for his master. He knows David will not avenge himself, so he offers to avenge him (v. 8)… This is one of Satan's main aims with believers. He wants to get us to take our own interests in hand, to avenge ourselves, to demand our rights in this world. If he can, he makes us fall from faith.
The whole camp lay asleep. It could look like God handing the enemy over. One writer reads God's purpose in it differently.
The deep sleep God sent on Saul and on the whole camp could have suggested the thought of taking advantage of such a moment. It was not so. God sent this sleep to protect the one He loved, not to give him a chance to avenge himself… Grace is David's part; judgment is the Lord's.
David's restraint was not weakness. He left the whole matter with God, and more than his own conscience hung on it.
His follower advises killing Saul. This would have been sin. He would not avenge himself. Saul might be a wicked man, but he was the Lord's anointed, and David would not take the matter into his own hands… Would it not have been a lasting reproach that he had killed the king while he slept? Faith committed it to God. "Beloved, never avenge yourselves." But how clearly Satan's craft is defeated! Whether Saul killed David, or David killed Saul, either way would have suited Satan's purpose and hindered the purpose of God.
David takes two things instead of a life. One writer reads both as a message to Saul about what God could take from him.
Instead of doing Saul any personal harm, they take away his spear and a jar of water that was near his head. This matters. The spear was his weapon of attack. So Saul had proof that the Lord knew how to strip him of the power to do the harm he wanted to do. Taking the jar of water reminded him that God could also take away the refreshment he depended on.
Together the two objects left the pursuing king with nothing. One writer even hears a sting in the name David gives himself.
But is there not also a touch of sarcasm in David's words, "the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea"? For the "flea" had been in the king of Israel's camp and had taken away his spear and his jar of water — that is, his means of warfare and the necessities of life. In a word, Saul was powerless.
David's refusal was not approval of Saul. It came from where he had placed the whole question.
Did David sympathize with Saul's conduct and ways, or share his company, or feel personal affection for him? No… David leaves it to the One who put Saul on the throne to take him off it, in His own time and way. Meanwhile he was content to suffer, and to let Saul brand his name as evil.
- Anointed. God put Saul on the throne. So God alone takes him off it.
- Opportunity. The God-sent sleep guarded David. It was not permission to strike Saul.
- Advice. Abishai's offer to strike was a trap. Pressure to grab your own rights is a standard attack on faith.
- Proof. David took the spear and the water jar. Saul's weapon and his refreshment were God's to remove.
- Outcome. Satan would have won either way — Saul killing David, or David killing Saul. David's refusal spoiled both.