Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 21:8
And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.
1Sa 21:8
The kings business required haste.
Haste! Haste!
1. We are always called upon to work as if we had but one day to work in.
2. Such impetuosity need not involve carelessness.
3. The most deliberate things are to be done with the intensest earnestness, and the intensest earnestness is never to allow itself to be deprived of the advantage and utility of the highest spiritual dignity.
When the kings business relates to the salvation of souls, who dare say there is a moment to be lost?
4. In all things let us hear the voice of the Saviour saying, That thou doest, do quickly. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
He left his weapons behind him, that he might with less suspicion remove from place to place, and hide himself from Saul and his spies.
The kings business required haste; the message came to me when I was unarmed, and the business required so great expedition that I could not go home to fetch my weapons.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And David said unto Ahimelech,…. After he had given him some of the loaves of the shewbread:
and is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? any weapon, meaning in the tabernacle, and in his keeping, and at his disposal; he knew the sword of Goliath was there, and perhaps had a principal view to it, and put this question in order to get that in his possession:
for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me; neither his sword, nor any part of his armour, but was come quite naked and unarmed and, as he pretended,
because the king’s business required haste; still continuing his lie; whereas the true reason was, he was let down in haste by his wife through a window of his house, and could not stay to take his armour with him; and had lain hid for some time, and passed incognito from place to place, and without armour, that he might be the less known and observed, and least suspected; though it may seem strange that Jonathan had not provided him with a sword.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(8) Spear or sword?We may well suppose to what David pointed when he made his requestthe famous sword, the trophy of the combat which had for ever made his name illustrious. In the first flush of gratitude to the invisible One who had stood by him in the hour of peril, he had doubtless taken and presented to the sanctuary guardians, as an offering to be kept for ever, a memorial of the victory of Israel over the uncircumcised; but now, in his hour of need and humiliation, he needed all the credentials he could gather together of his ability and power to lead men, so he trusts the priest will let him have his glorious prize back again. This seems to have been really the meaning of his petition to Ahimelech, and so evidently the priest understood David, for at once he suggested restoring the well-known, treasured sword. The sanctuary, he said, possesses no war weapon but that one which hangs up among us, a votive offering.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
David The Champion Slayer Is Humiliated Before The King Of Gath ( 1Sa 21:8-15 ).
It can surely not be a coincidence that in this passage David’s miserable time in Gath is preceded by a reminder of another encounter with Gath that had brought David great glory. Could anyone have foreseen that the open, honest, God-fearing youth of 1 Samuel 17, who was afraid of no one and was concerned only for the honour of YHWH, would turn so quickly into the conniving deceitful David of 1 Samuel 21, who was afraid of everyone and sought only his own safety?
The chiasmus begins with a reminder of David’s moment of greatest glory (up to this point), the conquest of Goliath, even though it is sadly accompanied by an indication of his cowardly deceit. But it ends with a pathetic dribbling figure who just as easily deceived the king of Gath. David would certainly grow to be a great king, but this was undoubtedly not his proudest moment, for the hero of Elah was being revealed as nothing better than the liar of Nob, and the goon of Gath. It was not a very nice picture at all. To such a low level does sin bring even the greatest.
Of course, David outgrew this failure, and it is an important reminder to us that he was but a man after all. But just for a short while his mask has slipped, and part of what he really was underneath, is laid open before us. We have here a glimpse of the later murderer of Uriah the Hittite (2 Samuel 11). How different a figure he was at this moment from his great Successor, the One of Whom it was said, “He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth” (1Pe 2:22). He went to a cross rather than behave in this way.
Thus what follows in Gath is probably intended to be seen as the consequence of David’s lies before Ahimelech. One thing leads to another. And whilst the description of his feigned madness was no doubt later seen as a good joke, it would have been nothing short of total humiliation for David. He would have been made to recognise that while through his deceit he had escaped death at the hands of Saul, it was simply in order to become a pathetic figure of fun to the Philistines. And that is probably how the writer also saw it, for he draws out in a deliberate contrast the thought of the majestic hero who slew Goliath, but at the same time deceived the Priest, causing his death, and the pathetic dribbling figure who similarly deceived the king of Gath. His purpose was seemingly in order to bring out that by his lies and deception even the great David was brought down to the depths of humiliation. It is likely, indeed, that he considered that David had brought all his troubles on himself by his previous behaviour. In other words he is saying that this, along with the slaughter of the priests, was the consequence of David’s dishonesty. It was a heavy price to pay for his deceit.
Analysis.
a
b And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you slew in the vale of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is no other except that here.” And David said, “There is none like that. Give it me” (1Sa 21:9).
c And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath (1Sa 21:10).
d And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?” (1Sa 21:11).
c And David laid up these words in his heart, and was greatly afraid of Achish the king of Gath (1Sa 21:12).
b And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard (1Sa 21:13).
a Then Achish said to his servants, “Lo, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me?” Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?” (1Sa 21:14-15).
Note that in ‘a’, having come into the ‘house’ of YHWH, David successfully deceives Ahimelech, while in the parallel he so successfully deceives Achish that he is not wanted in his house. In ‘b’ he is seen as the darling hero of the vale of Elah, and in the parallel he is seen as the dribbling goon of Gath. In ‘c’ he goes to the king of Gath for fear of Saul, and in the parallel he fears the king of Gath because of what is said about him. Centrally in ‘d’ the servants of Achish describe David’s glory, only for the picture quickly to die away into that of a dribbling lunatic.
1Sa 21:8
‘ And David said to Ahimelech, “And is there not here under your hand spear or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” ’
We cannot avoid the implication here of David’s deceitfulness, and even of his unscrupulousness, in deceiving Ahimelech. The hero turns out for a short while to have feet of clay. Not only does he enter the house of YHWH and obtain holy bread from him by deceit, but he also accepts the sword of Goliath, undoubtedly under false pretences. Both were, of course, actions that were outwardly understandable at a human level. He was hungry and he had no weapons, and he knew that a vengeful king was on his tail, but in the event his deceit would result in a heavy price being paid by the priests, and we cannot honestly excuse it. All we can do is learn the lesson lest we do the same. We can hear a voice behind us that says, ‘Go, and do not do likewise’.
1Sa 21:9
‘ And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you slew in the vale of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is no other except that here.” And David said, “There is none like that. Give it me.” ’
The honest and rather naive Ahimelech did not want to let down Saul’s most popular commander, and he explained to him that they did indeed have a sword on the premises. It was the sword of Goliath of Gath, ‘the Philistine’, whom David had slain. Here was a reminder that this same David was the hero of Elah. But alas! He was also the liar of Nob. The contrast between the liar of Nob and the hero of Elah is impossible to avoid, especially in view of what follows, where he sinks to an even lower level.
The situation was made even worse by where the sword was to be found. It was hung up, wrapped in a cloth, behind the ephod, the priestly garment by means of which truth could be obtained from YHWH. If only Ahimelech had consulted the ephod what misery his house would have been spared. But he thrust it aside in order to reach the sword for David. And so he shared in his sin.
We have not previously been told how the sword of Goliath came to be here, but it would have been a natural thing for Israel to do to store it up before YHWH as a trophy.
1Sa 21:10
‘ And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.’
Having received the holy bread and the sword of Goliath by false pretences David fled from Israel because of his fear of Saul, and went to Achish, king of Gath, no doubt wearing the sword of Goliath. His aim was probably to offer himself as a Hebrew mercenary leader to Achish. Thus he was prepared to become ‘almost a Philistine’. But that would have meant fighting against his own people. Deceit was sadly leading to treachery, even if to him he appeared to have little alternative.
1Sa 21:11
‘ And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?” ’
However, even in his sin YHWH was watching over him, with the result that the servants of Achish said to Achish, “Is this not David, the king of the land?” Note that it does not say ‘the king of Israel.’ And indeed what they did mean is brought out in the quotation that follows. Saul might be the titular king of Israel, but the one to whom the people of the land looked was David. He was king of their hearts. For compared with Saul’s thousands, he was seen as having slain ten thousands. And many of them Philistines at that! We do not know whether this was said in admiration or criticism. But either way it produced the right effect in David’s heart. He suddenly realised what he was doing.
Note that in the heading to Psalms 34 Achish is given his titular name of Abimelech. for which compare Gen 20:2; Gen 21:32.
1Sa 21:12
‘ And David laid up these words in his heart, and was greatly afraid of Achish the king of Gath.’
When David realised what the Philistines were saying, (he probably did not speak their language very well), cold fear gripped his heart. He recognised that what they were saying put him in great danger. And he became fearful of what the king of Gath might do. The mighty conqueror of Goliath was thus reduced to abject terror. And all because he was there by deceit, wearing a sword that marked him out as an enemy.
1Sa 21:13
‘ And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard.’
The contrast between the conqueror of Goliath and the goon of Gath that we now see here is hard to bear. For here this mighty hero changed his behaviour and instead of standing proud began to feign madness. This was what his deceit had brought him to. The fact that he was ‘in their hands’ probably suggests that he had been arrested. Thus in order to persuade them to let him go he scrabbled on the doors of the palace, and let spittle run down his beard, behaving like a madman. Madmen were treated with awe by the ancients for they saw them as possessed by the gods. They would therefore be only too glad to let him go. If only Goliath could have seen him now.
Later in 1 Samuel 27 he would return in a very different guise as leader of a mercenary army. But at present he was simply an object of ridicule. There is no reason to doubt that this actually happened. No one would later have made up a story like this about David.
1Sa 21:14-15
‘ Then Achish said to his servants, “Lo, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?” ’
When Achish saw the behaviour of this sad spectacle whom his men had brought in he berated them. Could they not see that the man was mad? Why then had they brought the man to him, when he already had madmen enough in his court! (Achish clearly had a strong sense of humour). Did they really think that he was going to take a man like this into his house as a servant of his household? Where were their brains? But although he did not realise it he was carrying out YHWH’s will. Gath did not fit into YHWH’s plans for David. He wanted him in Israel.
The Psalm that David wrote after this episode, no doubt in the cave of Adullam, does in fact bring out David’s recognition of how YHWH had delivered him. Even when burdened down with the consequences of deceit he recognised that YHWH had not forsaken him (see Psalms 34).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
(8) And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste. (9) And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me.
Poor David in his flight came unarmed. It is good to furnish our armoury from the sanctuary. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. The sword of Goliath was a sword of remembrance, and no doubt peculiarly valuable, to David. It was hardly possible for him to look upon it without giving a new edge to his faith. There is great sweetness in all our past experiences of God’s mercy.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
“… the king’s business required haste.” 1Sa 21:8 .
This is another instance in which the expositor can only proceed by way of accommodation. The accommodation, however, is full of suggestion of a most practical and useful nature. We are always called upon to work as if we had but one day to work in: ” I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” Whatever we can do let us do it now. There is no to-morrow in the life of a Christian who is fully consecrated to the service of his Lord; every day is the last day, every coming day is the day of judgment, the judge always standeth at the door. How many things we are going to do by-and-by! We have no right to talk so, for our breath is in our nostrils. This is a boasting of to-morrow that is forbidden by the Holy Ghost. If we have a gospel to carry we must carry it instantly, or the man for whom it is designed may die. If we have any revelation to declare we must lose no time in the declaration, or we may lose our ability to reveal the message with which God has entrusted us. Such impetuosity need not involve carelessness. The impetuosity that is useful is also earnest. Sometimes men hasten slowly, and therefore hasten the more. The most deliberate things are to be done with the intensest earnestness, and the intensest earnestness is never to allow itself to be deprived of the advantage and utility of the highest spiritual dignity. When the king’s business relates to the salvation of souls, who dare say there is a moment to be lost? Are men prodigal of time who are called to extinguish a conflagration? Do men proceed at leisure when the swimmer is struggling with the billows and may at any moment be lost? We should be urged by the necessity of others, and not merely impelled by our own sense of the fitness of things. Where there is need there is a call for help, and need always calls not for remote but for immediate assistance. In all things let us hear the voice of the Saviour saying, “That thou doest, do quickly,” whether it be prayer, or gift, or offer of sympathy, or proclamation of the gospel; the next moment may be the last; therefore fill the present breathing space with all faithful action.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
1Sa 21:8 And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.
Ver. 8. Is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? ] He well knew there was Goliath’s sword, and he greatly desired it; as knowing that there was more in it than metal and form: he counted it as it were a sacrament, saith Peter Martyr; and his arm was not so much strengthened by it as his faith. At this therefore did his suit here aim. It is good to take all occasions of renewing the remembrance of God’s mercies to us, and our obligations to him.
Because the king’ s business.] Another lie. See 1Sa 21:2 . Sin is of an encroaching nature, one lie makes way for another. See Psa 119:69 . See Trapp on “ Psa 119:69 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Reciprocal: Est 8:14 – being hastened Luk 10:4 – and
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
GOLIATHS SWORD
And David said unto Abimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? etc.
1Sa 21:8-9
The token of the victories of youth. There is nothing like thatno such talisman, no such weapon as that to be borne or wieldedno marvel that David rejoices to hear it is within reach.
The sword was to David (1) The token of a good deed which he had done in singleness of heart. (2) The token of Gods certain help in answer to faith. (3) The memory of a great danger past.
I. The thought of a good deed done in singleness of spirit lies at the heart as the warmest of Gods comforts.Forty days the Philistine drew near, morning and evening, and presented himself. What lay before Israel, if the boy champion had not arrived, was to be the servant of the enemy; yet no one stirred. But Davids spirit had not been overpowered. His instinct was not to watch till the fascination of fear had overcome him as it did the other warriors. It was to strikestrike with the simple weapon he was used to, and lo, the terror was gone. Our solitary souls, as well as the great world, are such a battlefield. The struggle is daily renewed. Two principles withinone godless and defying, one whose eyes are lit with the eternal light. Sin will overcome faith, or faith will overcome sin; and each memory of a victory of faith is a strength in itself.
II. And then, again, to look back on the signs of Gods ready help, old answers to prayer when we were in trouble, the expected strength which did not disappoint us but was with us in some trial; these things bring home to us the sense of Gods presence and of Gods help, until we are most sure of this, that all things work together for good to them that love Him.
III. But above all sources of strength, the memory of a great danger past is the most fruitful. A terror taken possession of, the assurance that it will terrify us no more; this is what God gives to good men in the evening of life.
Archbishop Benson.
Illustrations
(1) David is low enough now, a fugitive with manifold straits and dangers in store. This sword reminds him how the Lord delivered him in his encounter with the giant. It calls up his old faith; rebukes his unbelieving thoughts, and bids his fears be gone. He is assured the Lord will carry him through.
(2) There are two notable sayings here which we may well appropriate. The business of our king requires haste, and there is no sword to be compared with that of the Word of God, with which our David defeated the tempter in the wilderness. But when first spoken they were each coloured by the deceit of him who uttered them.
(3) David knew both its weakness and its powerits weakness, as a mere human instrument, apart from, and raised against, the power of Godand its strength when wielded in Gods service, for with it he had cut off the head of the Philistine. Let us learn, First, the powerlessness of the greatest human means, if God be not working with them. Secondly, how God can, and does, work quite without the use of meansand Thirdly, how ordinarily He blesses means, and works through them, if employed by faithful hands.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Sa 21:8-9. The kings business required haste He pretended to Ahimelech, that the reason why he had not brought his sword or any weapon with him was, because he had not time to go to his house; the king pressing him to go immediately about his business. Wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod That is, behind that holy place allotted for the keeping of the sacred, or priestly garments; all which are here comprehended under the ephod; which, as the chief, is put for all the rest. Here it was laid up as a sacred monument of Gods power and goodness. There is none like it Because it not only served him for his use, for he was a strong and tall man, and one that could wield that sword; but it was also a pledge of Gods favour to him. Whenever he looked upon it, it would be a support to his faith, by reminding him of what God had already done.