Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 17:9
If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.
9. then will we be your servants ] Compare the agreement between the Romans and Albans about the combat of the Horatii and Curiatii, “that the nation whose citizens conquered in the combat should rule the other in peace” (Livy I. 24). Paris challenged Menelaus to decide the Trojan war by single combat (Hom. Il. III. 86 ff.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 9. Then will we be your servants] Of this stipulation we hear nothing farther.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants,…. For which it does not appear he had any commission or authority to say; nor did the Philistines think themselves obliged to abide by what he said, since, when he was slain, they did not yield themselves servants to the Israelites:
but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us; to which terms also the Israelites did not consent; nor did David, who engaged with him, enter the fray on such conditions.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(9) Then will we be your servants.Each of the positions which the two opposing armies held was well-nigh impregnable; thus it seemed as though a single combat was the only way of deciding the present campaign: besides which, in those far back times such single combats between renowned chieftains of the opposing armies were not by any means uncommon. The reader of the Iliad will ever readily call to mindin colloquies before the deadly duelwords not altogether unlike the haughty, boastful challenge of the giant Philistine. See, for instance, the speeches of Glaucus and Diomede in Book VI. of the Iliad: Come hither, says Glaucus, that you may quickly reach the goal of death.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 17:9 If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.
Ver. 9. If he be able, then will we be your servants.] Thus of old the Romans and Albans put the trial of the common cause upon the hazard of three champions on each side. Our ordinary duellers who, like those youngsters of Helkath Hazzurim, 2Sa 2:14-16 sheath their swords in their fellows’ bowels, are doubtless set on by that old manslayer, that he may feed upon them both at once, as the cock-pit-masters do upon their cocks of the game. What David did in this monomachy duel , was by a singular instinct of God.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
and serve us: 1Sa 11:1
Reciprocal: 1Ch 11:5 – Thou shalt