Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 24:5
And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.
5. David’s heart smote him ] David’s conscience reproached him for offering even so slight an indignity to the king.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Davids heart smote him – He thought the action inconsistent with the respect which he owed to the king.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Not only because it was injurious, and reproachful, and dangerous to the king; but possibly because he had some secret thought of doing more to him, though he suppressed and overcame it; for he attempted this in pursuance of his soldiers suggestion, 1Sa 24:4 which if followed would have carried him to further action.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him,…. His conscience accused him, and he repented of what he had done:
because he had cut off Saul’s skirt; which though less than what his servants put him upon, and he might have thoughts of doing, yet was considered by him as a great indignity to his sovereign, and therefore sat uneasy on his mind.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(5) Davids heart smote him.Not for what he had done to Saul, but his conscience smote him for the momentary thought that had stained his soul of slaying the Lords Anointed. This is better than with Clericus to say, David was afraid that Saul would take this, though a clear sign of his [Davids] magnanimity, in bad part, and regard it as a violation of his royal majesty. There is no sign at all of Davids even regretting he had cut off the fringe of the kings garment. It was the far more terrible thought of slaying the God-anointed king which troubled David. The words of the next verse show us clearly what was passing in his mind when he gravely rebuked his men, and evidently restrained them, with some little trouble, from rushing upon Saul, even after he had left the sleeping form, with the piece of the mantle in his hand. The Hebrew word rendered stayed is a forcible one, and, literally, would be crushed down. There is a curious Note, however, in the Babylonian Talmud on this passage in the Book of Samuel which tells how David cut off a piece of Sauls robe, in which the act is evidently very strongly condemned. Rabbi Yosi ben Rabbi channa on the words, Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Sauls robe privily, said, Whoever treats clothes slightingly will at last derive no benefit from them, for it is said (1Ki. 1:1), And they covered him [David] with clothes, but he gat no heat.Treatise Berachoth, fol. 62, Colossians 2.
This is evidently one of the cryptographs, of which there are such innumerable instances in the Talmud. The lesson intended to be taught by the famous Rabbi was probably intense reverence for the teachers and guides of Israel, here represented by Saul; any act of disrespect shown to one of these, even by injuring the clothes they wore, would be punished by God sooner or later.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. David’s heart smote him He felt that even the rending of Saul’s garment was going too far against the Lord’s anointed. Clarke supposes that David arose with the purpose of killing Saul, but was prevented by the remonstrance of God in his conscience; but we see no sufficient evidence of such purpose.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 24:5. David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt The reasons which restrained David from killing Saul, were worthy a brave and generous man, a man of piety and virtue. He durst not stretch forth his hand against the Lord’s anointed. Under this sacred character he forgot that Saul was his implacable enemy, and instantly sacrificed his resentment to his conscience and duty; hereby acting with a goodness and greatness of mind, which Saul thought no man in the world could have done besides him.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Sa 24:5 And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.
Ver. 5. David’s heart smote,] i.e., His conscience, which keeps court in every faculty of the soul, checked him: such was his tenderness then. Bee masters tell us that those are the best hives that make the greatest noise; so is that the best conscience that checketh for smallest sins. David feared that what he had done to the king might be taken for an ignominy and an injury: he is therefore pricked inwardly. Bonorum enim mentium est culpam agnoscere ubi culpa non est, saith Bernard. Good men are afraid of the least show of sin, being jealous over themselves with a godly jealousy.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Saul’s skirt = the lappet of Saul’s robe.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
David’s heart: 2Sa 12:9, 2Sa 24:10, 2Ki 22:19, 1Jo 3:20, 1Jo 3:21
Reciprocal: 1Sa 25:13 – David also 1Ki 11:30 – rent it Rom 13:5 – ye
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 24:5-6. Davids heart smote him His intention in cutting off Sauls skirt was only to give certain proof that he did not seek his life, in that he had spared it when it was wholly in his power; yet no sooner had he done it, but the consideration how Saul might be affected by it, whether it might not enrage him the more, and how the action might be esteemed by others, troubled him greatly. And he said to his men When he returned to them, and they again pressed him, as is probable, to kill Saul; The Lord forbid, &c. He considers Saul now, not as his enemy, and the only person that stood in the way of his preferment, (for then he would have been induced to hearken to the temptation,) but as his master, to whom he was obliged to be faithful, and as the Lords anointed, whom God had appointed to reign as long as he lived, and who, as such, was under the particular protection of the divine law.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
24:5 And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart {d} smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.
(d) For seeing it was his own private cause, he repented that he had touched his enemy.