Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 25:29
Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, [as out] of the middle of a sling.
29. Yet a man, &c.] Better, And though men have arisen yet the soul of my lord shall be bound up in the bundle of the living. The figure is taken from the practice of binding up valuables in a bag or bundle. Cp. Gen 42:35. Of course the immediate reference is only to the safe preservation of David’s temporal life.
shall he sling out, &c.] A vigorous metaphor to express total rejection. Cp. Jer 10:18.
the middle of a sling ] Lit. the pan or hollow in which the stone was placed. The marginal rendering “bought” means “the bowed or bent part of a sling on which the stone was placed.” See the Bible Word-Book, p. 73.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In the bundle – Rather, the bag, in which anything precious, or important to be preserved, was put, and the bag was then tied up (compare Gen 42:35).
The souls … shall he sling out – The comparison is especially appropriate as addressed to David, whose feat with his sling was so celebrated 1Sa 17:49.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Sa 25:29
The soul of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of life.
The bundle of life
The imagery, of course, is Oriental. It is very true that the life of man is bounded up with the Divine; bound up in the bundle of life, how expressive it is–tied to Him. The soul and life of man is in the bundle with the life of God.
1. This is the beginning of human history. There is but one life in the world, and that life pours itself out and becomes the life of man. And mans life is like the life of God, and it is, in its measure, the life of God. This life is very realistically described as being breathed out from the lips of the Almighty into the muscles of man.
2. Now this is something that gives us not only a very exalted idea of God, but a very exalted idea of man. I do not know of anything that needs to be more impressed upon us today than the dignity of human nature–let me change the word–the divinity of human nature. Nothing can exalt a man above the greatness of his nature, the greatness that is his because his life is a Divine life, his life is in the bundle of life with God. Let us remember this, that whatever happens, we are made of Gods will, that God wanted us to be made, that He wanted us to be here. There is something we can do that nobody else could do, and that Gods wealth in the world is the wealth of men and women who can meet Him, answering love with love, answering with wisdom and confidence and obedience.
3. It is very easy to see what comes out of this. There comes out of it on the one side Gods great delight in us. The Lords portion is His people. As long as God is rich, we are rich, as long as God is happy we can be happy if we want to be. As long as God is wise we are wise if we want to be. We are in the bundle with Him. You are bound up in the bundle of life, whatever happens to you happens to Him, and if you choose to have it so, whatever happens to Him, according to the measure of your day, will happen to you. And God likes this trust, this confidence. The more we trust Him the more He is delighted in us. God depends upon us. We are in the bundle of life, and when we drop out of the bundle of life and leave God alone–well, did you ever have a child go out of your house and leave you? That is a little bit of the feeling that God has when we get out of the bundle of life, when we seek after pleasures which he has forbidden, when there is anything in our business that He does not approve. It is so ordained that while we are in the bundle of life with God we are free perfectly. We are not compelled to be there. You can get out of the bundle of life any time you want to. We find a great deal going on in the world that does not seem to be consistent with the bundle of God. How can there be all this misery if London is in the bundle with God? But all London is not in the bundle with God. It ought to be, it can be, but it has slipped away. Yet it is pretty plain that a good many of us have got outside the bundle of God. How does God regard it? How do you regard it? I would like to ask what would happen to God if you get out of the bundle. What would happen if your boy, whom you love a hundred times more than you love Him, got out of your bundle? From the first of Genesis we find how man slipped out of Gods bundle. One day they came to Christ and found fault with Him because they said He ate and drank with publicans and sinners, and He turned and said, You do just the same. Oh, no, they said, we never do such a thing. Do you not? You have a hundred sheep and lose one–what do you do? I go after it to bring it back. Why do you do that? Why do you not send someone else after it? Because it is my sheep. Precisely. That publican, he is not a publican; he is My publican, My sinner, My boy. God is trying to get you back into the bundle. Every man who is unhappy, every man who does not love Christ and confess Him has dropped out of the bundle. Christ is trying to get him back into the bundle. (A. Mckenzie, D. D.)
The bundle of life
It is a very beautiful expression, especially when you consider what the word bundle would mean in those times. Nowadays we do not usually associate anything precious with a bundle. It is rather the other way. If a household were removing, for instance, it would be the odds and ends, the things of little value, that would likely be put into a bundle for convenience of removal. The precious things of the household would be secured in some safer way than by being simply huddled together in a bundle. A commercial traveller, in journeying by rail, would have his big bundles in the van, but anything particularly valuable would be carried by himself in pocket book or hand bag securely fastened. But in those primitive days they had not such elaborate means of securing safety. In shifting their tents to pastures new, any things of special value would simply be bound up in a bundle, and the husband or wife would see to it that that bundle was well looked after on the journey. It would be with them on their camel, or somewhere where they could always see it. Note, however, in passing, that other metaphor Abigail makes use of with regard to the enemies of David: The souls of thine enemies, them shall He sling out, as out of the middle of a sling. It is a very forcible way of putting it. It just means emphatically the opposite of the care and attention connected with the bundle. What could be thought more lightly of than the stone slung out of a sling? So, the bundle implies that which is particularly valuable, whereas the stone slung out of a sling suggests that which is worthless, not worth taking any trouble or concern about. But let us direct our attention to the other wish that Abigail expresses regarding David. It is a beautiful thought, the thought of being bound in Gods bundle of life.
1. Does it not, for one thing, imply, very specially, safety? They are safe who are bound in Gods bundle of life. It is a great word in the Bible sense–safety–greater than we shall ever comprehend here. Gods desire is to save men from themselves, from their sins, from their spiritual foes.
2. Another thought implied in the phrase, the bundle of life, is that of preciousness. So, in the bundle of life, we have to consider not mans but Gods estimate of values. The neediest are, in a sense, the dearest. Look at the publicans of old as compared with the self-righteous Pharisees.
3. But one thing more also is suggested by the bundle, viz., that it will not always be a bundle. After all, the bundle is but a temporary arrangement. Only for the time being, when a household would be removing, would the valuables be packed up in a bundle, with little regard to arrangement and order. But in the new home the bundle would be opened, and each article put carefully in a place of its own. And so with Gods opening and rearranging of the bundle of life. The words of Abigail, in connection with David, seem to refer to the present life, to Davids safety here from the foes that were assailing him. I am aware that the Jews, nowadays are in the habit of using the phrase in reference to the life beyond. But is it not more in harmony with the idea of a bundle to apply the phrase to the present life? It is here, not hereafter, that things are not as they should be, not as we would wish them to be; it is here that there is the medley and confusion of a bundle. The best and the worst are often in strange positions, and juxtapositions, in this world. And look, too, how those dear to us often get separated, far and wide in life. But the time will come when there shall be separation no more, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away. May that be our prayer and trust for us all, that, when all is over, so far as this world is concerned, it will not be for us a being slung out as out of the middle of a sling, but only the opening of the bundle, and the rearrangement and final settlement in the eternal home. But remember, too, that while here, just as the contents of the good wifes bundle, though mixed together for the time being, would still be precious, and still safe, amid all the temporary disorder, so, even here, where things are oft inexplicably mixed, and many things are hard to understand, and harder still to bear, they are nevertheless safe and precious, now and evermore, in His sight, who are bound in Gods bundle of life. (J. S. Maver, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 29. Shall be bound in the bundle of life] Thy life shall be precious in the sight of the Lord: it shall be found in the bundle of life; it shall be supported by Him who is the Spring and Fountain of life, and ever be found united to those who are most favoured by the Almighty.
Them shall he sling out] Far from being bound and kept together in union with the Fountain of life, he will cast them off from himself as a stone is cast out from a sling. This betokens both force and violence.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A man, to wit, Saul, though no way injured nor justly provoked by thee.
To seek thy soul, i. e. to take away thy life. In the bundle of life, or, in the bundle, i.e. in the society or congregation of
the living; out of which men are taken and cut off by death. The phrase is taken from the common usage of men, who bind those things in bundles which they are afraid to lose, because things that are solitary and unbound are soon lost. The meaning of the place is, God will preserve thy life; and therefore it becomes not thee unjustly and unnecessarily to take away the lives of any, especially the people of thy God and Saviour.
With the Lord thy God, i.e. in the hand and custody of God, who, by his watchful providence, preserves this bundle, and all that are in it; and time in a particular and singular manner, as being thy God in a peculiar way and special covenant. God himself will hide and keep thee in the secret of his presence, Psa 31:20, where no hand of violence can reach thee. And therefore all the attempts of Saul or others against thee are vain and ridiculous. For who can destroy whom God will keep?
Them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling; God himself will cut them off suddenly, violently, and irresistibly; and cast them far away, both from his presence, and from thy neighbourhood, and from all capacity of doing thee any hurt.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
29. the soul of my lord shall bebound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy GodAnOrientalism, expressing the perfect security of David’s life from allthe assaults of his enemies, under the protecting shield ofProvidence, who had destined him for high things.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul,…. His life, to take it away, meaning Saul, whom she chose not to name, because he was king:
but the soul of my lord shall be bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God; should be dear unto the Lord, precious in his esteem, and be carefully preserved by him, among other his chosen ones, and should be safe with him, in his hands, and under his care and keeping; the Jews refer this to eternal life in the world to come, and the safety and security of his soul hereafter; so the Targum,
“the soul of my lord shall be treasured up in the treasury of eternal life, before the Lord thy God:”
hence they speak of the souls of the righteous being laid up under the throne of glory e, in proof of which they produce this text; and so Maimonides f understands it of what should be after death, see Re 6:9;
and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, [as out] of the middle of a sling; that is, remove them swiftly and suddenly, and with force, out of the world, as a stone is slung out of the middle of a sling; see Jer 10:18.
e T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 152. 2. f Moreh Nevochim, par. 1. c. 41.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(29) A man is risen.She here refers, of course, to Saul, but with exquisite courtesy and true loyalty refrains from mentioning in connection with evil the name of her king, the Anointed of Jehovah.
Shall be bound in the bundle of life.This is one of the earliest and most definite expressions of a sure belief in an eternal future in the presence of God, and Hebrew tradition from the very earliest times down to our day has so regarded it. It is now a favourite and common inscription on Jewish gravestones. Keil beautifully paraphrases the words of the original. The words, he writes, do not refer primarily to eternal life with God in heaven, but only to the safe preservation of the righteous on this earth in the grace and fellowship of the Lord. But whoever is so hidden in the gracious fellowship of the Lord in this life, that no enemy can harm him or injure his life, the Lord will not allow to perish, even though temporal death should come, but will then receive him into eternal lifeKeil.
The image, as so often in Eastern teaching, is taken from common every-day lifefrom the habit, as Dean Payne Smith remarks, of packing up in a bundle articles of great value or of indispensable use, so that the owner may carry them about his person. In India the phrase is common. Thus, a just judge is said to be bound up in the bundle of righteousness; a lover in the bundle of love. Among the striking references in the Babylonian Talmud to this loved and cherished saying of the wife of Nabal, we find how, in one of the Treatises of Seder Moed, Rabbi Ezra says, The souls of the righteous are hidden beneath Gods glorious throne: as it is said, The soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God.Treatise Shabbath, fol. 152, col. 2.
What student of this verse of the Book of Samuel, and the beautiful Talmud comments on the far-reaching words, can fail to see in them the original of St. Johns well-known picture of the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held? (Rev. 6:9)these souls of the righteous hidden beneath the glorious throne of God.
The thought is embodied in the following extract. The angel of death came and stood before Moses. Give me thy soul, said he; but Moses rebuked him, and said, thou hast no permission to come where he (Moses) was; and he departed crest-fallen. Then the Holy Oneblessed be He !took the soul of Moses, and hid it under His throne of glory: as it is said (1Sa. 25:29): And the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life. But when He took it He took it by means of a kiss.Avoth. of Rabbi Nathan, 1 Samuel 12.
In the Seder Moed, again, in the same Treatise Shabbath, there is a remarkable parable, founded on this saying of Abigail: a parable that reminds us of the framework of one of the well-known pictures of the Redeemer. A king once distributed royal robes among his servants; those that were wise folded them up and laid them by in a coffer, and those that were foolish wore them on their working days. When the king demanded back his robes, those given to the wise were returned free from stains, whilst those of the foolish were soiled. The king, pleased with the wise servants, ordered their robes to be deposited in his treasury, and then that they should depart in peace. But he manifested his displeasure at the foolish servants; he sent their robes to be washed, and dispatched them to prison. So the bodies of the righteous enter into peace, and rest in their beds (Isa. 57:2), and their souls are bound up in the bundle of life; but with reference to the bodies of the foolish there is no peace, saith the Lord, and the wicked (Isa. 57:21) and their souls (quoting the next paragraph of this chapter of Samuel) are slung out, as out of the middle of a sling (1Sa. 25:29).Treatise Shabbath, fol. 152, col. 2.
And the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.The simile was one Abigail had with all probability heard from one or other of the prophets or their pupils. It was not unlikely originally suggested by the ever memorable encounter between David and Goliath: as in the case of the souls of the righteous, in the passage just discussed, the reference in the first instance was to the fate of the enemies of God in this life; but Hebrew theologians in all times have understood it in a deeper and more solemn sense, as a reference to the doom after death reserved for all unrighteous. (See, for instance, above in the passage quoted from the Talmud, Treatise Shabbath.) In the same most ancient writingwhich, most probably, contains the teaching of the great Jewish schools before the Christian erawe read: The souls of the wicked are incessantly thrown by angels, as with a sling, from one end of the world to the other, as it is said: The souls of thine enemies shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling; and what, asks Ravah of Rav. Nachman (this is a later comment), is the lot of those who are neither righteous nor wicked? They, as well as the wicked, are handed over to Dumahsilence (see Psa. 115:17)an angel who has charge of disembodied spirits. The former, the neither righteous nor wicked, have rest; the latter, the wicked, have none.Treatise Shabbath, fol. 152, col. 2.
The strange wild statement, as it seems to us, is no doubt a cryptograph; and the great rabbis of old days in their famous schools would now and again unrol its meaning. With that, for the present, we have not to concern ourselves. But the bare text, as we copy it from the Talmud, conveys to us this important fact,that men and women in the Canaan of Samuel and Saulpeople who lived remote, as it would seem, from any famous centre of civilisation, in the midst of shepherds and herdsmen in the lone sheep farms of Judah and Benjaminbelieved in the glories of the life eternal with God, and looked on to a future state of rewards and punishments, instead of limiting their hopes and fears to the sitting in quiet peace under the vine and the fig tree of their own loved land of promise.
The knowledge of a future state of existence was ever the blessed heritage of the chosen racebut the spread of that knowledge and the re-awakening of that belief we ascribe to the beneficial influence of one man. The Divine record, if we read between its lines, and the mighty wealth of Hebrew tradition, if we take sufficient pains to make it our own, tell us one storyhow Samuel, whom, when he was a child, the God of Israel loved: with whom, during his long and blameless life, He used to speak face to facenow by a vision, now by the echo of a voicetell us how Samuel was the founder of those great Prophetic Schools where the lamp of the knowledge of God was re-lit, and then kept burning with a steady flame through his time and for centuries after: the one bright light during the long, sad record of Israel.
Hero-kings like David, prophets like Gad and Nathan, the great psalm writers and musicians of the Temple of Solomon, were the more prominent results of the peculiar teaching and spirit of these schools; but their noblest work, after all, was the high and beneficial influence they exercised over the people of the landan influence exemplified in such characters as that of Abigail, the sheep-master of Carmels wife, a page of whose life story we have just been considering.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
29. A man is risen to pursue thee Saul. All David’s persecutions and his royal destiny, seem to have been fully known to Abigail. She may have learned them from some prophet during one of her journeys to the tabernacle. Shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord “The metaphor is taken from the custom of binding up valuable things in a bundle, to prevent their being injured. The words do not refer primarily to eternal life with God in heaven, but only to the safe preservation of the righteous on this earth in the grace and fellowship of the Lord. But whosoever is so hidden in the gracious fellowship of the Lord in this life that no enemy can harm him or injure his life, the Lord will not allow to perish, even though temporal death should come, but will then receive him into eternal life.” Keil.
Sling out Hurled away and scattered where they may not be found. Vivid contrast to being gathered and bound together in “the bundle of life.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 25:29 Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, [as out] of the middle of a sling.
Ver. 29. Shall be bound in the bundle of life. ] Thy person shall be preciously preserved by God’s special care and providence. Psa 116:15 A metaphor, say some, from binding up of plants that are to be removed, and laid in water, to preserve them till they shall be set in God’s paradise; or from the binding up of a book; so here. The saints are bound up together in the book of life.
Them shall he sling out.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
man. Hebrew. ‘adam. App-14.
bundle of life = bag (as in 1Sa 17:40, 1Sa 17:49) of the living.
sling out: i.e. like the stones in David’s sling.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
bound: The metaphors in this verse are derived from the consideration, that things of value are collected together, and often tied up in bundles, like sheaves of corn, to prevent their being scattered and lost, and that whatever is put into a sling is not intended to be preserved, but to be thrown away. 1Sa 2:9, Gen 15:1, Deu 33:29, Psa 66:9, Psa 116:15, Mal 3:17, Mat 10:29, Mat 10:30
with the Lord: Joh 10:27-30, Joh 14:19, Joh 17:21, Joh 17:23, Col 3:3, Col 3:4, 1Pe 1:5
sling out: Jer 10:18
as out of the middle of a sling: Heb. in the midst of the bow of a sling
Reciprocal: Gen 44:30 – his life Jdg 20:16 – sling stones 1Sa 26:20 – let not my 2Sa 4:8 – sought 2Sa 22:1 – and out 1Ki 1:36 – the Lord 1Ch 12:18 – thy God Psa 5:10 – let Psa 7:4 – without Psa 17:7 – savest Psa 21:8 – General Psa 26:9 – Gather not Psa 63:9 – seek Psa 118:13 – General Psa 124:7 – Our soul Psa 143:12 – of thy mercy Pro 24:12 – that keepeth Lam 3:52 – without Mat 13:30 – and bind Luk 21:18 – General Joh 6:39 – I should Act 17:28 – in him
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 25:29. A man hath risen to pursue thee Saul, though no way injured. To seek thy soul To take away thy life. Bundle of life Or, in the bundle: that is, in the society, or congregation of the living; out of which men are taken, and cut off by death. The phrase is taken from the common usage of men, who bind those things in bundles which they are afraid to lose. The meaning is, God will preserve thy life; and therefore it becomes not thee, unnecessarily, to take away the lives of any; especially of the people of thy God. With the Lord That is, in the custody of God, who, by his watchful providence, preserves this bundle, and all that are in it; and thee in a particular manner, as being thy God in a particular way, and special covenant. The Jews understand this, not only of the present life, but of that which is to come, even the happiness of separate souls; and therefore use it commonly as an inscription on their grave-stones. Here we have laid the body, trusting the soul is bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord. Them shall he sling out God himself will cut them off suddenly, violently, and irresistibly; and cast them far away; both from his presence and from thy neighbourhood, and from all capacity of doing thee hurt.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
25:29 Yet {l} a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the {m} bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, [as out] of the middle of a sling.
(l) That is, Saul.
(m) God will preserve you long in his service, and destroy your enemies.