Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 26:19
Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the LORD have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if [they be] the children of men, cursed [be] they before the LORD; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve other gods.
19. If the Lord &c.] Saul may be acting as the executioner of a divine punishment. In that case David desires to obtain pardon by a propitiatory offering. This seems the obvious explanation. But according to the view of many commentators, David suggests that this perverse persecution is the consequence of the evil spirit continuing to vex Saul as a punishment for his sin, and advises him to seek the removal of it by an expiatory sacrifice.
In the language of the O. T. God is sometimes said to incite or command men to do acts in themselves evil. See 2Sa 16:11 ; 2Sa 24:1. The Hebrew mind was profoundly impressed with the great truth of the universal sovereignty of God, and regarding Him as the Cause of all things, did not distinguish, as we do, between what is caused or commanded, and what is permitted by Him.
let him accept an offering ] Lit. smell. Cp. Gen 8:21.
if they be the children of men ] See on 1Sa 24:9.
from abiding in, &c.] From being associated with the people of Israel who are Jehovah’s inheritance (1Sa 10:1). The word “to-day” is emphatic: as much as to say, ‘It has at last come to this that I must flee the country: and such a banishment is tantamount to bidding me go serve false gods, for it is only in the land of promise and at the place which He has chosen that Jehovah manifests Himself and can be worshipped.’ Cp. note on 1Sa 10:3.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
If the Lord have stirred thee up – The meaning is clear from the preceding history. An evil spirit from God troubling him was the beginning of the persecution. And this evil spirit was sent in punishment of Sauls sin 1Sa 16:1, 1Sa 16:14. If the continued persecution was merely the consequence of this evil spirit continuing to vex Saul, David advises Saul to seek Gods pardon, and, as a consequence, the removal of the evil spirit, by offering a sacrifice. But if the persecution was the consequence of the false accusations of slanderers, then cursed be his enemies who, by their actions, drove David out from the only land where Yahweh was worshipped, and forced him to take refuge in the country of pagan and idolaters (compare Deu 4:27; Deu 28:36).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 19. Let him accept an offering] If God have stirred thee up against me, why, then, let him deliver my life into thy hand, and accept it as a sacrifice. But as the word is minchah, a gratitude-offering, perhaps the sense may be this: Let God accept a gratitude-offering from thee, for having purged the land of a worker of iniquity; for, were I not such, God would never stir thee up against me.
But if they be the children of men] If men have, by false representations, lies, and slanders, stirred thee up against an innocent man, then let them be cursed before the Lord. If I am guilty, I deserve to die; if not, those who seek my life should be destroyed.
Saying, Go, serve other gods.] His being obliged to leave the tabernacle, and the place where the true worship of God was performed, and take refuge among idolaters, said in effect, Go, serve other gods.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If the Lord have stirred thee up against me; if the Lord have by the evil spirit which he hath sent, or by his secret providence, directed thy rage against me for the punishment of thine or my sins.
Let him accept an offering; let us offer up a sacrifice to God to appease his wrath against us.
If they be the children of men; who by their crafty insinuations and calumnies have incensed thee against me. He showeth his prudence, and reverence, and meekness; that he accuseth not the king, but translateth the fault wholly upon his evil ministers; as the Israelites do in the like case, Exo 5:16.
From abiding in the inheritance of the Lord; from the land which God hath given to his people for their inheritance, and where he hath established his presence and worship.
Saying, Go, serve other gods: this was the language of their actions; for by driving him from Gods land, and the place of his worship, into foreign and idolatrous lands, they exposed him to the peril of being either insnared by their counsels or examples, or forced by their threats and power to worship idols.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. If the Lord have stirred thee upagainst meBy the evil spirit He had sent, or by any spiritualoffenses by which we have mutually displeased Him.
let him accept anofferingthat is, let us conjointly offer a sacrifice forappeasing His wrath against us.
if they be the children ofmenThe prudence, meekness, and address of David in ascribingthe king’s enmity to the instigations of some malicious traducers,and not to the jealousy of Saul himself, is worthy of notice.
saying, Go, serve othergodsThis was the drift of their conduct. By driving him fromthe land and ordinances of the true worship, into foreign and heathencountries, they were exposing him to all the seductions of idolatry.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant,…. Whether David waited for an answer to his question is not certain; probably he did, and observing none returned, desired audience of what he had further to say:
if the Lord have stirred thee up against me; if he had put it into his heart to persecute him after this manner, for some sin he had committed against him, though not against Saul: did that appear to be the case,
let him accept an offering; my offering, as the Targum; or my prayer, as Jarchi; I would offer a sin offering according to the law, to make atonement for my offence, and might hope it would be accepted; or I would make my supplication to God, and entreat him to forgive mine iniquity, and so an issue be put to these troubles; or should it be a capital crime deserving of death he was guilty of, he was content to die, and satisfy for his fault in that way; or if both of them had sinned, in any respect, he proposed to join in an acceptable sacrifice to God, and so reconciliation be made, and matters adjusted in such a religious way; if it was the evil spirit from the Lord that had entered into Saul, or God had suffered a melancholy disorder to seize him, which had put him upon those measures, let an offering agreeable to the will of God be offered, or supplication made for the removal of it:
but if [they be] the children of men; that incited him to such violent methods, as Abner his general, or Doeg the Edomite, and others:
cursed [be] they before the Lord; an imprecation of the vengeance of God upon them:
for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord; meaning not from his own house and fatally, nor from the palace of Saul, but from the land of Canaan the Lord had given to his people Israel for an inheritance, and from the worship of God in it, which made it dear and precious to him; he knew if Saul went on pursuing him in this manner, he mast be obliged to quit the land, and go into a foreign country, as he quickly did; so the Targum renders it the inheritance of the people of the Lord: by being driven out of the land which was their inheritance, he should be deprived of their company and conversation, and of all social worship; the consideration of which was cutting to him, and caused the above imprecation from him on those who were concerned in it, and who in effect by their actions were
saying, go, serve other gods; for by being forced to go into an idolatrous country, he would be in the way of temptation, and be liable to be corrupted by ill examples, and to be persuaded and enticed into idolatrous practices; and if he was kept from them it would be no thanks to them, they did all they could to lead him into them; and if he was preserved, it would be owing to the power and grace of God; the Targum is,
“go David among the people that worship idols;”
the Jews have a saying, that he that dwells without the land of Israel, it is as if he had no God and as if he served an idol q.
q T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 110. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(19) Let him accept an offering.The words here are difficult ones in a theological point of view. If, however, we are content to interpret them with Bishop Wordsworth according to the Arabic Version of the Chaldee Targum, the difficulty vanishes: If the Lord hath stirred thee up against me for any fault of mine, let me know mine offence, and I am ready to make an offering for it to the Lord, that I may be forgiven.Wordsworth. But by far the greater number of scholars and expositors understand the words of David in what seems to be their plain literal sense, viz.: If Jehovah has incited you to do this evil thing, let Him smell an offering. The word for offering in the Hebrew is minchah, the meat offering, which signifies sanctification of life and devotion to the Lord. In other words, If you think or feel that God stirs you up to take this course against methe innocent onepray to God that He may take the temptationif it be a temptationfrom thee. This conception that the movement comes from God runs through the Old Testament. It is apparently expressed in such passages as the Lord hardened Pharaohs heart, and in such sayings as we find here in this Book of Samuel of an evil spirit from the Lord haunting Saul. Some have explained the conception by referring it to the intensity with which the Israelites had grasped the idea of the omnipresence of the Deity, and of His being the one power by whose energy all things exist and all acts are done; alike evil and good come from God, for He alone is the source of all . . . but it does not follow that everything to which His providence seems to lead is therefore right for man to do; on the contrary, all leadings of Providence are to be judged by Gods immutable law.Dean Payne Smith. These seeming leadings must be tested by prayer offered by an earnest heart: that is the meaning of the offering (minchah) here. The conceptionstrange as it may seem at firstis a true one, as in the case of Pharaoh, and alsothough with some important modificationsof Saul. The Holy Spirit had pleaded long, and had pleaded in vain. It is possible, we know, for us to weary, or, as St. Paul puts it, quench that Spirit of God pleading within us; then at length, wearied or quenched, it wings its flight away from the wicked soul. This spreading its wings in flight may be said to be Gods work. The sad and invariable result is, the deserted heart becomes hardened, as in the case of Pharaoh; the empty shrine becomes the swept and garnished home for the evil spirit, as in the case of Saul.
But if they be the children of men.But David goes on to say, If the cruel, unjust thoughts are the result of the envy and hatred of men who are my enemies, may God punish them as they deserve; for see what they have done for me: they have by their calumnieswhispered in your earsdriven me into exile; they have violently bidden me to go and serve other and strange gods. He means that, far away from the only country where Jehovah is loved and honoured, away from the influence of Jehovahs prophets and beloved priests, he and his would be tempted to serve other gods, and to share in the foul and impious practice of the heathen nations.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. If the Lord have stirred thee up against me That God sometimes impels men into evil actions is seen from 2Sa 16:10 ; 2Sa 24:1; but those very examples show that such instigation is but a part of the punishment of sins already committed. God tempts no man to sin, and the instigations to evil above referred to are not temptations, but judgments for sins already done and demanding punishment. David therefore tells the king that if the Lord has stirred him up to this evil persecution, then he (Saul) should regard himself as a sinner, and seek reconciliation by an offering.
Let him accept an offering Both at thy hands and at mine. David here implies that he himself is a sinner and may need atonement, but that fact does not lessen Saul’s sin.
If the children of men Such as the Ziphites and Doeg the Edomite.
Go, serve other gods This was the effect of their driving him out of the inheritance of the Lord, that is, from among the chosen people, Israel. They thereby obliged him to be far away from the tabernacle and all the sacred services required by the law. Perhaps Psalms xlii and xliii were composed about this time.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 26:19. If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, let him accept, &c. That is, says Delaney, “If God have excited you against me, on the score of any guilt for which I deserve to die; behold, here I am, ready to be sacrificed in atonement for it.” Others understand it as expressive of David’s readiness to offer up any sacrifice, if he had been guilty of such a crime as could justly merit this persecution of Saul against him. See Witsius’s Miscel. Sacr. tom. 1: p. 581. “But,” continues David, “if they are the children of men, they are cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out, &c. saying, Go, serve other gods.””The adoption of the local gods of any nation,” says Bishop Warburton, “as well as their rites, was so general, that David makes his being unjustly driven into an idolatrous land, the same thing as being forced to serve idolatrous gods.” To the same principle Jeremiah likewise alludes, chap. 1Sa 16:13.; by which is not meant, that they should be forced any otherwise than by the superstitious dread of divine vengeance for a slighted worship; for at this time civil restraint in matters of religion was very rare. It is very remarkable, that David here laments no present loss, or exclusion from just right, other than that of being shut out from the divine ordinances, and forced among the worshippers of idols.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Sa 26:19 Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the LORD have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if [they be] the children of men, cursed [be] they before the LORD; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve other gods.
Ver. 19. Let him accept an offering. ] Heb., Let him smell, viz., the savour of a sacrifice, and be reconciled through the passion of Christ, whereof those sacrifices were sacraments. And hereunto David doubted not but God would condescend, for he is gracious, and doth abundantly pardon. Isa 55:7
From abiding in the inheritance of the Lord.
Saying, Go, serve other gods.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
offering. See App-43.
children = sons.
men. Hebrew. ‘adam. App-14.
serve other gods. David was being driven from God’s altar.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
let my lord: 1Sa 25:24, Gen 44:18
stirred: 1Sa 16:14-23, 1Sa 18:10, 2Sa 16:11, 2Sa 24:1, 1Ki 22:22, 1Ch 21:1
accept: Heb. smell, Gen 8:21, Lev 26:31, Psa 119:1-8
cursed: Pro 6:16-19, Pro 30:10, Gal 1:8, Gal 1:9, Gal 5:12, 2Ti 4:14
they have driven: Deu 4:27, Deu 4:28, Jos 22:25-27, Psa 42:1, Psa 42:2, Psa 120:5, Isa 60:5, Rom 14:15
abiding: Heb. cleaving
the inheritance: 2Sa 14:16, 2Sa 20:19
Reciprocal: Gen 16:8 – I flee Gen 20:9 – What hast Exo 32:21 – General Deu 27:15 – Cursed be Jdg 5:23 – Curse ye Jdg 17:2 – cursedst 1Sa 24:9 – General 1Ki 11:14 – the Lord 1Ki 16:2 – hast made my people 2Ch 21:16 – the Lord 2Ch 36:22 – the Lord stirred Psa 7:3 – if I Psa 27:12 – false Psa 37:3 – so shalt Pro 28:10 – causeth Jer 43:5 – took Mic 2:9 – from their children
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 26:19. If the Lord hath stirred thee up against me If he hath, by the evil spirit which he hath sent, or by his secret providence, directed thy rage against me for the punishment of thine or my sins; let him accept an offering Let us offer up a sacrifice to him to appease his wrath against us. They have driven me From the land which God hath given to his people for their inheritance, and where he hath established his presence and worship. Saying, Go, serve other gods This was the language of their actions. For by driving him from Gods land, and the place of his worship, into foreign and idolatrous lands, they exposed him to the peril of being either insnared by their counsels or examples, or forced by their power to worship idols.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
26:19 Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the LORD have stirred thee up against me, let him {h} accept an offering: but if [they be] the children of men, cursed [be] they before the LORD; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve {i} other gods.
(h) Let his anger toward us be pacified by a sacrifice.
(i) As much as lay in them, they compelled him to idolatry because they forced him to flee to the idolaters.