1 Samuel 19:11 Komentář

Immediately after David's marriage, which one would have hoped would secure him Saul's affection, we find his troubles coming upon him faster than ever and Saul's enmity to him the cause of all. His death was vowed, and four fair escapes of his from the hurtful sword of Saul we have an account of in this chapter: the first by the prudent mediation of Jonathan (Sa1 19:1-7), the second by his own quickness (Sa1 19:8-10), the third by Michal's fidelity (Sa1 19:11-17), the fourth by Samuel's protection, and a change, for the present, wrought upon Saul (Sa1 19:18-24). Thus God has many ways of preserving his people. Providence is never at a loss.

Here is, I. Saul's further design of mischief to David. When David had escaped the javelin, supposing he went straight to his own house, as indeed he did, Saul sent some of his guards after him to lay wait at the door of his house, and to assassinate him in the morning as soon as he stirred out, Sa1 19:11. Josephus says the design was to seize him and to hurry him before a court of justice that was ordered to condemn him and put him to death as a traitor; but we are here told it was a shorter way they were to take with him: they were ordered to slay him. Well might David complain that his enemies were bloody men, as he did in the psalm which he penned at this time, and upon this occasion (Ps. 59), when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him. See Sa1 19:2, Sa1 19:3, and Sa1 19:7. He complains that swords were in their lips. II. David's wonderful deliverance out of this danger. Michal was the instrument of it, whom Saul gave him to be a snare to him, but she proved to be his protector and helper. Often is the devil out-shot with his own bow. How Michal came to know the danger her husband was in does not appear; perhaps she had notice sent her from court, or rather was herself aware of the soldiers about the house, when they were going to bed, though they kept so still and silent that they said, Who dost hear? which David takes notice of, Psa 59:7. She, knowing her father's great indignation at David, soon suspected the design, and bestirred herself for her husband's safety. 1. She got David out of the danger. She told him how imminent the peril was (Sa1 19:11): Tomorrow thou wilt be slain. As Josephus paraphrases it, she told him that if the sun saw him there next morning it would never see him more; and then put him in a way of escape. David himself was better versed in the art of fighting than of flying, and had it been lawful it would have been easy for him to have cleared his house, by dint of sword, from those that haunted it; but Michal let him down through a window (Sa1 19:12), all the doors being guarded; and so he fled and escaped. And now it was that, either in his own closet before he went or in the hiding-place to which he fled, he penned that fifty-ninth Psalm, which shows that, in his fright and hurry, his mind was composed, and, in this great danger, his faith was strong and fixed on God; and, whereas the plot was to slay him in the morning, he speaks there with the greatest assurance (Sa1 19:16), I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning. 2. She practised a deception upon Saul and those whom he employed to be the instruments of his cruelty. When the doors of the house were opened in the morning, and David did not appear, the messengers would search the house for him, and did so. But Michal told them he was sick in bed (Sa1 19:14), and, if they would not believe her, they might see, for (Sa1 19:13) she had put a wooden image in the bed, and wrapped it up close and warm as if it had been David asleep, not in a condition to be spoken to; the goats' hair about the image was to resemble David's hair, the better to impose upon them. Michal can by no means be justified in telling a lie, and covering it thus with a cheat. God's truth needed not her lie. But she intended hereby to keep Saul in suspense for a while, that David might have some time to secure himself, not doubting but those messengers would pursue him if they found he had gone. The messengers had so much humanity as not to offer him any disturbance when they heard he was sick; for to those that are in this misery pity should be shown; but Saul, when he heard it, gave positive orders that he should be brought to him sick or well: Bring him to me in the bed, that I may slay him, Sa1 19:15. It was base and barbarous thus to triumph over a sick man; and to vow the death of one who for aught that he knew was dying by the hand of nature. So earnestly did he thirst after his blood, and so greedy was his revenge, that he could not be pleased to see him dead, unless he himself was the death of him; though awhile ago he had said, Let not my hand be upon him. Thus when men lay the reins on the neck of their passions they grow more and more outrageous. When the messengers were sent again, the cheat was discovered, Sa1 19:16. But by this time it was to be hoped that David was safe, and therefore Michal was not then much concerned at the discovery. Saul chid her for helping David to escape (Sa1 19:17): Why hast thou deceived me so? What a base spirit was Saul of, to expect that, because Michal was his daughter, she must therefore betray her own husband to him unjustly. Ought she not to forsake and forget her father and her father's house, to cleave to her husband? Those that themselves will be held by no bonds of reason or religion are ready to think that others should as easily break those bonds. In answer to Saul's chiding, Michal is not so careful of her husband's reputation as she had been of his person, when she makes this her excuse: He said, Let me go, why should I kill thee? As her insinuating that she would have hindered his flight was false (it was she that put him upon it and furthered it), so it was an unjust unworthy reflection upon him to suggest that he threatened to kill her if she would not let him go, and might confirm Saul in his rage against him. David was far from being so barbarous a man and so imperious a husband, so brutish in his resolves and so haughty in his menaces, as she here represented him. But David suffered both from friends and foes, and so did the son of David.

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 19 This chapter relates the dangers David was exposed unto through Saul's enmity at him, and his deliverance from them, as by the notice Jonathan gave him of his father's designs against him, and by his kind interposition on his behalf, Sa1 19:1; by David's slipping out of Saul's presence, when he was about to cast a javelin at him, Sa1 19:8; by Michal's letting him down through a window, when Saul sent messengers to kill him, and by deceiving them with an image laid in his bed in the room of him, Sa1 19:11, and again by Samuel's protection of him at Naioth, whither David fled, and where Saul sent messengers after him, and at length came himself; and instead of laying hands on David, both he and the messengers were set a prophesying, Sa1 19:18.

And Saul sent messengers unto David's house,.... Supposing that he was gone thither; where this was is not said, very likely in Gibeah, where Saul lived: to watch him; that he might not get out from thence in the night: and to slay him in the morning; the reason why he did not order them to break into the house, and slay him at once, but wait till morning, seems to be, lest should he be alarmed by their breaking in, he might take the advantage of the night, and easily escape, or another person through mistake might be slain for him; and therefore, that they might be sure of him, they were to watch till it was broad daylight, when they could not well miss him. Josephus (d) says, the orders to watch him until morning were, that he might be taken and brought to a court of judicature, and be condemned and put to death, which was usually held in a morning; but Saul's orders to the messengers were to put him to death themselves, and he had no notion of dealing with him according to a formal process of judgment: and Michal, David's wife, told him, saying, if thou save not thy life tonight, tomorrow thou shalt be slain; meaning, if he did not take the benefit and advantage of the night to make his escape, he would not be able to do it in the morning; the house being so beset, as she perceived, by persons whom she might suspect were sent by Saul to destroy him, knowing the ill will her father bore to him, or a messenger at the same time might be dispatched to her, either from her brother Jonathan, or from one of her friends at court, acquainting her with the design against David, and the danger he was in. Upon this occasion David penned the fifty ninth psalm, see Psa 59:1. (d) Antiqu. l. 6. c. 11. sect. 4.

The story relates how, when the vehement emotion of the demonic spirit had settled on Saul and the holy David quieted the disturbance of the passion by means of his psaltery, Saul found the spear that was standing by him, aimed it straight at David and hurled it against his benefactor. David, however, avoided the attack on himself by means of the divine alliance, and the assault of the spear fixed itself deeply in the wall. He fled the royal dwellings and was in his own house, in the hope that repentance would alter the king’s anger. But Saul placed his spearmen around David’s house and ordered the executioners to kill him. He barely escaped the dangers by letting himself down into the open through a window and avoiding detection by the guard.

“Then Saul sent and watched his house to kill him.” This too is fittingly associated with the Lord’s passion, for house indicates the tomb where he rested in a three-day death. The Jews’ leaders sent men to guard it, to destroy so to say the fame of his name, so that by some trick it should not be claimed that he rose again, an eventuality which Christ had been heard earlier proclaiming. It was better that his enemies should of their own accord desire to condemn this, for it allowed the whole world to acknowledge the fact more certainly. The evidence which the unwilling witness offers is beyond doubt; it cannot be called partisan when confirmed by the guilty person.

Therefore Saul sent his messengers to David's house, etc. The chief priests and Pharisees sent their messengers to the Lord's tomb to guard it, hoping that by denying the truth of the resurrection, the memory of His name would be erased in the future. The frequent laments of the Church announced this to Him (for the Lord hears the desire of the poor [Psalm IX]), and trembling from the conspiracy of the faithless, it somehow said: Unless you rise from the dead, the faith and confession of the believers in you cannot firmly persist; unless you invalidate the watchfulness of the guards by overcoming death, the whole faith in the future resurrection will be taken away from the world; at last, it learned that He had left the tomb's location to His guards. He went away and escaped from His executioners and the lying guards; and by appearing to His dear ones after the resurrection, He completely restored their hope and faith. David's harp can specifically and figuratively represent the cross of the Lord; Saul's spear on the wall can represent the nails of the cross, or the very soldier's lance which opened His side. As we have said, David's house is the tomb of the Lord. The leap through the window is the concealed and sudden speed of the resurrection. The wife from whom he escaped through a plan is the Church of believing Jews, who both desired the Lord Savior to rise and taught that He had risen.

Jonathan pleads for David before Saul, who is for the present reconciled, Sa1 19:1-7. David defeats the Philistines; and Saul becomes again envious, and endeavors to slay him, but he escapes, Sa1 19:8-10. Saul sends men to David's house, to lie in wait for him; but Michal saves him by a stratagem, Sa1 19:11-17. David flees to Samuel, at Ramah, Sa1 19:18. Saul, hearing of it, sends messengers three several times to take him; but the Spirit of coming upon them, they prophesy, Sa1 19:19-21. Saul, hearing of this, goes after David himself, and falls under the same influence, Sa1 19:22-24.

To slay him in the morning - When they might be able to distinguish between him and Michal his wife; for, had they attempted his life in the night season, there would have been some danger to Michal's life. Besides, Saul wished to represent him as a traitor; and consequently an attack upon him was justifiable at any time, even in the fullest daylight.

JONATHAN DISCLOSES HIS FATHER'S PURPOSE TO KILL DAVID. (Sa1 19:1-7) Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David--The murderous design he had secretly cherished he now reveals to a few of his intimate friends. Jonathan was among the number. He prudently said nothing at the time, but secretly apprised David of his danger; and waiting till the morning, when his father's excited temper would be cooled, he stationed his friend in a place of concealment, where, overhearing the conversation, he might learn how matters really stood and take immediate flight, if necessary.

Saul sent messengers unto David's house, to watch him, and to slay him--The fear of causing a commotion in the town, or favoring his escape in the darkness, seemed to have influenced the king in ordering them to patrol till the morning. This infatuation was overruled by Providence to favor David's escape; for his wife, secretly apprised by Jonathan, who was aware of the design, or by spying persons in court livery watching the gate, let him down through a window (see on Jos 2:15).

Jonathan warded off the first outbreak of deadly enmity on the part of Saul towards David. When Saul spoke to his son Jonathan and all his servants about his intention to kill David (את־דּוד להמית, i.e., not that they should kill David, but "that he intended to kill him"), Jonathan reported this to David, because he was greatly attached to him, and gave him this advice: "Take heed to thyself in the morning; keep thyself in a secret place, and hide thyself. I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will talk to my father about thee (בּ דּבּר, as in Deu 6:7; Psa 87:3, etc., to talk of or about a person), and see what (sc., he will say), and show it to thee." David was to conceal himself in the field near to where Jonathan would converse with his father about him; not that he might hear the conversation in his hiding-place, but that Jonathan might immediately report to him the result of his conversation, without there being any necessity for going far away from his father, so as to excite suspicion that he was in league with David.

"Saul sent messengers to David's house," to which David had first fled, "to watch him (that he might not get away again), and to put him to death in the (next) morning." Michal made him acquainted with this danger, and then let him down through the window, so that he escaped. The danger in which David was at that time is described by him in Ps 59, from which we may see how Saul was surrounded by a number of cowardly courtiers, who stirred up his hatred against David, and were busily engaged in getting the dreaded rival out of the way.