Bible Synapse
When did Saul become David’s enemy?
Hard question · Israel’s history: Joshua to Esther · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Angered by the women’s song, Saul said “what can he have more but the kingdom?”, and “Saul eyed David from that day and forward”.
And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.
Seeing that the Lord was with David and that Michal loved him, “Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul became David’s enemy continually”.
And Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal Saul’s daughter loved him. And Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul became David’s enemy continually.
The objection
1 Samuel 18:8–9 says that Saul turned against David as soon as the women sang, “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands”. But 1 Samuel 18:29, after David’s marriage to Michal, says that Saul then became David’s enemy. Critics ask when the enmity began.
The answer
Chapter 18 describes a hatred that grew in stages, and the two verses mark different stages. It began with jealousy at the women’s song. Saul was “very wroth”, and from that day he ‘eyed’ David (18:8–9). The Hebrew word (‘oyen, from ‘ayin, ‘eye’; Strong’s H5770) means to watch someone with suspicion. The next day Saul threw his javelin at David (18:10–11). Then came fear: Saul “was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him” (18:12). He sent David away from court as a commander (18:13), and then tried to have him killed by the Philistines (18:17, 21, 25).
The last stage came when that plan failed. David came back alive with the bride-price, Saul’s own daughter loved him, and Saul saw plainly that the Lord was with David. Then “Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul became David’s enemy continually” (18:29). The Hebrew says that he was his enemy ‘all the days’ (kol-hayyamim): a settled hostility that lasted the rest of his life. Gill puts the difference well: until then Saul’s enmity came in fits, with intervals between, but now it was rooted and constant. Suspicion in verse 9 and fixed enmity in verse 29 are two points on one road, not two accounts of where it started.
From the classic commentators
before it was by fits, and at certain times, there were some intervals; but now enmity was rooted and habituated, and was constant and continually showing itselfJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on 1 Samuel 18 (1746–1763)
Sources
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: 1 Samuel 18 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub
- Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on 1 Samuel 18, at Bible Hub
- Strong’s Hebrew H5770, ‘avan, to eye, at Bible Hub