1 Samuel 18:6 Commentary and Bible Study

But the population made matters pretty hard for David without realising it. ‘And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick’ – the Hebrew says ‘three stringed instruments’. ‘ And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’ – they called out in an antiphonal manner one to another as they played. ‘And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him.’ It infuriated Saul. It aroused him to murderous jealousy. The people are praising David and they are not hiding it from Saul. Saul did have a fine military record, but David, by slaying Goliath, had put the Philistines to rout as Saul had never done. He had performed the deed which led to the retreat of the Philistines, and their subsequent destruction. So the naïve honesty of the women praises David above Saul, and he cannot stand it. Jealousy consumes him, and yet the situation makes it impossible for him to exact his revenge on David openly. He couldn't think of the fact that his life had been saved and his kingdom, and scores of thousands of lives of Israelites. All he could think about was that David was getting the credit, and he was furious and became murderous. What pride does!‘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?’ He is convinced that David is his enemy, that he is the one who is to be king. His heart therefore burns with secret jealousy, and drives him to devise all sorts of ways of destroying David, without his intention being known.‘And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.’ It is a strong word actually; he spied on him and he appointed others, no doubt, to spy on him constantly. So David was now in an environment of people – he knew not who – watching him all the time, tracking him, reporting his movements from morning till night. Is he going to move? Is there going to be a coup? Every day, from that day and forward.