1 Samuel 26:13 Commentary and Bible Study

It seems that Saul’s camp is still under this deep sleep, and needs to be roused. Perhaps it takes a bit of time to do this and he had to cry more than once, as Gill suggests. David goes to a hill at a safe distance from Saul’s troops and calls out, for he intends to make the point which he had perhaps all along planned to make. The hill is far enough that Saul cannot immediately command his men to capture David, but not so far that he cannot be heard. David cried out across the intervening gap and called out to the troops in general and to Abner in particular. He will begin by publicly reproving Abner for his failure to protect the king, and this is his way of indicating his continued respect for Saul, in spite of all that he has done to persecute him. The king must be protected and Abner was in charge of his protection and should have set a guard. There is mockery in David’s words to Abner for, although it is David himself that has composed the danger, Abner has failed in this most important duty. ‘For there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord’ – that would be Abishai who wanted to kill the king, not David; he is strictly accurate in relating this. The proof of this is the cruise of water and the spear now in David’s possession. No one can deny what has happened, as David seems to have planned all along. He had not gone into the camp to kill Saul.