Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

18:6 Women in Israel celebrated a victory with singing and dancing and instruments, especially with tambourines (Ex. 15:20; Judg. 11:34; see note on 1 Sam. 10:5). Many clay figurines or plaques depicting women playing tambourines have been discovered in Israel, Phoenicia, and Transjordan. They may have had a connection with prayers or praises for victory.

18:7-9 sang to one another. I.e., antiphonally or responsively. Because thousands/ten thousands is a common parallelism, the general meaning of the song is, "Saul and David have killed many thousands." Yet naming two distinct people in a number parallelism is unusual, and Saul interpreted it in the worst possible light. Hearing David even mentioned together with him in the same song, Saul begins to grow suspicious of David. The rest of the book is a description of Saul's attempts, more and more openly, to get rid of David.

18:12 Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him. Cf. v. 14 and 16:18. Saul's primary concern was not the Lord's honor or the people's welfare but himself.

18:17 fight the Lord's battles. See 17:47. Saul tried to make ill use of David's zeal for God, hoping that very zeal would lead to his death by the hand of the Philistines. Saul's plotting shows little faith in the Lord, for he thought the Philistines could defeat David even though "the Lord was with him" (18:12).

18:18-19 Who am I? Saul used David's humble reply as an excuse to give Merab to another man. For Merab's children, see 2 Sam. 21:8.

18:20-21 that she may be a snare for him. Saul again tries to make ill use of someone's love (cf. v. 17)--this time, his daughter's--to destroy David.

18:25 The bride-price was normally money, but since David could not afford what was due a king's daughter, the king graciously let him display his valor instead. The Philistines had foreskins because they were "uncircumcised" (see 14:6 and note).