1 Samuel 24:19

19 A man finds his enemy and lets him go unharmed?! May ADONAI reward you well for what you did to me today.

1 Samuel 24:19 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 24:19

For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away?
&c.] Or "in a good way" ^F5, in peace and safety, without doing him any hurt; this is not usual among men, and yet this was the present case; David had found his enemy Saul, which Saul tacitly owns, and yet had let him go well away from him, without hurting him:

wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me
this day;
he does not promise to reward him himself, but prays the Lord to reward him; and had he been sincere in it, he could not have done better for him. Some connect the former clause with this, after this manner, "if a man find his enemy, and let him go away, the Lord will reward him, the Lord reward thee" so the Syriac and Arabic versions.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 (hbwj Krdb) "in via bona", Pagninus, Montanus.

1 Samuel 24:19 In-Context

17 and he said to David, "You are more righteous than I, because you have treated me well, while I have been treating you badly.

18 You have made it clear to me today that you have done me good; for when ADONAI put my fate in your hands, you didn't kill me.

19 A man finds his enemy and lets him go unharmed?! May ADONAI reward you well for what you did to me today.

20 Now I'm certain that you will indeed become king, and that the kingship of Isra'el will be established in your hands.

21 So swear to me by ADONAI that you will not kill my descendants after I die or blot out my name from my father's family."