1 Samuel 24:19

19 How often does someone catch an enemy and then let him get away unharmed? The Lord bless you for what you have done 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.


FOOTNOTES:

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

1 Samuel 24:19 In-Context

17 Then he said to David, "You are right, and I am wrong. You have been so good to me, while I have done such wrong to you!
18 Today you have shown how good you are to me, because you did not kill me, even though the Lord put me in your power.
19 How often does someone catch an enemy and then let him get away unharmed? The Lord bless you for what you have done to me today!
20 Now I am sure that you will be king of Israel and that the kingdom will continue under your rule.
21 But promise me in the Lord's name that you will spare my descendants, so that my name and my family's name will not be completely forgotten."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.