1 Samuel 26:10

10 As surely as the LORD lives," David continued, "it will be the LORD who will strike him down, or his day will come and he will die, or he'll fall in battle and be destroyed.

1 Samuel 26:10 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 26:10

And David said furthermore
In order to make Abishai easy, and prevent his doing what he proposed:

[as] the Lord liveth;
which was the form of an oath, made to assure Abishai of the truth of what follows, and therefore he need not be hasty to put Saul to death, since it would not be long before he should die, in one or other of the three following ways: either

the Lord shall smite him;
suddenly, which the Jews call cutting off, or death by the hand of heaven, by the immediate hand of God:

or his day shall come to die;
the time appointed for him to die a natural death, of some disease common to men:

or he shall descend into battle, and perish;
which was commonly reckoned death, casual or accidental, and in which last way Saul did die, ( 1 Samuel 31:3 1 Samuel 31:4 ) .

1 Samuel 26:10 In-Context

8 Abishai said to David, "God has handed your enemy over to you today! Let me pin him to the ground with my spear. One stroke is all I need! I won't need a second."

9 But David said to Abishai, "Don't kill him! No one can lift a hand against the LORD's anointed and go unpunished.

10 As surely as the LORD lives," David continued, "it will be the LORD who will strike him down, or his day will come and he will die, or he'll fall in battle and be destroyed.

11 The LORD forbid that I lift my hand against the LORD's anointed! But go ahead and take the spear by Saul's head and the water jug and let's go!"

12 So David took the spear and the water jug that were by Saul's head, and he and Abishai left. No one saw them, no one knew they were there, and no one woke up. All of them remained asleep because a deep sleep from the LORD had come over them.