1 Samuel 24:19

19 When a man finds his enemy, does he let him go unharmed?[a][b]May the Lord repay you with good for what you've done for 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 and said to David, "You are more righteous than I, for you have done what is good to me though I have done what is evil to you.
18 You yourself have told me today what good you did for me: when the Lord handed me over to you, you didn't kill me.
19 When a man finds his enemy, does he let him go unharmed?May the Lord repay you with good for what you've done for me today.
20 "Now I know for certain you will be king, and the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand.
21 Therefore swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father's family."

Footnotes 2

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