1 Samuel 24:19

19 Why? When a man meets his enemy, does he send him down the road with a blessing? May God give you a bonus of blessings 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 "You're the one in the right, not me," he continued. "You've heaped good on me; I've dumped evil on you.
18 And now you've done it again - treated me generously. God put me in your hands and you didn't kill me.
19 Why? When a man meets his enemy, does he send him down the road with a blessing? May God give you a bonus of blessings for what you've done for me today!
20 I know now beyond doubt that you will rule as king. The kingdom of Israel is already in your grasp!
21 Now promise me under God that you will not kill off my family or wipe my name off the books."
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.