1 Samuel 24:19

19 If a person finds his enemy, he doesn't just send him on his way, does he? May the Lord reward you because you were good 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 He said, "You are a better man than I am. You have been good to me, but I have done wrong to you.
18 You told me what good things you did. The Lord handed me over to you, but you did not kill me.
19 If a person finds his enemy, he doesn't just send him on his way, does he? May the Lord reward you because you were good to me today.
20 I know you will surely be king, and you will rule the kingdom of Israel.
21 Now swear to me by the Lord that you will not kill my descendants and that you won't wipe out my name from my father's family."
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.