SEV Biblia, Chapter 24:3
Y cuando llegó a una majada de ovejas en el camino, donde había una cueva, entró Saúl en ella a hacer sus necesidades; y David y los suyos estaban sentados a los lados de la cueva.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 24:3
Verse 3. The sheep-cotes] Caves in the rocks, in which it is common, even to the present time, for shepherds and their flocks to lodge. According to Strabo there are caverns in Syria, one of which is capable of containing four thousand men: Æwn en kai tetrakisciliouv anqrwpouv dexasqai dunamenon; lib. xvi. p. 1096. Edit. 1707. Saul went in to cover his feet] Perhaps this phrase signifies exactly what the Vulgate has rendered it, ut purparet ventrem. The Septuagint, the Targum, and the Arabic understand it in the same way. It is likely that, when he had performed this act of necessity, he lay down to repose himself, and it was while he was asleep that David cut off the skirt of his robe. It is strange that Saul was not aware that there might be men lying in wait in such a place; and the rabbins have invented a most curious conceit to account for Saul's security: "God, foreseeing that Saul would come to this cave, caused a spider to weave her web over the mouth of it, which, when Saul perceived, he took for granted that no person had lately been there, and consequently he entered it without suspicion." This may be literally true; and we know that even a spider in the hand of God may be the instrument of a great salvation. This is a Jewish tradition, and one of the most elegant and instructive in their whole collection.
David and his men remained in the sides of the cave.] This is no hyperbole; we have not only the authority of Strabo as above mentioned, but we have the authority of the most accurate travelers, to attest the fact of the vast capacity of caves in the East.
Dr. Pococke observes: "Beyond the valley (of Tekoa) there is a very large grotto, which the Arabs call El Maamah, a hiding place; the high rocks on each side of the valley are almost perpendicular, and the way to the grotto is by a terrace formed in the rock, which is very narrow. There are two entrances into it; we went by the farthest, which leads by a narrow passage into a large grotto, the rock being supported by great natural pillars; the top of it rises in several parts like domes; the grotto is perfectly dry. There is a tradition that the people of the country, to the number of thirty thousand, retired into this grotto to avoid a bad air. This place is so strong that one would imagine it to be one of the strong holds of En-gedi, to which David and his men fled from Saul; and possibly it may be that very cave in which he cut off Saul's skirt, for David and his men might with great ease lie hid there and not be seen by him." - Pococke's Travels, vol. ii., part 1, p. 41.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 3. And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where [was] a cave , etc.] For the sheep to be led into at noon, to shelter them from the heat: such was the cave of Polyphemus, observed by Bochart f475 , in which sheep and goats lay down and slept; (see Gill on “ Zephaniah 2:6”); and Saul went in to cover his feet ; the Targum is, to do his necessaries; and so Josephus f476 ; and the Jewish commentators generally understand it of easing nature; and as the eastern people used to wear long and loose garments, these, when they performed such an action, they used in modesty to gather them close about them, that no part of the body, their feet, and especially the parts of nature which should be concealed, might be seen; but the Syriac and Arabic versions render it, “and there he lay” or “slept”; which suggest, that his going into the cave was in order to take some sleep and rest, when it was usual to cover the feet, both to prevent taking cold, and the private parts of the body being exposed to view; and this accounts better for Saul not hearing David’s men in the cave, and for his being insensible of David’s cuttings off the skirt of his garment, and best agrees with the use of the phrase in ( Judges 3:24); the only place besides this in which it is used; (see Gill on “ Judges 3:24”); and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave ; unseen and unobserved by Saul, even six hundred of them; nor need this seem strange, since in those parts of the world there were caves exceeding large, made so either by nature or art. Vansleb speaks of a cave in Egypt so extraordinary large, that, without hyperbole, a thousand horses might there draw up in battle array, and of another larger than that; and Strabo says f478 , that towards Arabia and Iturea are mountains difficult to be passed, and in which are deep caves, one of which would hold four thousand men: and as the mouths of these caves were generally narrow, and the further parts of them large, and also dark, persons at the entrance of them could be seen, when those in the more remote parts could not; and this cave is said to be extremely dark f479 ; which accounts for Saul’s being seen when he came into the cave, whereas David and his men could not be seen by him.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-7 - God delivered Saul into David's hand. It was an opportunity given to David to exercise faith and patience. He had a promise of the kingdom but no command to slay the king. He reasons strongly, both with himsel and with his men, against doing Saul any hurt. Sin is a thing which it becomes us to startle at, and to resist temptations thereto. He no only would not do this bad thing himself, but he would not suffer thos about him to do it. Thus he rendered good for evil, to him from whom he received evil for good; and was herein an example to all who are calle Christians, not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good.
Original Hebrew
ויבא 935 אל 413 גדרות 1448 הצאן 6629 על 5921 הדרך 1870 ושׁם 8033 מערה 4631 ויבא 935 שׁאול 7586 להסך 5526 את 853 רגליו 7272 ודוד 1732 ואנשׁיו 376 בירכתי 3411 המערה 4631 ישׁבים׃ 3427
