Afterward, David’s conscience was stricken because he had cut off the corner of Saul’s robe.
Parallel translations
- WEB Afterward, David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.
- KJV And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.
- NKJV Now it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe.
- NASB But it came about afterward that David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe.
- NLT But then David’s conscience began bothering him because he had cut Saul’s robe.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David's conscience strikes him even for cutting Saul's robe. A tender conscience guards the godly even in small acts.
Overview
Though David did Saul no bodily harm, his heart convicts him for having shown even this disrespect toward the Lord's anointed king. The robe represented Saul's royal office, and to damage it bordered on rebellion against the authority God had established. David's sensitivity here models a conscience shaped by reverence for God, contrasting sharply with Saul's hardness and foreshadowing the greater Son of David who perfectly honored His Father's will.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- 2 Sam 24:10After David had numbered the troops, his conscience was stricken and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O LORD, I beg You to take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”
- 1 Jn 3:20–21Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.
- 2 Kgs 22:19because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the LORD.
- 2 Sam 12:9Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.
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Christ at the center
The rise of the anointed king after Israel's failed first choice points to the true Anointed One (Messiah means 'anointed'), the shepherd-king after God's own heart from Bethlehem.
How 1 Samuel 24:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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