And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.
Parallel translations
- WEB Afterward, David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.
- BSB Afterward, David’s conscience was stricken because he had cut off the corner of Saul’s robe.
- 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 24:10And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
- 1 Jn 3:20–21For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
- 2 Kgs 22:19Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.
- 2 Sam 12:9Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
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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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