1 Samuel 18:7

And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.—These words, which sing of the early glory of David in battle, are quoted again in 1Samuel 29:5. They were, no doubt, the favourite refrain of an old national or folk-song.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:6-11 David's troubles not only immediately follow his triumphs, but arise from them; such is the vanity of that which seems greatest in this world. It is a sign that the Spirit of God is departed from men, if, like Saul, they are peevish, envious, suspicious, and ill-natured. Compare David, with his harp in his hand, aiming to serve Saul, and Saul, with his javelin in his hand, aiming to slay David; and observe the sweetness and usefulness of God's persecuted people, and the barbarity of their persecutors. But David's safety must be ascribed to God's providence.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

As they played - Or danced with vocal and instrumental music (see Judges 16:25 note).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. the women came out of all cities of Israel—in the homeward march from the pursuit of the Philistines. This is a characteristic trait of Oriental manners. On the return of friends long absent, and particularly on the return of a victorious army, bands of women and children issue from the towns and villages, to form a triumphal procession, to celebrate the victory, and, as they go along, to gratify the soldiers with dancing, instrumental music, and extempore songs, in honor of the generals who have earned the highest distinction by feats of gallantry. The Hebrew women, therefore, were merely paying the customary gratulations to David as the deliverer of their country, but they committed a great indiscretion by praising a subject at the expense of their sovereign.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Answered one another; singing by parts alternately.

David his ten thousands; so they said, because David killed Goliath, which was the principal cause of all the following slaughter of the Philistines.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the women answered one another as they played,.... They sung vocally to their instruments, and that by turns, one rehearsing one line or verse in the song, and then the other another:

and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands; which, if to be referred to the battle in the preceding chapter, as it commonly is, must be understood thus, that though Saul, in pursuit of the Philistines, slew many thousands of them, and David but one, even Goliath; yet the slaying of him was the occasion of slaying ten thousands, and therefore it is ascribed to him: but it seems rather that in some after battles David had been more prosperous and victorious than Saul, and therefore superior commendations are given him by the author of the song the women sung; which, however just it might be to give them, was not wise, since it served to irritate their king, as follows.

Geneva Study Bible

And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. answered one another] The women who “played”—i.e. danced and gesticulated—sang in antiphonal chorus (Exodus 15:21) the refrain of a popular song, which evidently became widely current, as it was well known even among the Philistines (1 Samuel 21:11, 1 Samuel 29:5).

David his ten thousands] For the Philistine champion was a host in himself. Comp. the people’s words to David: “thou art worth ten thousand of us” (2 Samuel 18:3).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - The women answered. I.e. they sang alternately. It was this alternate singing which led to the psalms being composed in parallel sentences, and not in metre; and we from the temple service have inherited our method of chanting antiphonally. As they played. The word is ambiguous, and to an English reader would suggest the idea of the women playing upon the musical instruments. It usually refers to merriment, and so in Zechariah 8:5 it is used of the children playing in the streets, but especially it refers to dancing. Thus in 2 Samuel 2:14 it is used of a war dance ending in a real conflict; and again (2 Samuel 6:5, 21; 1 Chronicles 13:8; 1 Chronicles 15:29) of David dancing to instruments of music, before the ark. Michal probably would not have despised David for playing an instrument of music during a religious ceremony; it was the posturing of the dance which seemed to her beneath the dignity of a king. So these women danced in alternate choruses to the beating of their tambourines and triangles. In Judges 16:25, where, however, it is in a different conjugation, the verb is translated "to make sport." Really Samson was compelled to dance Israel's national war dance before the Philistines. 1 Samuel 18:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Saul's jealousy towards David.

(Note: The section 1 Samuel 18:6-14 is supposed by Thenius and others to have been taken by the compiler from a different source from the previous one, and not to have been written by the same author: (1) because the same thing is mentioned in 1 Samuel 18:13, 1 Samuel 18:14, as in 1 Samuel 18:5, though in a somewhat altered form, and 1 Samuel 18:10, 1 Samuel 18:11 occur again in 1 Samuel 19:9-10, with a few different words, and in a more appropriate connection; (2) because the contents of 1 Samuel 19:9, and the word ממּחרת in 1 Samuel 19:10, are most directly opposed to 1 Samuel 18:2 and 1 Samuel 18:5. On these grounds, no doubt, the lxx have not only omitted the beginning of 1 Samuel 18:6 from their version, but also 1 Samuel 18:9-11. But the supposed discrepancy between 1 Samuel 18:9 and 1 Samuel 18:10 and 1 Samuel 18:2 and 1 Samuel 18:5, - viz., that Saul could not have kept David by his side from attachment to him, or have placed him over his men of war after several prosperous expeditions, as is stated in 1 Samuel 18:2 and 1 Samuel 18:5, if he had looked upon him with jealous eyes from the very first day, or if his jealousy had broken out on the second day in the way described in 1 Samuel 18:10, 1 Samuel 18:11, - is founded upon two erroneous assumptions; viz., (1) that the facts contained in 1 Samuel 18:1-5 were contemporaneous with those in 1 Samuel 18:6-14; and (2) that everything contained in these two sections is to be regarded as strictly chronological. But the fact recorded in 1 Samuel 18:2, namely, that Saul took David to himself, and did not allow him to go back to his father's house any more, occurred unquestionably some time earlier than those mentioned in 1 Samuel 18:6. with their consequences. Saul took David to himself immediately after the defeat of Goliath, and before the war had been brought to an end. But the celebration of the victory, in which the paean of the women excited jealousy in Saul's mind, did not take place till the return of the people and of the king at the close of the war. How long the war lasted we do not know; but from the fact that the Israelites pursued the flying Philistines to Gath and Ekron, and then plundered the camp of the Philistines after that (1 Samuel 17:52-53), it certainly follows that some days, if not weeks, must have elapsed between David's victory over Goliath and the celebration of the triumph, after the expulsion of the Philistines from the land. Thus far the events described in the two sections are arranged in their chronological order; but for all the rest the facts are arranged antithetically, according to their peculiar character, whilst the consequences, which reached further than the facts that gave rise to them, and were to some extent contemporaneous, are appended immediately to the facts themselves. Thus David's going out whithersoever Saul sent him (1 Samuel 18:5) may indeed have commenced during the pursuit of the flying Philistines; but it reached far beyond this war, and continued even while Saul was looking upon him with jealous eyes. 1 Samuel 18:5 contains a general remark, with which the historian brings to a close one side of the relation between David and Saul, which grew out of David's victory. He then proceeds in 1 Samuel 18:6 to give the other side, and rounds off this paragraph also (1 Samuel 18:14-16) with a general remark, the substance of which resembles, in the main, the substance of 1 Samuel 18:5. At the same time it implies some progress, inasmuch as the delight of the people at the acts performed by David (1 Samuel 18:5) grew into love to David itself. This same progress is also apparent in 1 Samuel 18:13 ("Saul made him captain over a thousand"), as compared with 1 Samuel 18:5 ("Saul set him over the men of war"). Whether the elevation of David into a captain over a thousand was a higher promotion than his appointment over the men of war, or the latter expression is to be taken as simply a more general or indefinite term, denoting his promotion to the rank of commander-in-chief, is a point which can hardly be determined with certainty.)

- Saul had no sooner attached the conqueror of Goliath to his court, than he began to be jealous of him. The occasion for his jealousy was the celebration of victory at the close of the war with the Philistines.

1 Samuel 18:6-7

"When they came," i.e., when the warriors returned with Saul from the war, "when (as is added to explain what follows) David returned from the slaughter," i.e., from the war in which he had slain Goliath, the women came out of all the towns of Israel, "to singing and dancing," i.e., to celebrate the victory with singing and choral dancing (see the remarks on Exodus 15:20), "to meet king Saul with tambourines, with joy, and with triangles." שׂמהה is used here to signify expressions of joy, a fte, as in Judges 16:23, etc. The striking position in which the word stands, viz., between two musical instruments, shows that, the word is to be understood here as referring specially to songs of rejoicing, since according to 1 Samuel 18:7 their playing was accompanied with singing. The women who "sported" (משׂחקות), i.e., performed mimic dances, sang in alternate choruses ("answered," as in Exodus 15:21), "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands."