1 Samuel 26:21-23

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

²¹Then said Saul, I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have ^[a]played the fool and have erred exceedingly.

²²David answered, See the king’s spear! Let one of the young men come and get it.

²³The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; for the Lord delivered you into my hands today, but I would not stretch forth my hand against the Lord’s anointed.

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Footnotes

1 Samuel 26:21 “When for a moment a man is off guard, in all probability you will know more truth about him than in all his attempts either to reveal himself or to hide himself. The ever-present consciousness, habitually hidden, flashes forth. Later he may apologize and say he did not mean what he said. The fact is that he was surprised into saying what he was constantly thinking. In all probability Saul had never said that before and would never say it again, but he had been thinking it for a long time—‘I played the fool.’ There is no escape for any man, as long as reason continues, from the naked truth about himself. He may practice deceit so skillfully as not only to hide himself from his fellowmen, but in his unutterable folly to imagine he has hidden himself from God; but he can never hide himself from himself. In some moment of stress and strain he says what he has been thinking all the time.... Ere Saul knew it, he had said, ‘Behold, I have played the fool.’ That is the whole story of the man” (G. Campbell Morgan, cited by J. Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book).