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1 Samuel 24 · a question people ask

David's men said, "Behold, the day of which the LORD said to you" (24:4). When had the LORD said that?

In the text

1 Samuel doesn't record the LORD saying those words to David. The men's words are, "Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you" (24:4), and in the WEB of the whole Bible, "your enemy into your hand" comes only here and in Abishai's words in chapter 26 (26:8). What the book does record is this. Samuel anointed David (16:13). Jonathan spoke of the day "when the LORD has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the surface of the earth" (20:15). At Keilah the LORD said, "I will deliver the Philistines into your hand" (23:4), about the Philistines, not Saul. And Saul had said of David, "God has delivered him into my hand" (23:7), and the chapter went on to say, "God didn’t deliver him into his hand" (23:14). The chapter doesn't say whether the men were repeating a word the book doesn't record or putting their own reading into the LORD's mouth. It does say what David did with the moment: he wouldn't "stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD’s anointed" (24:6).

The verses

“David’s men said to him, “Behold, the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe secretly.”
1 Samuel 24:4 · World English Bible
“Then Abishai said to David, “God has delivered up your enemy into your hand today. Now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.””
1 Samuel 26:8 · World English Bible
“Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the middle of his brothers. Then the LORD’s Spirit came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.”
1 Samuel 16:13 · World English Bible
“but you shall also not cut off your kindness from my house forever, no, not when the LORD has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the surface of the earth.””
1 Samuel 20:15 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Samuel 24

1 Samuel 24: The skirt of his robe

David had Saul in his hand and cut off only the skirt of his robe, and even that struck his heart (24:4-5). He twice said "my hand will not be on you" (24:12-13), close to the words Saul had once said about David (18:17), and left the judging to the LORD. Then Saul said it himself: "I know that you will surely be king" (24:20).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions