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1 Samuel 26 · a question people ask

"Go, serve other gods!" (26:19). Who said that to David?

In the text

The chapter doesn't record anyone saying those words. They come in David's own words about "the children of men" who may have stirred Saul up against him: "they have driven me out today that I shouldn’t cling to the LORD’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods!’" (26:19) (tap driven me out and inheritance). His next words are "don’t let my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the LORD" (26:20). 1 Samuel uses inheritance only twice, here and when Samuel anointed Saul: "Hasn’t the LORD anointed you to be prince over his inheritance?" (10:1). In the next chapter David does leave, "into the land of the Philistines" (27:1). The chapter doesn't say more about what David meant, and this answer doesn't either.

The verses

“Now therefore, please let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is so that the LORD has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if it is the children of men, they are cursed before the LORD; for they have driven me out today that I shouldn’t cling to the LORD’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods!’ Now therefore, don’t let my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the LORD; for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains.””
1 Samuel 26:19-20 · World English Bible
“Then Samuel took the vial of oil and poured it on his head, then kissed him and said, “Hasn’t the LORD anointed you to be prince over his inheritance?”
1 Samuel 10:1 · World English Bible
“David said in his heart, “I will now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So I will escape out of his hand.””
1 Samuel 27:1 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Samuel 26

1 Samuel 26: Who can stretch out his hand?

Chapter 26 is the second time Saul lies in David's hand, and David still won't touch "the LORD’s anointed" (26:9). He leaves Saul to the LORD, "the LORD will strike him; or his day shall come to die" (26:10), takes Saul's spear from beside his head, as Saul once threw his spear at him (18:11), and offers it back (26:22).

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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