Abravanel shares a novel insight concerning David and Abishai’s brief exchange in Samuel 26, as the two men stealthily snuck into King Saul’s camp. Standing next to the king, David weighed his options as to what would be his best course of action against Saul, who had doggedly pursued him. Should David slew Saul in pre-emptive self-defense? Or, should David adopt a peaceful strategy?
”And David said to Abishai: Destroy him not; for who can put forth his hand against the LORD'S anointed, and be guiltless?”
Our lead verse answers one question. David chose non-belligerence. “And David said to Abishai: Destroy him not…” But then, Abravanel picks up on something else in David’s follow up to Abishai, his aide-de-camp. Recall from the earlier essay, Abishai ached to snuff out Saul with one mortal blow.
Here is what David told Abishai regarding King Saul. “And David said: As the LORD lives, nay, but the LORD shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle, and be swept away.” What do David’s seemingly obvious words convey? Clearly, Saul will succumb to death one way or another.
“And David said: As the LORD lives” is meant to calm his combative comrade. Don’t fret, Abishai. Saul will shortly perish. Next, David laid out by which means King Saul might die. Perhaps illness will prematurely claim Saul’s life. Or maybe God only allotted a short lifespan to Saul, and his sands quickly dwindled. Possibly, Saul would fall on the battlefield. Be that as it may, David informed Abishai, Saul’s days are numbered and thus Abishai need not take a proactive stance now.
At this stage, Abravanel reveals how he came to this interpretation of David’s words to Abishai concerning Saul. Put differently, how was David so confident about Saul’s imminent demise that he uttered a solemn, divine oath: “As the LORD lives?” David knew that the Maker had anointed him to be king and that He had stripped the kingship from Saul. By deduction, David gathered and declared to Abishai that Saul had precious little time left. Alternatively, David had “insider” information. That is, he knew because Samuel the prophet apprised him of such. When? Recall, we read earlier in the Book of Samuel that David paid a visit to the prophet in Ramah. “Now David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth” (Samuel 19). Although David and Samuel’s conversation was not recorded, nevertheless, Abravanel puts two and two together. Namely, the prophet, on the qt, told David that Saul’s life had just about reached the end.
Abravanel adds this as a general comment on man’s longevity. That is, at birth, each man is allotted by the One Above so many years to live – some men more some less. Scripture and the Talmud bear this out. “The days of our years are seventy years or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet is their pride but travail and vanity; for it is speedily gone, and we fly away” (Psalms 90), “When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers” (II Samuel 7), and “And your days I shall fill…“ (Talmud).