Bible Strands
1 Samuel 25:29
And should someone pursue you and seek your life, then the life of my lord will be bound securely by the LORD your God in the bundle of the living. But He shall fling away the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Abigail addresses David during her plea for mercy, asking him to withhold vengeance against her household. She speaks to him as a future ruler while he prepares to retaliate against her husband's insult.
The words — The text uses נֶ֨פֶשׁ (ne.pesh) for "life" and לִ/רְדָפְ/ךָ֔ (li/r.da.fe./Kha) for "to pursue you," framing a hypothetical attack on David. The Hebrew נֶ֨פֶשׁ (ne.pesh) specifically denotes the vital essence or soul that God will preserve.
The thread — The passage contrasts God's preservation of the righteous with the destruction of enemies, echoing themes in Malachi 3:17 about God's treasured possession and Matthew 10:29 about divine sovereignty over life and death. It also anticipates the unity and protection later described in John 17:21.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that divine protection, not human retaliation, secures the believer's future. It requires the reader to trust God's judgment over personal vengeance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.
Cross-references
- John 17:21 that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
- Malachi 3:17 “They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
- Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
- Psalms 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.
- 1 Samuel 2:9 He guards the steps of His faithful ones, but the wicked perish in darkness; for by his own strength shall no man prevail.
- Psalms 66:9 He preserves our lives and keeps our feet from slipping.
- Jeremiah 10:18 For this is what the LORD says: “Behold, at this time I will sling out the inhabitants of the land and bring distress upon them so that they may be captured.”
- John 17:23 I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.
- 1 Peter 1:5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
- Genesis 15:1 After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”