Bible Strands
1 Samuel 26:8
Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Now, therefore, please let me thrust the spear through him into the ground with one stroke. I will not need to strike him twice!”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Abishai speaks to David while the two men stand inside Saul’s sleeping camp at night. He makes his proposal at the precise moment the king lies defenseless with his spear nearby.
The words — The Hebrew סִגַּר (si.Gar) translates literally as “he has delivered up,” describing God’s action in placing the enemy within reach. The phrase הַ/יּ֛וֹם (hai./Yom) means “this day,” grounding the claim in the immediate historical moment.
The thread — The motif of God delivering an enemy into one’s hand appears in 1 Samuel 24:4, 1 Samuel 26:23, and Deuteronomy 32:30. Each passage links military advantage to divine action rather than human capability.
Why it lands — The text reports Abishai’s claim that God has handed over the enemy, then immediately shows David refusing to act on it. It requires a reader to distinguish between granted opportunity and authorized authority.
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
Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 24:4 So David’s men said to him, “This is the day about which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do with him as you wish.’” Then David crept up and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
- 1 Samuel 26:23 May the LORD repay every man for his righteousness and faithfulness. For the LORD delivered you into my hand today, but I would not extend my hand against the LORD’s anointed.
- Deuteronomy 32:30 How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
- Joshua 21:44 And the LORD gave them rest on every side, just as He had sworn to their fathers. None of their enemies could stand against them, for the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.
- Judges 1:4 When Judah attacked, the LORD delivered the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands, and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek.
- 1 Samuel 23:14 And David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hill country of the Wilderness of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God would not deliver David into his hand.
- 1 Samuel 24:18 And you have declared this day how you have treated me well, for when the LORD delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me.
- Psalms 31:8 You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.
- Nahum 1:9 Whatever you plot against the LORD, He will bring to an end. Affliction will not rise up a second time.
- Romans 11:32 For God has consigned everyone to disobedience so that He may have mercy on everyone.