In the previous chapter of our text, David and his men had narrowly escaped Saul’s pursuit simply by being on the other side of the same mountain, somewhere near Maon, in the southeastern Judean wilderness. As Saul’s troops began circling around both sides of the mountain at once, David and his men took off down a wadi. At this point, a messenger warned Saul that a Philistine raider force had invaded again, so he rallied his troops to meet this new threat.
After chasing off the Philistines, Saul received a report that David and his men had gone downslope toward the Dead Sea, to En Gedi. This area on the western shore of the Dead Sea is riven with steep canyons, and caves all over the place. Saul reduced his attacking force to a select group that could travel faster. Keep in mind that they were moving on foot, as Israel still observed the Lord’s command not to collect horses yet. With a smaller group, they would not need wagons, but could reduce their baggage to what draft animals could carry directly and take rougher routes that ran straight to the target.
At some point, Saul needed a potty break — to “cover one’s feet” was a Hebrew figure of speech for relieving the bowels. For privacy, Saul happened to choose the one cave in which David and few of his men were hiding. Saul would have laid aside his outer garment and armor for this task. While the men with David tried to persuade him to take advantage of this moment, David simply slipped up close and sliced off a section of Saul’s royal outer garment. It would have been distinct from the rest of what his troops wore.
As it was, David really didn’t feel right doing that much, and backed off with his prize, despite the urging of his bodyguard. Besides, they never would have escaped the troops outside the cave. So David waited, and Saul never noticed his robe was shortened.
Once Saul was down a ways from the entrance to the cave, David popped out and announced himself. He reasoned with Saul about what had just happened. Clearly David was no threat to Saul, nor desired his death. For David, Saul was still God’s anointed King of Israel until he died or chose to abdicate. David refused to raise his hand against the Lord’s anointed. To emphasize his point, David held aloft the tail of the robe, obviously the same cloth as what Saul was wearing.
Saul was in one of his better moments, weeping with the full weight of recognizing what a fool he was. He confessed his folly and admitted it was clear who was acting royal here. There was no doubt David would be King soon enough, and he asked that his family be spared any vengeance once David took the throne. David swore a valid oath before the Lord, and the two men parted with their troops.
Wondering what would’ve happened if David actually attacked him. Despite being weaker, David would have the upper hand since Saul was busy doing his business. If David was successful and word got out that he killed Saul so dishonorably or strangely, it wouldn’t have bode well for him. Just speculating.
Well, the immediate issue would be all of Saul’s troops just outside the cave waiting for him to return. It’s possible the cave would have protected them for a while, but unless there was another way out that was hidden, it would turn into a very nasty little siege. David and his men would be starved out and eventually killed. But you are right about the other problem: Even if successful, this is not the way for a King of Israel to act.
I guess I had it staged different in my head.
Some of David’s forces were outside the cave, right? Or was that not made explicit?
We have too little information. We can guess that David’s men were scattered between several caves, but they numbered roughly 600 against Saul’s 3000. The primary reason David and a handful of men would be trapped in a cave like that is because they were scouting, spying on Saul’s formation. That place has a lot of rough terrain where hardy men could hide and shadow a large force with ease. I know very little of how big the caves were, but there are quite a few of them today in that area.