SEV Biblia, Chapter 21:13
Y mudó su habla delante de ellos, y fingió ser loco entre las manos de ellos, y escribía en las portadas de las puertas, dejando correr su saliva por su barba.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Samuel 21:13
Verse 13. And he changed his behaviour] Some imagine David was so terrified at the danger to which he was now exposed, that he was thrown into a kind of frenzy, accompanied with epileptic fits. This opinion is countenanced by the Septuagint, who render the passage thus: idou idete andra epilhton; "Behold, ye see an epileptic man. Why have ye introduced him to me?" mh elattoumai epilhptwn egw; "Have I any need of epileptics, that ye have brought him to have his fits before me, (epilhpteuesqai prov me?") It is worthy of remark, that the spittle falling upon the beard, i.e., slavering or frothing at the mouth, is a genuine concomitant of an epileptic fit. If this translation be allowed, it will set the conduct of David in a clearer point of view than the present translation does. But others think the whole was a feigned conduct, and that he acted the part of a lunatic or madman in order to get out of the hands of Achish and his courtiers. Many vindicate this conduct of David; but if mocking be catching, according to the proverb, he who feigns himself to be mad may, through the just judgment of God, become so. I dare not be the apologist of insincerity or lying.
Those who wish to look farther into this subject may consult Dr. Chandler, Mr. Saurin, and Ortlob, in the first volume of Dissertations, at the end of the Dutch edition of the Critici Sacri.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 13. And he changed his behaviour before them , etc.] Behaved like a fool, or a madman: or changed his “taste” f445 ; which some understand of his reason, acted as if he was deprived of it; and others of his speech, his words and the accent of them, drawled them out, as such persons do: and feigned himself mad in their hands ; for in their hands he was, being taken by them, as the title of the fifty sixth psalm shows, ( Psalm 56:1); and this stratagem he used to get himself out of their hands, acting the part of a madman, delirious, and out of his senses: and scrabbled on the doors of the gate ; as if he was writing something there, and making marks upon them: and let his spittle fall down upon his beard ; slavered, as idiots and madmen do; and however mean this may seem in David to act such a part, it cannot be condemned as wicked, since it was only a stratagem to deliver himself, out of an enemy’s hand, and stratagems are always allowed to be used against an enemy; and such a method as this has been taken by men of the greatest sense and wit, as by Brutus and Solon f447 ; and yet, according to the Vulgate Latin and Septuagint versions, this case of his was real and not feigned; that through the surprise of being known in the court of Achish, he was seized with an epilepsy; that his countenance was changed, and his mouth distorted, as persons in such fits are; that he fell among them as one convulsed, and fell at, and dashed against the doors of the gates, and foamed at the mouth, as such persons do; (see Luke 9:39); and so in the following words the Greek version is, ye see the man is an epileptic; I do not want epileptics; but the thirty fourth and fifty sixth psalms, composed by him at this time, show that as he was of a sound mind, so in good health of body, and not subject to such fits as here represented, (see Psalm 34:1-22 56:1-13); which would have rendered him unfit for such composures.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 10-15 - God's persecuted people have often found better usage from Philistine than from Israelites. David had reason to put confidence in Achish, ye he began to be afraid. His conduct was degrading, and discovere wavering in his faith and courage. The more simply we depend on God and obey him, the more comfortably and surely we shall walk throug this troublesome world __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
וישׁנו 8138 את 853 טעמו 2940 בעיניהם 5869 ויתהלל 1984 בידם 3027 ויתו 8427 על 5921 דלתות 1817 השׁער 8179 ויורד 3381 רירו 7388 אל 413 זקנו׃ 2206
