Behold, this day your eyes have seen how that Yahweh had delivered you today into my hand in the cave: and some bade me kill you; but [my eye] spared you; and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is Yahweh's anointed.
      VI. He endeavours to convince Saul that as it was a bad thing, so it was a mean thing, for him to give chase to such an inconsiderable person as he was (1 Samuel 24:14; 1 Samuel 24:14): Whom does the king of Israel pursue with all this care and force? A dead dog; a flea; one flea, so it is in the Hebrew. It is below so great a king to enter the lists with one that is so unequal a match for him, one of his own servants, bred a poor shepherd, now an exile, neither able nor willing to make any resistance. To conquer him would not be to his honour, to attempt it was his disparagement. If Saul would consult his own reputation, he would slight such an enemy (supposing he were really his enemy) and would think himself in no danger from him. David was so far from aspiring that he was, in his own account, as a dead dog. Mephibosheth thus calls himself, 2 Samuel 9:8. This humble language would have wrought upon Saul if he had had any spark of generosity in him. Satis est prostrasse leoni--Enough for the lion that he has laid his victim low. What credit would it be to Saul to trample upon a dead dog? What pleasure could it be to him to hunt a flea, a single flea, which (as some have observed), if it be sought, is not easily found, if it be found, is not easily caught, and, if it be caught, is a poor prize, especially for a prince. Aquila non captat muscas--The eagle does not dart upon flies. David thinks Saul had no more reason to fear him than to fear a flea-bite.