Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David; for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.
"I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly"  (1 Samuel 26:21). There is nothing that resembles this response in that other occasion at Engedi.  "This answer is very different from that of  1 Samuel 24:17-21.  Here there is a sense of vexation and of annoyance, not only because his purpose had been frustrated but because his own military arrangements had been so unsoldierlike."[16]  These expressions of Saul do not appear to be the words of one truly penitent.