And he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and made marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.
All Commentaries on 1 Samuel 21:13 Go To 1 Samuel 21
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Countenance. Hebrew, "sentiment, (Calmet) or, behaviour. "(Haydock)
Chaldean, "reason. "He no longer acted as a prudent man, but like a fool.
Down; not fainting, (Calmet) but like one in an epileptic fit. (Haydock)
Hebrew, "he feigned himself mad. "Chaldean, "stupid. "
Stumbled. Hebrew, "wrote, or made figures upon. "Septuagint, "beat the drum upon the gates of the city, and he was carried about, or acted the fool, in his hands, (pare hereto en tais chersin, autou: Amama would have, auton, their) and he fell against the doors of the gate "They seem to give a double translation. St. Augustine says, "we cannot understand how David could be carried in his own hands. But we understand how it was verified in Christ. For Christ was carried in his own hands at his last supper, when he gave, or commending, his own body, he said, This, for he then carried his own body in his own hands. "(In Psalm xxxiii. conc. i.) Ferebat enim illud corpus in manibus suis. Amama may laugh at St. Augustine's ignorance of Hebrew, but the holy doctor was at least a sincere Catholic. (Haydock)
Beard. We find some wretched objects doing the same, Mark ix. 17. The spittle was deemed infectious. Et illic isti qui sputatur, morbus interdum venit. (Plautus in Captivis.)
