Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 26:20

"Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of Jehovah: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains." — 1 Samuel 26:20 (ASV)

Before the face of the Lord. —Better rendered, far from the presence of the Lord. The same thought elaborated on in the last verse is further developed here. David goes on to say, “If this savage persecution continues, sooner or later I will fall victim to one or another of the countless perils to which someone in my situation, as leader of a band of outlaws, is daily exposed. Let not such a hard, cruel fate be mine—to die a violent death far away from the land which Jehovah loves.”

It was this same thought, ever present in his heart, that so touchingly inspired his last prayer to Saul. This thought also made bringing the Ark to a permanent sanctuary, where the visible symbol of the Eternal Presence would dwell forever, the dream of David’s life.

It was the same holy thought that induced him to spend so much time and to gather such vast stores for the building of a glorious sanctuary. The passionate longing of the “man after God’s own heart” to worship his Eternal Master in a fitting house devoted to His service, and in the company of men who loved and honored the Name of names, can be found in some of the most soul-searching of his psalms.

To seek a flea. —The same humiliating comparison he had made once before on a similar occasion again occurs to him. Such repetition commonly occurs, as we well know, in both speeches and writings. The Septuagint here substitutes “my soul” for “a flea,” probably in order to avoid the repetition of the simile of a flea, which David had used on the previous occasion of his sparing the king’s life at En-gedi.

A partridge in the mountains. —The Septuagint needlessly alters “partridge” to “screech-owl,” and changes the sense to: “as the screech-owl hunts on the mountains.” The meaning of the simile in the Hebrew original is well explained by Erdmann, in Lange: “The one isolated from God’s people, far from all association, a fugitive from their plots on the mountain heights, you seek at all costs to destroy, as one hunts a single fugitive partridge on the mountain, only to kill it at all costs, while otherwise, from its insignificance, it would not be hunted, since partridges are found in the field in coveys.”

Conder, in Tent Life in Palestine, especially tells us that partridges still inhabit these wilds. Speaking of the precipitous cliffs overhanging the Dead Sea, he says: “Among the rocks of the wild goats the bands of ibex can still be seen bounding, and the partridge is still chased on the mountains, as David was followed by the stealthy hunter Saul.”