Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 26:7

"So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people lay round about him." — 1 Samuel 26:7 (ASV)

Within the trench. —As above, in 1 Samuel 26:5, within the barrier of the wagons.

His spear ... at his bolster. —“Bolster,” literally, the place where his head is, better rendered at his head; and so in 1 Samuel 26:11–12; 1 Samuel 26:16. The same Hebrew word occurs in the narration of Jacob’s dream (Genesis 28:11); it is there rendered in our English Version, his pillows. It was the tall spear which always seems to have been in Saul’s hand, or placed close to him.

We read of it in battle in his hand, and in the council chamber and at the state banquet it was within his reach, and now it was evidently reared upright beside the sleeping king. “I noticed at all the encampments which we passed that the sheik’s tent was distinguished from the rest by a tall spear stuck upright in the ground in front of it; and it is the custom when a party set out on an excursion for robbery or for war, that when they halt to rest the spot where the chief reclines or rests is thus designated”—Thomson, Land and the Book.