Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
1 Samuel 21:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
States that David deliberately changes behavior before the court.
Read It With
- 1 Samuel 21:10–21:15
Verse 21:13 belongs to “David feigns madness to escape Gath.” It states that David deliberately changes behavior before the court; detached from the full unit, that contribution can be mistaken for the unit's whole claim.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The unit “David feigns madness to escape Gath” needs this line's precise work: it states that David deliberately changes behavior before the court. The verse remains one part of the scene rather than its complete claim.
Follow the Context
- Opening movement: David flees to Achish, fears recognition through the victory song, changes his behavior, marks the gate.
- Developing movement or outcome: lets saliva fall until Achish dismisses him.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
First Samuel 21:13 does not stand alone from 1 Samuel 21:10–21:15: it states that David deliberately changes behavior before the court. The disguise does not ridicule people with mental illness or disability, make stigmatized behavior shameful, or authorize clinicians to diagnose David from a survival performance.
What Remains True
States that David deliberately changes behavior before the court. Within 1 Samuel 21:10–21:15, this contribution supports the unit's enduring claim: A responsible reader preserves both the unit's stated movement and its ethical limit. The disguise does not ridicule people with mental illness or disability, make stigmatized behavior shameful, or authorize clinicians to diagnose David from a survival performance.
How It Can Shape Life
- States that David deliberately changes behavior before the court. The proportionate response is therefore the one traced from the complete unit: Support people seeking safety without mocking mental illness or disability, and distinguish a survival performance from evidence about a person's actual mental condition. The disguise does not ridicule people with mental illness or disability, make stigmatized behavior shameful, or authorize clinicians to diagnose David from a survival performance.
Teach It Back
Explain 1 Samuel 21:13's precise role in 1 Samuel 21:10–21:15. Include the first historical horizon, material uncertainty, one person or cost a leader-centered reading could obscure, and one conclusion this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Samuel 21:10–21:15 — David feigns madness to escape GathSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The court title Achish and David's later Philistine refuge raise literary questions; the scene itself identifies deliberate behavior under fear, not illness.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: 1 Samuel 21:10–21:15, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 21:11–21:16; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: 1 Samuel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 21:10–21:15
Open source ↗public scholarly essay
Mental Illness, Evil Spirits, and Scripture
Joel Baden
Yale Divinity School Reflections, undated page; accessed 2026-08-29
Supports: Public scholarly control against equating ancient spirit language with modern diagnosis, evil, rejection, or violence; not clinical assessment.
Exact location: Baden, 'Mental Illness, Evil Spirits, and Scripture,' Yale Reflections, sections 'Readings and Misreadings,' 'Sorting Out the Frameworks,' and 'Interpretive Circle,' accessed 2026-08-29
Open source ↗scholarly monograph frontmatter and table of contents
The Theology of the Book of Samuel
John Goldingay
Cambridge University Press, 2024
Supports: Only the publisher-visible book architecture and theological scope; the paywalled body is not treated as inspected.
Exact location: Goldingay, The Theology of the Book of Samuel (2024), official frontmatter and TOC: 1 Samuel 21:1[2]–2 Samuel 1:27, pp. 111–140
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
The Book of Samuel: Its Composition, Structure and Significance as a Historiographical Source
Moshe Garsiel
The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10.5, 2010
Supports: One relatively early integrated/two-edition account of composition, structure, and historiographic value, retained as a contested model.
Exact location: Garsiel, JHS 10.5 (2010), pp. 1–42, named structural or composition discussion covering the movement that includes 1 Samuel 21:10–21:15
Open source ↗