Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Samuel 26:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul was come in very deed.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Reports David using spies to verify Saul's arrival.
Read It With
- 1 Samuel 26:1–26:5
1 Samuel 26:1–26:5 supplies the necessary frame for verse 26:4. Here the narrator reports David using spies to verify Saul's arrival, within this larger movement: Ziphites again disclose David's location, Saul arrives with three thousand chosen men, and David confirms the camp through spies and personal reconnaissance.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Reports David using spies to verify Saul's arrival. That contribution supplies necessary evidence for “A renewed Ziphite report brings Saul after David,” whose full movement is Ziphites again disclose David's location, Saul arrives with three thousand chosen men, and David confirms the camp through spies and personal reconnaissance.
What Remains True
The contribution of 1 Samuel 26:4 is precise: it reports David using spies to verify Saul's arrival. Its surrounding movement is Ziphites again disclose David's location, Saul arrives with three thousand chosen men, and David confirms the camp through spies and personal reconnaissance.
How It Can Shape Life
- Do not detach 1 Samuel 26:4, where the verse reports David using spies to verify Saul's arrival, from “A renewed Ziphite report brings Saul after David.” Present application requires this boundary: Repeated local collaboration does not justify retaliation against a population, and renewed pursuit shows why earlier remorse was not enough to establish safety.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Samuel 26:1–26:5 — A renewed Ziphite report brings Saul after DavidSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
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 26:1–26:5, 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 26:1–26:5; 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 26:1–26:5
Open source ↗