After David slew Goliath, “the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music” and chanting, “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” Saul became jealous, and the scripture says, “Saul eyed David from that day and forward” (1 Samuel 18:6-9). Saul sought David’s life, and David is running and hiding for the next several chapters.
The Scripture Helps tell us how David and Saul ended up in the same cave:
“As Saul pursued David, he unknowingly entered a cave where David was hiding. David could have killed Saul, but he instead chose to discreetly cut off a piece of Saul’s robe. The portion of robe David cut was the border or corner that contained distinct markings of royal status. David later used the piece of robe to show Saul that he had been entirely at David’s mercy.”
By the way, I love these Scripture Helps they have added to help us understand the meaning and context of these Old Testament events!
1 Samuel 24:4 states, “Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily.” Every time the word skirt appears in the Bible, it’s the Hebrew word kanaph, meaning “wing, extremity, edge, border, corner, shirt, or skirt.” I am attaching the Strong’s Bible Concordance entry for this word below.
Besides the royal markings of the “skirt,” the wing or border of the robe symbolizes power and strength. We see this in several scriptures:
“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)
“Q. What are we to understand by the eyes and wings, which the beasts had?
- Their eyes are a representation of light and knowledge, that is, they are full of knowledge; and their wings are a representation of power, to move, to act, etc.” (D&C 77:4)
Remember, kingship was tied to Messiahship. David could have killed Saul, but he would not do it out of respect for the office. He said, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord” (1 Samuel 24:6). The king was not merely the political ruler of the people but was also viewed as an adopted son of God (see Psalm 2:6-7). We see the connection between kingship and Messiahship as David refers to Saul as “the Lord’s anointed.” Messiah literally means “anointed One.”
We also see the symbolic transfer of power and authority as David holds the skirt of Saul’s robe in his hand. Saul has figuratively lost his wings again.
The Jewish prayer shawls (called a tallit) were made with knotted fringes, or tassels, attached to the four corners, or wings. Numbers 15:38-39 reads, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring.”
The tassel is called a tzitzit. Each Hebrew letter has a numeric value called gematria. For example, the letter kaf, that I have written much about, has a numeric value of 20. The letters in tzitzit total 600. When you add the 8 threads and 5 knots, it totals 613, corresponding to the 613 commandments in the Torah. There were 365 “thou shalt not’s,” corresponding to the number of days in the year, and 248 “thou shalt’s,” corresponding to the number of parts in the human body. (I think modern doctors and nurses might laugh at this number).
It would have been this tassel that hung over the back of the Savior’s robe that the woman with the issue of blood touched and was healed. Jesus responded by saying, “Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me” (Luke 8:46). The Greek word for virtue in this verse is dynamis, meaning “strength, power, or ability.” It’s the source of English words like dynamite or dynamic. The fringe (or tassel) represented the Law of Moses. But was it the Law of Moses that healed the woman with the issue of blood? No, it was the healing power of the Savior and His atoning grace.
Please see below for the definition of kanaph, an image of a tallit, and Saul’s “skirt” in David’s hand.
