1 Samuel 26:19 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, let him accept, &c.— That is, says Delaney, "If God have excited you against me, on the score of any guilt for which I deserve to die; behold, here I am, ready to be sacrificed in atonement for it." Others understand it as expressive of David's readiness to offer up any sacrifice, if he had been guilty of such a crime as could justly merit this persecution of Saul against him. See Witsius's Miscel. Sacr. tom. 1: p. 581. "But," continues David, "if they are the children of men, they are cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out, &c. saying, Go, serve other gods."—"The adoption of the local gods of any nation," says Bishop Warburton, "as well as their rites, was so general, that David makes his being unjustly driven into an idolatrous land, the same thing as being forced to serve idolatrous gods." To the same principle Jeremiah likewise alludes, chap. 1 Samuel 16:13.; by which is not meant, that they should be forced any otherwise than by the superstitious dread of divine vengeance for a slighted worship; for at this time civil restraint in matters of religion was very rare. It is very remarkable, that David here laments no present loss, or exclusion from just right, other than that of being shut out from the divine ordinances, and forced among the worshippers of idols.