But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
An evil spirit from the Lord troubled him, х wªruwach (H7307) Yahweh (H3068) caaraah (H5493), and a spirit of defection (apostasy) from the Lord]. There is no reason, from the phraseology of the text, to believe that the Hebrews were accustomed to ascribe every malignant disorder as "from the Lord." Saul was possessed of a devil; because it is evident from the symptoms, as well as the remedy proposed, that his attendants regarded his malady as a natural, not an extraordinary or miraculous, disease. It was manifestly a case of hypochondria. But his bodily distemper was aggravated by the state of his temper (Mead, 'Medica Sacra,' p. 26). His own gloomy reflections, the consciousness that he had not acted up to the character of an Israelite king, the loss of his throne, and the extinction of his royal house, made him jealous, irritable, vindictive, and subject to fits of morbid melancholy, and even of violent frenzy.' [The Septuagint has: epnigen auton pneuma poneeron para kuriou, an evil spirit from the Lord choked, strangled him.] Josephus also ('Antiquities.' b. 6:, ch. 8:, sec., 2) says 'that some strange disorders came upon him and brought upon him such suffocations as were ready to choke him.'