If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:)
If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me. If, as my calumniators assert, I have ungratefully returned evil Saul, who was my friend (so "at peace with me" means in Hebrew idiom, Job 22:21; Psalms 41:9, margin, 'the man of my peace').
(Yea, I have delivered [ waa'ªchaltsaah (H2502] him that without cause was mine enemy)] - rather, as Hebrew, 'spoil,' stripped from a slain enemy (Judges 14:19; 2 Samuel 2:21, margin), 'spoiled.' Chaldaic translates, 'I have afflicted;' Syriac, 'oppressed.' "Yea," I go further, "If I have even spoiled him that without cause is mine enemy." Not only did I not turn ungratefully against him in the days of our friendship; but when without cause he became mine enemy, I spared him, and not even spoiled him; the skirt cut off from him while sleeping, proves that he was in my power (1 Samuel 24:4-17). The Septuagint, Vulgate, Syria, insted of "rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me," translate, 'If I have retaliated (evil) to him that has rendered evil to me;' so the Hebrew х showlªmiy (H7999)] means, Psalms 35:12. But the Hebrew х gaamaltiy (H1580)] is used rather in a good sense, not in the sense 'retaliate evil;' and the rising climax in the English version, as explained above, is more forcible than making the first clause exactly parallel to the second.