1Sa 18:6-16 Saul’s jealousy towards David. - Saul had no sooner attached the conqueror of Goliath to his court, than he began to be jealous of him. The occasion for his jealousy was the celebration of victory at the close of the war with the Philistines. 1Sa 18:6-7
“When they came,” i.e., when the warriors returned with Saul from the war, “when (as is added to explain what follows) David returned from the slaughter,” i.e., from the war in which he had slain Goliath, the women came out of all the towns of Israel, “to singing and dancing,” i.e., to celebrate the victory with singing and choral dancing (see the remarks on Exo 15:20), “to meet king Saul with tambourines, with joy, and with triangles.” שׂמהה is used here to signify expressions of joy, a fête, as in Jdg 16:23, etc. The striking position in which the word stands, viz., between two musical instruments, shows that, the word is to be understood here as referring specially to songs of rejoicing, since according to 1Sa 18:7 their playing was accompanied with singing. The women who “sported” (משׂחקות), i.e., performed mimic dances, sang in alternate choruses (“answered,” as in Exo 15:21), “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”