ContradictionsReading order 541Bible context 2 min read
When did Saul become David's enemy?
The passages describe an early onset of suspicion and a later increase in fear and hostility. The later wording expressly allows an already troubled relationship.
- Textual conflict
- Weak contradiction
- The supplied passages do not establish incompatible claims. Different events, meanings, or conditions may account for the difference.
- Importance
- Supporting
- A supporting event, teaching, or biographical claim.
Initial jealousy and later intensified fear describe compatible stages of Saul's hostility, with the later passage explicitly saying he became more afraid.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Saul watches David suspiciously after hearing unequal praise
And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.
1 Samuel 18:8-9
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:1 Samuel 18
Saul's growing fear becomes lasting enmity after David marries Michal
Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king’s son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife. And Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal Saul’s daughter loved him. And Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul became David’s enemy continually.