But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Beth-lehem.
For forty days the armies faced each other, neither moving, while Goliath bellowed his challenge twice daily and grew proud in his defiance, and Israel grew timid in theirs. God was ripening him for ruin and preparing to make Israel's rescue shine the brighter. All this time David kept his father's sheep, content in obscurity after his service at court, until Providence set him in the field to seize the laurel no other Israelite dared reach for.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 Samuel 17:12-30
But David went, and returned from Saul,.... Or "from above Saul"; Josephus (u) says, the physicians of Saul advised to get a man to stand , "over his head", and sing psalms and hymns to him; and Saul being recovered from his frenzy and melancholy, by means of David's music, he was dismissed from him, or had leave to go home, or he returned upon...
But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. (c) To serve Saul, .