1 Sam 16:14

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the Spirit.

1Sam 11:6; 1Sam 18:12; 1Sam 28:15; Judg 16:29; Ps 51:11; Hos 9:12

evil spirit.

The evil spirit was either sent immediately from the Lord, or permitted to come; but whether this was a diabolic possession, or a mere mental malady, is not agreed: it seems to have partaken of both.

That Saul had fallen into a deep melancholy, there is little doubt; and that an evil spirit might work more effectually on such a state of mind, there can be little question.

His malady appears to have been of a mixed kind, natural and diabolical: there is too much of apparent nature in it to permit us to believe it was all spiritual; and there is too much of apparently supernatural influence, to suffer us to believe it was all natural.

1Sam 18:10; 1Sam 19:9; 1Sam 19:10; Judg 9:23; 1Kgs 22:22; Acts 19:15; Acts 19:16

troubled. or, terrified.