Anguish - The Hebrew word used here occurs nowhere else, and is of doubtful meaning (compare the margin). The rabbis interpret it as a cramp or giddiness.

And he said unto me again, stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me,.... Which it can hardly be thought Saul would say; since he might as well have died by the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines, which he endeavoured to avoid, as by the hands of an Amalekite:

for anguish is come upon me; or trembling, as the Targum, not through fear of death, but through fear of falling into the hands of the Philistines, and of being ill used by them. Some render the words, "my embroidered coat", or "breastplate", or "coat of mail", holds me (g), or hinders me from being pierced through with the sword or spear; so Ben Gersom (h):

because my life is yet whole in me: for though he had been wounded by the archers, yet he did not apprehend he had received any mortal wound, but his life was whole in him; and therefore feared he should fall into their hands alive, and be ill treated by them.

(g) "tunica scutulata", Braunius; "ocellata chlamys", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "thorax villosus seu pelliceus", Texelii Phoenix, p. 210. (h) Vid. Braunium de Vest. Sacredot. Heb. l. 1. c. 17. sect. 9.

He said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me: for anguish is come upon me, because my {d} life is yet whole in me.

(d) I am sorry, because I am yet alive.

anguish...: or, my coat of mail (or, my embroidered coat) hindereth me, that my, etc

1:1-10 The blow which opened David's way to the throne was given about the time he had been sorely distressed. Those who commit their concerns to the Lord, will quietly abide his will. It shows that he desired not Saul's death, and he was not impatient to come to the throne.