24And the servants of Saul told him, “Thus and so did David speak.”
Normally in the ancient Near East the hands or heads of enemies were cut off in order to count the slain.1 Since the Philistines did not practice circumcision,2 their foreskins could serve as evidence of the same. Saul hoped that David would be killed in his attempts to meet his conditions.3
24 And the servants of Saul told him, “Thus and so did David speak.”