And when the words were heard which David spake,.... To one, and to another, and these reported to other persons, and so they went from one to another through many hands:they rehearsed [them] before Saul; coming to the ears of some of his courtiers and counsellors, or officers about him, they told him what such an one had said:and he sent for him; to his tent or pavilion where he was, to talk with him on this subject.
The whole of 1Sa 17:11 is wanting in the Septuagint version, according to the Vatican exemplar; and these "twenty" verses are thought, by some , to be an interpolation; and it must be owned there are difficulties in them, and that the connection of 1Sa 17:11 with the following is very clear and consistent, as also is 1Sa 17:50 left out in the same version; and likewise the last four of the chapter, 1Sa 17:55, and five with which the next begins, 1Sa 18:1.
See Dr. Kennicott's Dissert. 2. p.