Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageSaul said nothing that day. He reasoned to himself, 'Something must have happened to him—he must be ceremonially unclean, yes, unclean.'
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GSha'ul said nothing that day, for he thought, 'Something has happened to him—he is surely unclean, he must be unclean.'
KJV
King James VersionNevertheless Saul spake not any thing that day: for he thought, Something hath befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleSaul said nothing that day because he thought, “Something has happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean—surely he is unclean.”
Footnotes
The term *miqreh* (מִקְרֶה)—'something that has befallen him'—is used specifically in Deuteronomy 23:10 for a nocturnal emission that renders a man ritually unclean from the camp. Saul generously assumes a legitimate ritual cause for David's absence. The irony is sharp: Saul, whose own rebellion has made him spiritually 'unclean' before YHWH (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22–23), extends charitable ritual reasoning to the man who is, in every sense, clean before God.