“Please Adonai, since I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have opened my chains…” One could explain this verse according to what Rabbi Yaakov Sikili wrote in, Torat HaMinchah.119, on the basis of the mass of material culled from the 234 books he acquired during his wanderings….. On the request of the community he agreed to expound the meaning of the weekly portion every Sabbath afternoon. He collected these sermons and published them under the title Torat ha-Minḥah. "The complete manuscript of Torat ha-Minḥah is extant, though scattered among various libraries. (JE) He records that Jesse separated from his wife and tried to enter into relations with one of her servants. The servant, however, was faithful to Jesse’s wife and told her what was happening. They exchanged places and as a result Jesse’s wife became pregnant with David. When three months had passed, it became obvious that she was pregnant. Her other sons thought she had had an illicit relations and decided to put her to death. She told them that their father had impregnated her so they wouldn’t kill her. The infant, David, was treated like a servant to his brothers as if he were a foundling. David never ate with them and he was despised. They made him act as a shepherd to the flocks. That is why Samuel asked Jesse, “Are these all the boys you have?” and Jesse said, “There is still the youngest; He is tending the flock..” (1 Sam. 16:11) This is the essence of his explanation. But Rabbi Menachem Azaria of Fano120 offered a different explanation in his essays. He wrote that Jesse was the holiest of the four who died without sin.121 Rabbi Menachem was of the opinion that the prohibition against marrying an Ammonite or Moabite applied to both men and women. Since Jesse was the offspring of a Moabite, he wanted to purify himself so he entered into a relationship with his maidservant. It is here that this verse applies: “Please Adonai, since I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have released my chains.” Thus we learn that at first, David’s mother’s pregnancy and his birth were dangerous because his brothers wanted to kill their mother and David because their father believed that she became pregnant through an illicit relationship. But she was really pious and only had relations with Jesse because the servant revealed what her husband wanted. In this way she would keep Jesse from being humiliated by the servant who had revealed Jesse's secret. When he was born, David was despised and treated as a mamzer and yet Samuel came and anointed him king. David was endangered by Saul and there were other events in his life so that he said, “What can I give back to Adonai for all that He has favored me?” …There is nothing I can give God other than the Cup of Salvations; It is written in the plural because really there were many acts of salvation through God’s compassion that He performed with me. “And I will call out the name Adonai” I vowed in my time of trouble that I would repay God. “Precious in the eyes of Adonai the death of His righteous ones.” For David’s brothers, in their anger, sought to kill their mother while she was pregnant and God saved my mother and me from death. God, you have shown me kindness because, “I am your servant, the son of your hand maid.” My mother was called “handmaid,” and not simply mother as I thought of her. “You have opened my chains,” For the brothers thought I was born because my mother acted illicitly and therefore I should be placed in chains. Therefore, I will make offerings of thanksgiving for all the good. It is possible to interpret all the verses that follow in this way.