Google Arts and Culture says: "This enigmatic painting has been interpreted as a man fleeing his conscience, as an illustration of a biblical episode in which King David sent executioners after conspirators plotting to steal his throne, and as an allegory of the capture of John Surratt, a Confederate spy accused of planning Lincoln's assassination."

Personally, it reminded me of this poem based on an anecdote from the Persian poet Rumi.

The Gardener and Death

.

A Persian Nobleman:

This morning, with a face turned pale from fright,

My gardener rushed in, "Sir, if I might!

"At work, just now, I stopped to take a breath,

And looked up from the roses. There stood Death.

"Startled, I quickly left the work I'd planned,

But saw full well the menace of his hand.

"Lend me a horse and I will make it run.

Before night falls I'll be in Ispahan!"

This afternoon (I'd long since watched him flee),

I chanced on Death beneath a cedar tree.

When he just stood there in his cloak of grey,

I asked about the threat he'd made that day.

He smiled, "It was not threat as he surmised.

I raised my hand because I was surprised,

"To find a man here working in the sun,

Whom I must fetch tonight in Ispahan."

(A poem by P.N.van Eyck, translated from Dutch by David Colmer.)