1 Samuel 23

14. AND David abode in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his 15 hand. And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life: and David was in the wilder- 16 ness of Ziph in the wood. And Jonathan Saul’s son arose, and went to David into the wood, 17 and strengthened his hand in God. And he said unto him, Fear not: for the hand of Saul 18 my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth. And they two made a covenant before the LORD: and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.

19. Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desert; 20 Now therefore, O king, come down, according to all the desire of thy soul to come down; and 21 our part shall be to deliver him up into the king’s hand. And Saul said, Blessed be ye of the 22 LORD; for ye have had compassion on me. Go, I pray you, make yet more sure, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who hath seen him there: for it is told me that he 23 dealth very subtilly. See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hideth himself, and come ye again to me of a certainty, and I will go with you: and it shall come to pass, if he be in the land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah. 24 And they arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the wilderness 25 of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of the desert. And Saul and his men went to seek him. And they told David: wherefore he came down to the rock, and abode in the wilderness of 26 Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. And Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men compassed David 27 and his men round about to take them. But there came a messenger unto Saul, saying, Haste 28 thee, and come; for the Philistines have made a raid upon the land. So Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Sela- 29 hammahelekoth. And David went up from thence, and dwelt in the strongholds of Engedi.

14. And David abode in the wilderness.** David’s next resort was “the wilderness of Judah,” the wild uncultivated tract lying between the mountains of Judah and the Dead Sea. His chief abode was “the mountain (perhaps the hill of Hachilah, verse 19) in the wilderness of Ziph,” a district southeast of Hebron, where a rounded hill half way between Hebron and Carmel still bears the name Till Zif. A. F. K.—The dreary desert extends between the Dead Sea and the Hebron Mountains. It is called Jeshimon, or “Solitude,” in the Old Testament, and “wilderness of Judea” in the New. It is a plateau of white chalk, two thousand feet lower than the watershed, and terminated on the east by cliffs which rise vertically from the Dead Sea shore to a height of about two thousand feet. The scenery is barren and wild beyond all description. The chalky ridges are scored by innumerable torrents, and their narrow crests are separated by broad flat valleys. Peaks and knolls of fantastic forms rise suddenly from the swelling downs, and magnificent precipices of ruddy limestone stand up like fortress-walls above the sea. Not a tree nor a spring is visible in the waste, and only the desert partridge and the ibex are found ranging the solitude. It was in this pathless desert that David found refuge from Saul’s persecution, and the same has been a place of retreat from the days of Christ to the present time. Conder.

16-18. Final Parting of Jonathan and David.** The conduct of Jonathan in this remarkable transaction is truly disinterested, generous, and great. He seeks him out in the wilderness, where his father was hunting him to destruction, and “strengthened his hand in God,” by comforting him under his cruel persecution, and assuring him of God’s protection, of his future advancement to the throne, and of his own confidence in his (David’s) future friendship. Chandler.—It were hard to determine which we ought most to admire on this occasion, the moderation, the friendship, the piety, or the unexampled generosity of Jonathan. To be able to resign a kingdom with that calmness, that frankness, that tender love and inviolable fidelity to his rival, and that steady submission to the will of God, seems to have something in it infinitely beyond all the other praises of heroism. Delaney.

Angels came and cheered the heart which men left to bear the unutterable burden. Following the example of Jonathan and of the angels, we each may do something to inspire with new faith and hope those who feel the pressure of care and toil for Christ; we may do it by our words of cheer, by our assured sympathy, by our fervent prayer, and by hearty, free co-operation in the enterprise which absorbs their energy. Chapman.

Jonathan never saw David again. Death broke their “fair companionship,” and the elevation of David was bedewed with tender sorrow for his friend, “the comrade of his choice, the human-hearted man he loved.” There is one Friend, only one, from whom we cannot be severed. He comes to us when we are in the wood, perplexed, embarrassed, cast down. Let us tell all our straits and misgivings to him. This Friend will never die. And not even our death can break the friendship or separate us from the love of Christ. D. F.

19. In the hill of Hachilah.** This hill

1. Jericho. 2. Ford of Jordan. 9. Engedi. 23. Hebron. 24. Bethlehem.

was situated on the south of the desert, or the district on which the plateau of Ziph looks down, “with white peaks and cones of chalk and deep narrow water-courses, terminated by the great pointed cliff of Ziz above Engedi, and by the precipices over the Dead Sea, two thousand feet high.” Hachilah is not identified with any certainty. A. F. K.

24. While the Ziphites were conferring with Saul and gathering information David had moved about six miles to the south of Ziph, and was in the wilderness of Maon. R. P. S.—This was the district round the conical hill about seven miles south of Hebron still known as Tell Main. It is mentioned in Josh. 15 : 55 among the cities of Judah in the mountains. It was the home of Nabal (ch. 25 : 2). A. F. K.

The great wilderness of Judah stretches along the entire length of the Dead Sea, and reaches westward to the distance of ten or fifteen miles. Different portions of this wilderness have, in the

Scriptures, their separate names. On the south is “the wilderness of Maon,” and just to the north of it is “the wilderness of Ziph,” in both of which David was hunted by King Saul for his life. N. C. B.

27. The little band are surrounded and apparently lost. At the very moment when the trap is just going to close, a sudden messenger, “fiery red with haste,” rushes into Saul’s army with news of a formidable invasion: “Haste thee and come; for the Philistines have spread themselves upon the land!” So the eager hand, ready to smite and crush, is plucked back; and the hour of deepest distress is the hour of deliverance. A. M.

Mark the Restraint of God upon the Persecutor. Saul seemed to have every facility for gaining his object. No one disputed his will. Armed men by thousands followed him in pursuit of David; and Saul knew how to lead men, and how to fight. He had spies to track out the

The western range preserves for the greater part of its length a course hardly less regular than the eastern. A beach of varying width skirts the foot of the range. Above Engedi it consists mainly of the deltas of the torrents. The accompanying woodcut represents the view looking southward from the spring of ‘Ain Jidy, a point about 700 feet above the water. It is taken from a drawing by Mr. Tipping, and gives a good idea of the course of that portion of the western heights, and of their ordinary character. The portion actually represented in this view is described by Dr. Anderson as “varying from 1200 to 1500 feet in height, bold and steep."—Dic. B.

fugitive. The country was small, and the inhabitants, both at Keilah and at Ziph, showed their readiness to help the king. Yet he could never reach David to arrest or to smite him. D. F.

29. Strongholds of Engedi. Here the ground rises in high limestone hills, scooped into caves of surprising extent. Deep glens and ravines, running down to the Dead Sea, part the hills one from another, and render the capture of outlaws almost an impossibility. Want of water and the poorness of the burnt soil impart to the country a look of cheerless gloom. Here and there throughout the waste a spring bursts forth, and rushes down to the Dead Sea on the east, or wells and cisterns are found in the desert on the west. Of these springs the best known is that of Engedi, or the “Fountain of the Kid,” so called from the wild goats which browsed on the scanty herbage of the rocks. Rushing forth in great volume from the limestone at a height of five hundred feet above the Dead Sea, its waters, tasting strongly of lime, leap from ledge to ledge till they reach the bottom of the hill. Sime.

Engedi is about the middle of the west shore of the lake. Here is a rich plain, half a mile square, sloping very gently from the base of the mountains to the water, and shut in on the north by a lofty promontory. About one mile up the western acclivity, and some four hundred feet above the plain, is the fountain of ‘Ain Jidy, from which the place gets its name. At a later period Engedi was the gathering-place of the Moabites and Ammonites who went up against Jerusalem, and fell in the valley of Berachah (2 Chron. 20 : 2). The vineyards of Engedi were celebrated by Solomon (Cant. 1 : 14), its balsam by Josephus, and its palms by Pliny. But vineyards no longer clothe the mountain-side, and neither palm-tree nor balsam is seen on the plain. Dic. B.

During his stay at Engedi, David was not a lawless bandit; among the hills the law of his God was in his heart; not wreaking on society his revenge, but flying to the spot where, if he could be most securely screened from invasion, he would also be farthest removed from the possibility of inflicting injury; and there he waited, nursing his great soul amid the solitudes. Hood.