1 Samuel 23:22

22 Go and check again. Investigate and watch carefully where he goes[a] and who has seen him there; they tell me he is extremely cunning.

1 Samuel 23:22 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 23:22

Go, I pray you, prepare yet
That is, go home, return to their habitations, and get things in a greater readiness for him; inquire more diligently after David, get more intelligence of him, and inform themselves more exactly about him:

and know and see his place where his haunt is;
or "foot" F19 is, where that steps and walks most frequently, not only get knowledge of it by information, but if they could get sight of it with their own eyes, that they might describe it more exactly:

[and] who hath seen him there;
not only seen the place, but him in the place, and that often, that it may be certain it is the place he usually resorts to:

for it is told me [that] he dealeth very subtilly;
sometimes he is seen in one place, and sometimes in another; he is here today, and elsewhere tomorrow; and by such crafty methods it is not easy to know where the place is, and where to be found; this Saul had information of from some, who knew the methods David took to keep it unknown where it was; or "it says to me"; my heart says so to me, as R. Isaiah interprets it; my mind suggests this to me, knowing the man, that he uses such wiles as these: or "he said to me", so Kimchi; when he was with me, and we were intimate, when I used to ask him how he smote the Philistines, so and so, and preserved himself from them; his answer was, "that he dealt very subtilly", he used a good deal of craftiness; and so I imagine he does now.


FOOTNOTES:

F19 (wlgr) "pes ejus", Pagninus, Montanus.

1 Samuel 23:22 In-Context

20 Now, whenever the king wants to come down, let him come down. Our part will be to hand him over to the king."
21 "May you be blessed by the Lord," replied Saul, "for you have taken pity on me
22 Go and check again. Investigate and watch carefully where he goes and who has seen him there; they tell me he is extremely cunning.
23 Look and find out all the places where he hides. Then come back to me with accurate information, and I'll go with you. If it turns out he really is in the region, I'll search for him among all the clans of Judah."
24 So they went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness near Maon in the Arabah south of Jeshimon,

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Lit watch his place where his foot will be
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