1 Samuel 26:3

3 and camped by the road on Mount Hachilah. David was still in the wilderness, and when he learned that Saul had come to look for him,

1 Samuel 26:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 26:3

And Saul pitched in the hill of Hachilah, which [is] before
Jeshimon, by the way
To the wilderness; the very same place where the Ziphites suggested David was:

but David abode in the wilderness;
not in the hill of Hachilah, but in the wilderness of Ziph itself:

and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness;
he understood, by some information he had, that Saul had set out from Gibeah, and was coming to seek for him in the wilderness of Ziph; perhaps Jonathan had given him intelligence; however, he was not quite certain, as appears by what follows.

1 Samuel 26:3 In-Context

1 Some men from Ziph came to Saul at Gibeah and told him that David was hiding on Mount Hachilah at the edge of the Judean wilderness.

2 Saul went at once with three thousand of the best soldiers in Israel to the wilderness of Ziph to look for David,

3 and camped by the road on Mount Hachilah. David was still in the wilderness, and when he learned that Saul had come to look for him,

4 he sent spies and found out that Saul was indeed there.

5 He went at once and located the exact place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, slept. Saul slept inside the camp, and his men camped around him.