1 Samuel 22:4

4 So he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was hiding in the stronghold.

1 Samuel 22:4 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 22:4

And he brought them before the king of Moab
Having leave from him for it, and left them with him; so the Targum,

``caused them to remain before him:''

and they dwelt with him all the whole time that David was in the hold;
either in the cave of Adullam, as some think; or rather at Mizpeh in Moab, which might be a fortified place; or the sense may be, while he was in any hold in those parts, as he might go from one to another; what became of David's parents afterwards, we nowhere else read. The Jews ^F26 say the king of Moab slew his father and his mother, and his brethren, all but one, whom Nahash the Ammonite preserved; and is the kindness David speaks of, ( 2 Samuel 10:2 ) ; and if this was the case, now it was that his father and mother forsook him, and God took him up, ( Psalms 27:10 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Bemnidbar Rabba, sect. 14. fol. 212. 1. Tanchuma apud Jarchium in loc.

1 Samuel 22:4 In-Context

2 Everyone who was in trouble, or who owed money, or who was unsatisfied gathered around David, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.

3 From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and spoke to the king of Moab. He said, "Please let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God is going to do for me."

4 So he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was hiding in the stronghold.

5 But the prophet Gad said to David, "Don't stay in the stronghold. Go to the land of Judah." So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

6 Saul heard that David and his men had been seen. Saul was sitting under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, and all his officers were standing around him. He had a spear in his hand.