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 ) .
FOOTNOTES:
F26 Bemnidbar Rabba, sect. 14. fol. 212. 1. Tanchuma apud Jarchium in loc.
2
Then others began coming—men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented—until David was the captain of about 400 men.
3
Later David went to Mizpeh in Moab, where he asked the king, “Please allow my father and mother to live here with you until I know what God is going to do for me.”
4
So David’s parents stayed in Moab with the king during the entire time David was living in his stronghold.
5
One day the prophet Gad told David, “Leave the stronghold and return to the land of Judah.” So David went to the forest of Hereth.
6
The news of his arrival in Judah soon reached Saul. At the time, the king was sitting beneath the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, holding his spear and surrounded by his officers.