1 Samuel 23:22

22 Go and get more information. Find out where David usually goes and who has seen him there. They tell me he is very crafty.

1 Samuel 23:22 in Other Translations

KJV
22 Go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who hath seen him there: for it is told me that he dealeth very subtilly.
ESV
22 Go, make yet more sure. Know and see the place where his foot is, and who has seen him there, for it is told me that he is very cunning.
NLT
22 Go and check again to be sure of where he is staying and who has seen him there, for I know that he is very crafty.
MSG
22 Now go back and check everything out. Learn his routines. Observe his movements - where he goes, who he's with. He's very shrewd, you know.
CSB
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.

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, Your Majesty, come down whenever it pleases you to do so, and we will be responsible for giving him into your hands.”
21 Saul replied, “The LORD bless you for your concern for me.
22 Go and get more information. Find out where David usually goes and who has seen him there. They tell me he is very crafty.
23 Find out about all the hiding places he uses and come back to me with definite information. Then I will go with you; if he is in the area, I will track him down among all the clans of Judah.”
24 So they set out and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the Desert of Maon, in the Arabah south of Jeshimon.
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