1 Samuel 23:22

22 abite oro et diligentius praeparate et curiosius agite et considerate locum ubi sit pes eius vel quis viderit eum ibi recogitat enim de me quod callide insidier ei

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 nunc ergo sicut desideravit anima tua ut descenderes descende nostrum autem erit ut tradamus eum in manus regis
21 dixitque Saul benedicti vos a Domino quia doluistis vicem mea
22 abite oro et diligentius praeparate et curiosius agite et considerate locum ubi sit pes eius vel quis viderit eum ibi recogitat enim de me quod callide insidier ei
23 considerate et videte omnia latibula eius in quibus absconditur et revertimini ad me ad rem certam ut vadam vobiscum quod si etiam in terra se abstruserit perscrutabor eum in cunctis milibus Iuda
24 at illi surgentes abierunt in Ziph ante Saul David autem et viri eius erant in deserto Maon in campestribus ad dextram Iesimuth
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.