1 Samuel 23:22

22 Therefore, I pray you, go ye, and make ready more diligently, and do ye more curiously, either attentively, and behold ye swiftly, where his foot is, either who saw him there, where ye said; for he thinketh on me, that fellily I ambush him. (And so, I pray you, go ye, and more diligently, yea, most attentively, seek ye him out, and quickly see ye, where his foot is, and who saw him there, where ye said; for he thinketh, that I am foolish to even try to ambush him.)

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 (wlgr) "pes ejus", Pagninus, Montanus.

1 Samuel 23:22 In-Context

20 Now therefore come thou down, as thy soul desired, that thou shouldest come down; forsooth it shall be our doing, that we betake him into the hands of the king. (And so now come thou down, as thy soul truly desireth to come down; and it shall be our doing that we deliver him into thy hands.)

21 And Saul said, Blessed be ye of the Lord, for ye [have] sorrowed for my stead/for my while (for ye be concerned about my situation)

22 Therefore, I pray you, go ye, and make ready more diligently, and do ye more curiously, either attentively, and behold ye swiftly, where his foot is, either who saw him there, where ye said; for he thinketh on me, that fellily I ambush him. (And so, I pray you, go ye, and more diligently, yea, most attentively, seek ye him out, and quickly see ye, where his foot is, and who saw him there, where ye said; for he thinketh, that I am foolish to even try to ambush him.)

23 Behold ye, and see all his hiding places, in which he is hid, and then turn ye again to me at a certain thing, that I go with you; that if he encloseth himself yea in [the] earth, I shall seek him with(in) all the thousands of Judah. (Seek ye out, and see all his hiding places, where he can be hid, and return to me with this certain information, and then I shall go back with you; yea, if he is hid there in the land, I shall seek him out among all the thousands of Judah.)

24 And they rose up, and went into Ziph before Saul. And David and his men were in the desert of Maon, in the field places, at the right half of Jeshimon (And David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, to the south of Jeshimon).