1 Samuel 26:3

3 Saul camped on Hachilah's hill opposite Jeshimon beside the road, but David stayed in the wilderness. When David learned that Saul had come after him into the wilderness,

1 Samuel 26:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 26:3

And Saul pitched in the hill of Hachilah, which [is] before
Jeshimon, by the way
To the wilderness; the very same place where the Ziphites suggested David was:

but David abode in the wilderness;
not in the hill of Hachilah, but in the wilderness of Ziph itself:

and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness;
he understood, by some information he had, that Saul had set out from Gibeah, and was coming to seek for him in the wilderness of Ziph; perhaps Jonathan had given him intelligence; however, he was not quite certain, as appears by what follows.

1 Samuel 26:3 In-Context

1 The Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah. "David is hiding on Hachilah's hill, which faces Jeshimon," they said.

2 So Saul got up and went down to the Ziph wilderness to look for David there. He had three thousand handpicked soldiers from Israel with him.

3 Saul camped on Hachilah's hill opposite Jeshimon beside the road, but David stayed in the wilderness. When David learned that Saul had come after him into the wilderness,

4 he sent spies and discovered that Saul had definitely arrived.

5 So David got up and went to the place where Saul camped, and saw the place where Saul and Abner, Ner's son and Saul's general, were sleeping. Saul was sleeping inside the camp with the troops camped all around him.