1 Samuel 26:2

2 Then Sha'ul set out and went down to the Zif Desert with three thousand men chosen from Isra'el, to search for David in the Zif Desert.

1 Samuel 26:2 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 26:2

Then Saul arose
Immediately, glad of an opportunity to seize on David, having the same disposition towards him as ever; and perhaps had repented he had not laid hold on him when he followed him out of the cave:

and went down to the wilderness of Ziph:
or towards it:

having three thousand chosen men of Israel;
young men, so called, because usually chosen for business, and for war particularly, rather than old men; the same number he took with him when he sought him at Engedi, ( 1 Samuel 24:2 ) ;

to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph;
where or whereabouts he was informed by the Ziphites he was.

1 Samuel 26:2 In-Context

1 The people from Zif went to Sha'ul in Giv'ah and said, "David is hiding himself on Hakhilah Hill, across from Yeshimon."

2 Then Sha'ul set out and went down to the Zif Desert with three thousand men chosen from Isra'el, to search for David in the Zif Desert.

3 Sha'ul pitched camp on Hakhilah Hill, across from Yeshimon, near the road. David was staying in the desert, and he saw that Sha'ul was coming into the desert after him.

4 So David dispatched spies and determined that Sha'ul had definitely come.

5 David set out and went to where Sha'ul had pitched his camp. He saw where Sha'ul and Avner the son of Ner, the commander of his army, were sleeping. Sha'ul was lying inside the barricade with the troops asleep all around him.