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1 Samuel 23:24

in 1 Samuel 23

So they set out and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the Wilderness of Maon in the Arabah south of Jeshimon,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And they arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of the desert.

KJV

And they arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon.

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This verse in 1 Samuel 23

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on Samuel · Written before 735.

But David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, etc. Maon is interpreted as dwelling. Jeshimon means bringing death. Generally, however, the faithful, having obtained Christ as their leader, rejoice to thirst for the eternal homeland, which the waterless places of the desert …

This site's exposition

he dealeth very subtilly

on 1 Samuel 23:22-25

Saul's caution here, wanting certainty of the place before he commits his men, costs him time, and David withdraws further south into the wilderness of Maon while the search continues. Nineteenth-century surveyors described this tableland as broken sharply into ravines, terrain that explains both David's ability to disappear into a rock at verse 25 and the difficulty Saul's larger force has closing on him. Saul's whole company now moves to surround the smaller band, narrowing the ground between them verse by verse.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Bede

Commentary on Samuel · Written before 735.

proposed

But they rising up went to Ziph before Saul. Rightly the Ziphites who lay in wait for David are said to have gone to Ziph before Saul, because indeed the schismatics or heretics, the closer they are to Jews or pagans, having been admitted inside, …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), and at this time he penned the 54th Psalm , as appears by the title, wherein he calls the Ziphites strangers, though they were Israelites, because they used him barbarously; but he puts himself under the divine protection: " Behold, God is my helper, and then all shall be well" Saul, having got intelligence of him, pursued him closely (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation

And they arose, and went to Ziph, before Saul,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

The plain - The Arabah, the desert tract which extends along the valley of the Jordan from the Dead Sea to the Lake of Gennesareth, now called El-Ghor. The word is now given by the Arabs to the valley between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Akaba.

The words behind it

13 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיָּק֛וּמוּand they arose

    vaiyakumuH6965 →628 times

  • וַיֵּלְכ֥וּand they went

    vaiyelekhuH1980 →1546 times

  • זִ֖יפָהZiph towards

    zifahH2128 →10 times

  • לִפְנֵ֣י<to> before

    lifneiH6440 →2123 times

  • שָׁא֑וּלSaul

    shaulH7586 →402 times

  • וְדָוִ֨דand David

    vedavidH1732 →999 times

  • וַאֲנָשָׁ֜יוand men his

    vaanashavH582 →566 times

  • בְּמִדְבַּ֤ר[were] in [the] wilderness of

    bemidbarH4057 →270 times

  • מָעוֹן֙Maon

    maonH4584 →8 times

  • בָּעֲרָבָ֔הin the Arabah

    baaravahH6160 →

  • אֶ֖לto

    ʾelH413 →5510 times

  • יְמִ֥ין[the] south of

    yeminH3225 →140 times

  • הַיְשִׁימֽוֹן׃<the> Jeshimon

    hayshimonH3452 →13 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    1 Samuel 25:2

    Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. He was a very wealthy man with a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel.

    it leads to

    • Joshua 15:55

      Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah,

    • Genesis 38:13

      When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,”

    • Luke 16:19–25

      Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.

    • Genesis 13:2

      And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.

    • Genesis 26:13

      and he became richer and richer, until he was exceedingly wealthy.

  • Through

    Joshua 15:55

    Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah,

    it leads to

    • 1 Samuel 23:25

      and Saul and his men went to seek him. When David was told about it, he went down to the rock and stayed in the Wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard of this,…

    • Joshua 15:24

      Ziph, Telem, Bealoth,

    • 1 Samuel 25:2

      Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. He was a very wealthy man with a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel.

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Samuel

David Slays Goliath, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
David Slays Goliath, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
1 Samuel: the study guide →Read 1 Samuel 23 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Samuel; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in 1 Samuel 23 →