1 Samuel 27:1

DAVID FINDS A REFUGE AT ZIKLAG ( 1 Samuel 27:1-12 .).

EXPOSITION

DAVID AGAIN SEEKS PROTECTION AT GATH ( 1 Samuel 27:1-4 ).

David said in his heart. Hebrew, "to his heart," to himself (see 1 Samuel 1:13 ). l shall perish by the hand. The verb is that used in 1 Samuel 12:25 ; 1 Samuel 26:10 , but instead of by the hand the Hebrew has into the hand. Hence the versions generally render it, "I shall some day fall into the hand." Really it is a proegnans constructio : "I shall perish by failing into the hand of Saul." It was the second treachery of the Ziphites which made David feel that, surrounded as he was by spies, there was no safety for him but in taking that course to which, as he so sorrowfully complained to Saul, his enemies were driving him ( 1 Samuel 26:19 ). His words there show that the thought of quitting Judaea was already in his mind, so that this chapter follows naturally on 1 Samuel 26:1-25 ; and not, as some have argued, upon 1 Samuel 24:1-22 .