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notice, it seemed desirable to find a better retreat than the caves about Adullam. For
this twofold object David and his followers now passed to the other side of Jordan.
From the account of the war between Saul and Moab in 1 Samuel 14:47, we infer
that the latter had advanced beyond their own territory across the border, and were
now occupying the southern part of the trans-Jordanic country which belonged to
Israel. This was within easy reach of Bethlehem. Accordingly David now went to
Mizpeh Moab, the "outlook," mountain-height or "Tor" (as we might call it) of
Moab, probably over against Jericho in the "Arboth of Moab" (Numbers 22:1;
Deuteronomy 34:1, 8; Joshua 13:32), perhaps, as the name seems to indicate, on the
fields of the Zophim (or outlookers), on the top of Pisgah (Numbers 23:14^201 ).
To the king of Moab, whose protection he could invoke in virtue of their descent
from Ruth the Moabitess, he commended his father and mother, with the expressive
remark, till he should know "what Elohim^202 would do" unto him. He himself and his
followers meantime entrenched on that "mountain-height,"^203 associated with the
prophecy there delivered by Balaam concerning Israel's future.
It was impossible that such a movement on the part of David could long remain
unknown. In two quarters it excited deep feelings, though of a very different
character. It seems highly probable that the tidings reached the Naioth, and that it
was from thence that Gad (afterwards David's "seer" and spiritual adviser, 2 Samuel
24:11-19.; 1 Chronicles 21:9, and the chronicler of his reign, 1 Chronicles 29:29)
went to David by Divine commission.^204
But the stay in the land of Moab was not in accordance with the purpose of God.
David must not flee from the discipline of suffering, and God had some special work
for him in the land of Israel which Saul could. no longer do. In accordance with this
direction, David left his entrenched position, recrossed the Jordan, and sought shelter
in "the forest of Hareth,"^205 within the boundaries of Judah. But meantime Saul also
had heard that "David had become known, and the men that were with him" (22:6).
Being aware of his position, he would secure his prey. A royal court is held at
Gibeah. The king sits, as so often before, "under the tamarisk-tree on the height," his
spear as scepter in his hand, and surrounded by all his officers of state, among them
Doeg, the "chief of the herdsmen." Characteristically Saul seems now to have
surrounded himself exclusively by "Benjamites," either because no others would
serve him, or more probably because he no longer trusted any but his own clansmen.
Still more characteristic is the mode in which he appeals to their loyalty and seeks to
enlist their aid. He seems to recognize no motive on the part of others but that of the
most sordid selfishness. Probably some of the words that had passed between
Jonathan and David, when they made their covenant of friendship (20:42), had been
overheard, and repeated to Saul in a garbled form by one of his many spies. That was
(^)