1 Samuel 22:4

22:1-5 See what weak instruments God sometimes uses, to bring about his own purposes. The Son of David is ready to receive distressed souls, who will be commanded by him. He receives all who come unto Him, however vile and miserable; he changes them into a holy people, and employs them in his service: those who would reign with him must be contented first to suffer with and for him. Observe with what tender concern David provided for his aged parents. The first thing he does is to find them a quiet habitation, whatever became of himself. Let children learn to honour their parents, in every thing consulting their ease and satisfaction. Though highly preferred, and much employed, let them not forget their aged parents. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And the Lord will preserve his people for their appointed work, however they may be hated and exposed.

And he brought them before the king of Moab,.... Having leave from him for it, and left them with him; so the Targum,"caused them to remain before him:" and they dwelt with him all the whole time that David was in the hold; either in the cave of Adullam, as some think; or rather at Mizpeh in Moab, which might be a fortified place; or the sense may be, while he was in any hold in those parts, as he might go from one to another; what became of David's parents afterwards, we nowhere else read. The Jews (z) say the king of Moab slew his father and his mother, and his brethren, all but one, whom Nahash the Ammonite preserved; and is the kindness David speaks of, 2 Samuel 10:2; and if this was the case, now it was that his father and mother forsook him, and God took him up, Psalm 27:10. (z) Bemnidbar Rabba, sect. 14. fol. 212. 1. Tanchuma apud Jarchium in loc.

1 Samuel 22:4. All the while David was in the hold — In holds; the singular number being put for the plural, as is frequent; that is, as long as David was forced to go from place to place, and from hold to hold, to secure himself; for it concerned David especially to secure his father, and he did doubtless secure him for all that time; and not only while he was in the hold of Mizpeh, or of Adullam, which was but a little while.

4 . in the hold ] “Hold” = stronghold or fortress: here apparently the Mizpeh of 1 Samuel 22:3 . What became of David’s parents when he quitted the hold does not appear. A Jewish tradition affirms that the king of Moab betrayed his trust and murdered them, for which David exacted a heavy vengeance when he came to the throne ( 2 Samuel 8:2 ). 1 Samuel 22:4

22 . they inquired of the Lord further ] The technical phrase for ascertaining God’s will by means of the Urim and Thummim in the breastplate upon the High-priest’s Ephod ( Exodus 28:30 ; Numbers 27:21 ). See on 1 Samuel 28:6 , and cp. ch. 1 Samuel 14:3 , 1 Samuel 22:10 , 1 Samuel 23:9 , 1 Samuel 30:7 . the stuff ] The baggage of the people who had come to Mizpah from a distance. Compare “Therefore away to get our stuff aboard.” Shakespeare, Com. of Errors , IV. 4.

He brought them before ... - The Septuagint renders it "he persuaded (the face of) the king." In the hold - Where David was after he left the cave of Adullam, probably in the land of Moab. The phrase "all the while," would indicate that David sojourned a considerable time in Moab.

Before the king of Moab; into his presence, that he might see them, and give them leave to dwell in his dominion. In the hold; either, 1. In Mizpeh of Moab, which was a very strong hold. But it is apparent he speaks of some hold where his father and mother were exposed to fear and danger from Saul, which they were not in the king of Moab’s royal city. Or, 2. In the cave of Adullam, mentioned above, 1 Samuel 22:1 . Or, 3. In holes; the singular number being put for the plural, as is frequent; i.e. as long as David was forced to go from place to place, and from hold to hold, to secure himself; for it concerned David to secure his father, and he did doubtless secure him for all that time; and not only whilst he was in the hold of Mizpeh, or of Adullam, which was but a little while.

3. David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab—"Mizpeh" signifies a watchtower, and it is evident that it must be taken in this sense here, for it is called "the hold" or fort (1Sa 22:4). The king of Moab was an enemy of Saul (1Sa 14:47), and the great-grandson of Ruth, of course, was related to the family of Jesse. David, therefore, had less anxiety in seeking an asylum within the dominions of this prince than those of Achish, because the Moabites had no grounds for entertaining vindictive feelings against him, and their enmity, to Saul rendered them the more willing to receive so illustrious a refugee from his court.

David proceeded thence to Mizpeh in Moab, and placed his parents in safety with the king of the Moabites. His ancestress Ruth was a Moabitess. Mizpeh: literally a watch-tower or mountain height commanding a very extensive prospect. Here it is probably a proper name, belonging to a mountain fastness on the high land, which bounded the Arboth Moab on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, most likely on the mountains of Abarim or Pisgah ( Deuteronomy 34:1 ), and which could easily be reached from the country round Bethlehem, by crossing the Jordan near the point where it entered the Dead Sea. As David came to the king of Moab, the Moabites had probably taken possession of the most southerly portion of the eastern lands of the Israelites; we may also infer this from the fact that, according to 1 Samuel 14:47 , Saul had also made war upon Moab, for Mizpeh Moab is hardly to be sought for in the actual land of the Moabites, on the south side of the Arnon (Mojeb). אתּכם ... יצא־נא, "May my father and my mother go out with you." The construction of יצא with את is a pregnant one: to go out of their home and stay with you (Moabites). "Till I know what God will do to me." Being well assured of the justice of his cause, as contrasted with the insane persecutions of Saul, David confidently hoped that God would bring his flight to an end. His parents remained with the king of Moab as long as David was בּמּצוּדה, i.e., upon the mount height, or citadel.

This can only refer to the place of refuge which David had found at Mizpeh Moab. For it is perfectly clear from 1 Samuel 22:5 , where the prophet Gad calls upon David not to remain any longer בּמּצוּדה, but to return to the land of Judah, that the expression cannot refer either to the cave Adullam, or to any other place of refuge in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem. The prophet Gad had probably come to David from Samuel's school of prophets; but whether he remained with David from that time forward to assist him with his counsel in his several undertakings, cannot be determined, on account of our want of information. In 1 Chronicles 21:9 he is called David's seer. In the last year of David's reign he announced to him the punishment which would fall upon him from God on account of his sin in numbering the people ( 2 Samuel 24:11 .); and according to 1 Chronicles 29:29 he also wrote the acts of David. In consequence of this admonition, David returned to Judah, and went into the wood Hareth, a woody region on the mountains of Judah, which is never mentioned again, and the situation of which is unknown. According to the counsels of God, David was not to seek for refuge outside the land; not only that he might not be estranged from his fatherland and the people of Israel, which would have been opposed to his calling to be the king of Israel, but also that he might learn to trust entirely in the Lord as his only refuge and fortress.