to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Samuel
וּשְׁמוּאֵ֔לu.she.mu.'El
H8050
Shemuel · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
went
יָלַךְyâlak
H3212
to walk (literally or figuratively)
dwelt
וַיֵּשְׁב֖וּvai.ye.she.Vu
H3427
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Naioth
בְּנָֽיוֹתbe.noit
H5121
Navith · preposition + proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Samuel 7:17 And his return was to Ramah; for there was his house; and there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar unto the LORD.
1 Samuel 15:34 Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.
1 Samuel 28:3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had fa…
Psalms 116:11 I said in my haste, All men are liars.
James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availet…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 19:18–end
Here is, I. David's place of refuge. Having got away in the night from his own house, he fled not to Bethlehem to his relations, nor to any of the cities of Israel that had caressed and cried him up, to make an interest in them for his own preservation; but he ran straight to Samuel and told him all that Saul had done to him, Sa1 19:18. 1. Because Samuel was the man that had given him assurance of the crown, and his faith in that assurance now beginning to fail, and he being ready to say in his haste (or in his flight, as some read it, Psa 116:11), All men are liars ("not only Saul that promised me my life, but Samuel himself that promised me the throne"), whither should he go but to Samuel,…
DAVID FLEES TO SAMUEL. (Sa1 19:18-23)
David fled, . . . and came to Samuel to Ramah--Samuel was living in great retirement, superintending the school of the prophets, established in the little hamlet of Naioth, in the neighborhood of Ramah. It was a retreat congenial to the mind of David; but Saul, having found out his asylum, sent three successive bodies of men to apprehend him. The character of the place and the influence of the sacred exercises produced such an effect on them that they were incapable of discharging their commission, and were led, by a resistless impulse, to join in singing the praises of God. Saul, in a fit of rage and disappointment, determined to go himself. But, befor…
David fled, and escaped - to Samuel - He, no doubt, came to this holy man to ask advice; and Samuel thought it best to retain him for the present, with himself at Naioth, where it is supposed he had a school of prophets.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 19:18
So David fled and escaped,.... Fled from his own house, and escaped falling into the hands of the messengers of Saul, and so of Saul himself:
and came to Samuel to Ramah; the place where Samuel dwelt: to him David chose to come, by whom he had been anointed king, that his faith might be strengthened by him with respect to the kingdom, which might be weakened by what had happened to him; and that he might have some advice and direction from him what he should do, and what course he should take in his present circumstances, and that he might receive some comfort from him under his present troubles:
and told him all that Saul had done to him; how he had spoken to his servants to kill him, had…
The Church Fathers
Therefore let us not be ashamed to flee, for this flight is a glorious one, to flee from the face of sin.… Thus did David, too, flee from the face of King Saul, and from the face of Absalom. Indeed, in his flight he brought about an increase of holiness, for he spared a treacherous assailant and sought after a parricide.
Moreover the perfect soul turns away from matter, shuns and rejects everything that is excessive or inconstant or wicked, and neither sees nor approaches this earthly defilement and corruption. It is attentive to things divine but shuns earthly matter. But its flight is not to depart from the earth but to remain on earth, to hold to justice and temperance, to renounce the vices in material goods, not their use. Holy David fled from the face of Saul, not indeed to depart from the earth but to turn away from the contagion of a cruel, disobedient and treacherous man. He fled, cleaving to God, just as he himself said, "My soul has stuck fast to you."
David, however, fleeing, was saved, etc. Ramathaim meaning heights, Naioth interpreted as beauty, which is a place in Ramah. Therefore, with Saul's messengers seeing only the image and goatskin in David's bed, David himself fleeing is saved; and with the Jews during the time of the Lord's death arguing among themselves that he was a deceiver, and not truly innocent and just, but was crucified for his crime, the Lord, who was confined in the tomb, mighty arising from death, appears in the heights of life, with immortal glory to the disciples, saying: Because thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead (Luke 24); and he goes, and dwells in the beauty of the everlasting kingdom, which is in heaven. The Church has gone after him in hope both in soul and body, and thus will be with the Lord always.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Naioth — Dwellings, the name given to the prophetical college established by Samuel near Ramah. It consisted of a cluster of separate dwellings, and hence its name. David took refuge here when he fled from…
Prophet — (Heb. nabi, from a root meaning “to bubble forth, as from a fountain,” hence “to utter”, comp. Ps. 45:1). This Hebrew word is the first and the most generally used for a prophet. In the time of…
Ramah — (a hill). This is the name of several places in the holy land.
Schools of the Prophets — (1 Sam. 19:18-24; 2 Kings 2:3, 5, 7, 12, 15) were instituted for the purpose of training young men for the prophetical and priestly offices. (See PROPHET; SAMUEL.)
David · Naioth, where Saul pursues him — Naioth, where Saul pursues him
Jealousy · .Saul, of David — .Saul, of David
Naioth · A place in Ramah — A place in Ramah
Ramah · .David flees to — .David flees to
Samuel · Shelters David while es — Shelters David while es
Synagogues · Probably originated in the schools of the prophets — Probably originated in the schools of the prophets
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
David fled to Samuel at Ramah, and reported to him all that Saul had done, partly to seek for further advice from the prophet who had anointed him, as to his further course, and partly to strengthen himself, by intercourse with him, for the troubles that still awaited him. He therefore went along with Samuel, and dwelt with him in Naioth. נוית (to be read נוית according to the Chethibh, for which the Masoretes have substituted the form ניות, Sa1 19:19, Sa1 19:23, and Sa1 20:1), from נוה or נוה, signifies dwellings; but here it is in a certain sense a proper name, applied to the coenobium of the pupils of the prophets, who had assembled round Samuel in the neighbourhood of Ramah. The plural נ…
Ramah: Samuel’s hometown (1:1). • Naioth was a tiny village not far from the other Ramah in Benjamin.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 19:17
He said to me… You delivered me into the hands of a bandit.1She placed the blame for Dovid’s escape on Shaul. He drew his sword at me until I let him leave.
