1 Samuel 23:19

Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in strong holds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
up	וַיַּעֲל֤וּ vai.ya.'a.Lu	H5927	to ascend · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Ziphites	זִפִים֙ zi.Fim	H2130	a Ziphite or inhabitant of Ziph · noun, gentilic masculine plural absolute
Saul	שָׁא֔וּל sha.'Ul	H7586	Shaul · proper noun, a man's name
Gibeah	הַגִּבְעָ֖תָה ha.giv.'A.tah	H1390	Gibah · definite article + proper noun, a place name + directional suffix
saying	לֵאמֹ֑ר le.Mor	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
David	דָ֠וִד Da.vid	H1732	David · proper noun, a man's name
hide	מִסְתַּתֵּ֨ר mis.ta.Ter	H5641	to hide (by covering) · verb, hithpael active participle, masculine singular absolute
holds	בַמְּצָדוֹת֙ va.me.tza.dOt	H4679	a fastness (as a covert of ambush) · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
wood	בַּחֹ֔רְשָׁה ba.Cho.re.shah	H2793	a forest (perhaps as furnishing the material for fabric) · preposition with the article + proper noun, a place name
hill	בְּגִבְעַת֙ be.giv.'At	H1389	a hillock · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
Hachilah	הַֽחֲכִילָ֔ה ha.cha.khi.Lah	H2444	Chakilah · definite article + proper noun, a place name
south	מִימִ֥ין mi.Min	H3225	the right hand or side (leg · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
Jeshimon	הַיְשִׁימֽוֹן hay.shi.Mon	H3452	a desolation · definite article + 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 26:1 And the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon?
1 Samuel 26:3 And Saul pitched in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon, by the way. But David abode in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came…
Psalms 54:1-7 Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength.
1 Samuel 22:7-8 Then Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and viney…
Proverbs 29:12 If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 23:19–end

Here, 1. The Ziphites offer their service to Saul, to betray David to him, Sa1 23:19, Sa1 23:20. He was sheltering himself in the wilderness of Ziph (Sa1 23:14, Sa1 23:15), putting the more confidence in the people of that country because they were of his own tribe. They had reason to think themselves happy that they had an opportunity of serving one who was the ornament of their tribe and was likely to be much more so, who was so far from plundering the country, or giving it any disturbance with his troops, that he was ready to protect it and to them all the good offices that there was occasion for. But, to ingratiate themselves with Saul, they went to him, and not only informed him very pa…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 23:19

SAUL PURSUES HIM. (Sa1 23:19-29) Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us?--From the tell of Ziph a panorama of the whole surrounding district is to be seen. No wonder, then, that the Ziphites saw David and his men passing to and fro in the mountains of the wilderness. Spying him at a distance when he ventured to show himself on the hill of Hachilah, "on the right hand of the wilderness," that is, the south side of Ziph, they sent in haste to Saul, to tell him of the lurking place of his enemy [VAN DE VELDE].

Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 23:16

And Jonathan - strengthened his hand in God - It is probable that there was always a secret intercourse between David and Jonathan, and that by this most trusty friend he was apprised of the various designs of Saul to take away his life. As Jonathan well knew that God had appointed David to the kingdom, he came now to encourage him to trust in the Most High, and to assure him that the hand of Saul should not prevail against him; and at this interview they renewed their covenant of friendship. Now all this Jonathan could do, consistently with his duty to his father and his king. He knew that David had delivered the kingdom; he saw that his father was ruling unconstitutionally; and he knew tha…

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The Church Fathers

But the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, etc. Often false brothers, abandoning the bud and flower of their virtues, ascend to the arrogant enemies of faith to help them against the Church and, detesting the simplicity of the faithful, in a way say to the persecutors: "Does not Christ dwell among us through faith in the most secure hearts of the Gentiles?" Nor is it in vain that it is said in the hill of Hachilah, that is, receiving it. For where should we think the spirit of Christ more gracefully stays than in the height of a mind firmly receiving its faith? Which is to the right of the desert, because for the sake of the right side, that is, the joys of eternal life, it abandons the pomp of the world. For he who declines worldly enticements with a view to temporal and earthly reward, is said not to have turned to the right of the desert, but rather to the left, where our desirable king does not dwell, but the detestable enemy is accustomed to inhabit. And all these things the Ziphites say to Saul, when some falsely faithful men betray the mysteries of faith or its worshippers to open persecutors, and with a perverse mind, though they differ in the recognition of faith, they concord in hatred of the same faith; and to the extent they internally know the secrets of Christ, as David's hiding places, they more wickedly help those who attempt to attack the Church from without.
— Bede, Commentary on Samuel

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

Hachilah — The darksome hill, one of the peaks of the long ridge of el-Kolah, running out of the Ziph plateau, “on the south of Jeshimon” (i.e., of the “waste”), the district to which one looks down from the…
Hachilah, The Hill — a hill apparently situated in a wood in the wilderness or waste land in the neighborhood of Ziph, in Judah, in the fastnesses or passes of which David and his six hundred followers were lurking when…
Hand — Called by Galen “the instrument of instruments.” It is the symbol of human action (Ps. 9:16; Job 9:30; Isa. 1:15; 1 Tim. 2:8). Washing the hands was a symbol of innocence (Ps. 26:6; 73:13; Matt.…
Jeshimon — The waste, probably some high waste land to the south of the Dead Sea (Num. 21:20; 23:28; 1 Sam. 23:19, 24); or rather not a proper name at all, but simply “the waste” or “wilderness,” the district…
Wilderness — (1.) Heb. midhbar, denoting not a barren desert but a district or region suitable for pasturing sheep and cattle (Ps. 65:12; Isa. 42:11; Jer. 23:10; Joel 1:19; 2:22); an uncultivated place. This word…
Ziph — Flowing. (1.) A son of Jehaleleel (1 Chr. 4:16). (2.) A city in the south of Judah (Josh. 15:24), probably at the pass of Sufah. (3.) A city in the mountains of Judah (Josh. 15:55), identified with…
Ziphim, The — the inhabitants of Ziph, 2. In this form the name is found in the Authorized Version only in the title of (Psalms 54:1) In the narrative it occurs in the more usual form of ZIPHITES. (1 Samuel 23:19;…
Hachilah · A hill in — A hill in
Mountains · Mentioned in scripture: Hachilah — Mentioned in scripture: Hachilah

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).

1 Samuel 23:19

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 23:19–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 23:19

Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 23:16

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

1 Samuel 23:19

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 23:19–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Samuel 23:19

Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 23:16

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Gill on 1 Samuel 23:19

Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Samuel 23:18-20

Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Samuel 23:19

Rashi on 1 Samuel 23:16