Bible Strands
1 Samuel 26:2
So Saul, accompanied by three thousand chosen men of Israel, went down to the Wilderness of Ziph to search for David there.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Saul acts on intelligence from the Ziphites at Gibeah, mobilizing a military force to pursue David after his location was revealed.
The words — וַיָּקָם (vaYyaqom) means "and he arose" or mobilized, and וַיֵּרֶד (vaYyered) translates to "and he went down," marking the king's physical descent into the terrain.
The thread — This pursuit mirrors Saul's earlier campaigns against David, where he similarly deployed three thousand chosen men to track him across rugged ground (1 Samuel 24:2; 1 Samuel 13:2).
Why it lands — The text records the factual deployment of a king's army to hunt a fugitive, requiring the reader to track how human strategy repeatedly meets divine timing.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then Saul arose, and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 24:2 So Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to look for David and his men in the region of the Rocks of the Wild Goats.
- 1 Samuel 13:2 He chose for himself three thousand men of Israel: Two thousand were with Saul at Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. And the rest of the troops he sent away, each to his own home.
- 1 Samuel 23:23 Observe and find out all the places where he hides. Then come back to me with certainty, and I will go with you. If he is in the land, I will search him out among all the clans of Judah.”
- 1 Samuel 24:17 and said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have rewarded me with good, though I have rewarded you with evil.
- Psalms 38:12 Those who seek my life lay snares; those who wish me harm speak destruction, plotting deceit all day long.
- Psalms 140:4 Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked. Keep me safe from men of violence who scheme to make me stumble.