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DavidInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 1
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However, when David first left his father’s sheep it was not to take over the kingship. Instead, he served as the court musician upon the recommendation of an adviser of Saul, who described David not only as “skilled at playing” but also as “a valiant, mighty man and a man of war and an intelligent speaker and a well-formed man, and Jehovah is with him.” (1Sa 16:18) So David became the harpist to troubled Saul, as well as his armor-bearer.—1Sa 16:19-23.
Later, for reasons not disclosed, David returns to his father’s house for an indeterminate period.
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DavidInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 1
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As a Fugitive. (MAP, Vol. 1, p. 746) These fast-moving events catapulted David from the obscurity of the wilderness to public notice before the eyes of all Israel. Placed over the men of war, David was greeted with dancing and rejoicing when he returned from a victorious expedition against the Philistines, the popular song of the day being, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” (1Sa 18:5-7) “All Israel and Judah were lovers of David,” and Saul’s own son Jonathan concluded with him a lifelong covenant of mutual love and friendship, the benefits of which extended to Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth and grandson Mica.—1Sa 18:1-4, 16; 20:1-42; 23:18; 2Sa 9:1-13.
This popularity stirred up envy in Saul, who kept “looking suspiciously at David from that day forward.” Twice when David was playing as in former times, Saul hurled a spear with the intent of pinning David to the wall, and both times Jehovah delivered him. Saul had promised to give his daughter to whoever killed Goliath, but now he was reluctant to give her to David. Finally Saul agreed to the marriage of a second daughter, provided David brought him “a hundred foreskins of the Philistines,” an unreasonable demand that Saul calculated would mean David’s death. Courageous David, however, doubled the dowry, presented Saul with 200 foreskins, and was married to Michal. So now two of Saul’s children had lovingly entered covenants with David, circumstances that made Saul hate him all the more. (1Sa 18:9-29) When David was again playing before Saul, the king for the third time sought to pin him to the wall. Under the cover of night David fled, to see Saul again only under different and indeed strange circumstances.—1Sa 19:10.
For the next several years David lived as a fugitive, constantly in flight from place to place, relentlessly pursued by an obstinate and wicked king bent on killing him. David first took refuge with the prophet Samuel in Ramah (1Sa 19:18-24), but when this ceased to be a hiding place he headed for the Philistine city of Gath, stopping on the way to see High Priest Ahimelech in Nob, where he obtained Goliath’s sword. (1Sa 21:1-9; 22:9-23; Mt 12:3, 4) However, it was only by disguising his sanity, making childish cross marks on the gate and letting saliva run down his beard, that he was able to escape from Gath. (1Sa 21:10-15) Based on this experience, David composed Psalms 34 and 56. He then fled to the cave of Adullam, where his family and about 400 unfortunate and distressed men joined him. Psalm 57 or 142, or both, may commemorate his stay in this cave. David kept on the move—from there to Mizpeh in Moab and then back to the forest of Hereth in Judah. (1Sa 22:1-5) When living in Keilah, he learned that Saul was preparing to attack, whereupon he and his men, now numbering about 600, departed for the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul continued the chase from one place to another, from the Wilderness of Ziph at Horesh to the Wilderness of Maon. When Saul was about to seize his prey, word came of a Philistine raid, so for a period of time Saul abandoned the chase, allowing the fugitive to escape to En-gedi. (1Sa 23:1-29) Beautiful Psalms praising Jehovah for providing miraculous deliverance (Ps 18, 59, 63, 70) were born out of similar experiences.
At En-gedi, Saul entered a cave to ease nature. David, who had been hiding there in the back of the cave, crept up and cut off the skirt of Saul’s garment but spared his life, saying that it was unthinkable on his part to harm the king, “for he is the anointed of Jehovah.”—1Sa 24:1-22.
Following Samuel’s death. After Samuel’s death, David, still in a state of exile, took up dwelling in the Wilderness of Paran. (See PARAN.) He and his men extended kindness to Nabal, a wealthy stock raiser whose work was in Carmel, to the S of Hebron, only to be rebuffed by this ingrate. Quick thinking on the part of Nabal’s wife Abigail stayed David’s hand from exterminating the males of the household, but Nabal was stricken by Jehovah and died. Thereupon David married the widow, so that now, in addition to Ahinoam from Jezreel, David had yet another wife, Abigail of Carmel; during David’s long absence, Saul had given Michal to another man.—1Sa 25:1-44; 27:3.
For the second time David took refuge in the Wilderness of Ziph, and again the hunt was on. David likened Saul and his 3,000 men to those searching “for a single flea, just as one chases a partridge upon the mountains.” One night David and Abishai crept into the sleeping camp of Saul and made off with his spear and water jug. Abishai wanted to kill Saul, but David spared Saul’s life the second time, saying that, from Jehovah’s viewpoint, it was unthinkable for him to thrust out his hand against God’s anointed one. (1Sa 26:1-25) This occasion was the last time David saw his adversary.
David settled at Ziklag in Philistine territory, out of Saul’s reach for a period of 16 months. A number of mighty men deserted Saul’s forces and joined the exiles at Ziklag, enabling David to raid towns of Israel’s enemies on the S, thus securing Judah’s boundaries and strengthening his future position as king. (1Sa 27:1-12; 1Ch 12:1-7, 19-22) When the Philistines were preparing to assault Saul’s forces, King Achish, thinking David was “a stench among his people Israel,” invited him to go along. However, the other axis lords rejected David as a security risk. (1Sa 29:1-11) In the battle that culminated on Mount Gilboa, Saul and three of his sons, including Jonathan, died.—1Sa 31:1-7.
Meanwhile, the Amalekites robbed and burned out Ziklag, carrying off all the women and children. Immediately David’s forces pursued, overtook the marauders, and recovered their wives and children and all the goods. (1Sa 30:1-31) Three days later an Amalekite brought the diadem and bracelet of Saul, deceitfully boasting that he had put the wounded king to death and hoping to receive a reward. Even though he lied in the matter, David ordered him killed for claiming to have “put the anointed of Jehovah to death.”—2Sa 1:1-16; 1Sa 31:4, 5.
As King. (MAP, Vol. 1, p. 746) The tragic news of Saul’s death grieved David very much. He was not so concerned that his archenemy was dead as he was that the anointed one of Jehovah had fallen. In lamentation, David composed a dirge entitled “The Bow.” In it he bewails how his worst enemy and his best friend had fallen together in battle—“Saul and Jonathan, the lovable ones and the pleasant ones during their life, and in their death they were not separated.”—2Sa 1:17-27.
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