Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 22:5
And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth.
5. the prophet Gad ] Mentioned here for the first time, and not again till David had come to the throne, when he appears as holding the office of “the king’s seer.” He was one of the chroniclers of David’s reign (1Ch 29:29); helped in the arrangement of the musical services in the Temple (2Ch 29:25); and was sent to offer David his choice of punishments for his sin in numbering the people (2Sa 24:11 ff.).
Abide not in the hold ] The future king must not remain in a foreign land, but in the face of all risk return to his own country, in order that by such exploits as the relief of Keilah he might gain reputation, and prepare his way to the throne.
the forest of Hareth ] Nowhere else mentioned and not identified with any certainty. Perhaps the name survives in Khars on the edge of the mountain chain two or three miles east of Keilah.
Psalms 63. is referred by its title to the time when David was in the wilderness of Judah: but internal evidence points rather to his flight from Absalom; 1Sa 22:11 implies that he was already king.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The prophet Gad – Mentioned here for the first time. One may conjecture that Samnel had sent him privately from Naioth to tell David not to abide in the hold. Whether he stayed with David or returned to the College of the prophets does not appear. For later notices of him see marginal references.
The forest of Hareth is unknown.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Sa 22:5-23
And the prophet Gad said unto David.
A friend and a foe
I. The visit of Gad the seer. David had been brought very low through his own mistakes. God proved him in the hold. Then He sent to him. Wherever you are, wait for a message from God before you move,
II. Sauls appeal to his servants. No one answered it but the alien Doeg. Notice, Herod was an Edomite. The race always conspicuous for hatred to Israel. What circumspection is necessary in Gods children! Always a Doeg looking on! (Exo 23:13; 1Pe 2:12; 1Pe 2:15-16.) False witness, often nearly true. A lie that is half a truth is ever the worst of lies (Mar 14:55-59; Mat 26:61). Built on supposition (Act 21:27-29).
III. God fulfils Himself in many ways. The massacre of Nob, though unjustifiable in Saul, was Gods sentence on Elis house (1Sa 3:12-14; Isa 5:7, etc.)
IV. Security with david (1Sa 22:23). This was beautiful faith. The outcast promising protection because the Lord was with him. He was willing to protect him with his life. So was Jesus. He was not only willing, but He did it (1Jn 3:8; 1Jn 3:16). (R. E. Faulkner.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. Get thee into the land of Judah] Gad saw that in this place alone he could find safety.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Abide not in the hold; do not shut up thyself in holes and holds.
Get thee into the land of Judah; go and show thyself in the land of Judah, that thou mayst publicly put in thy claim to the kingdom after Sauls death, and that thy friends may be invited and encouraged to appear on thy behalf. Hereby also God would exercise Davids faith, and wisdom, and courage; and so prepare him for the kingdom, and uphold and increase his reputation among the people.
In the forest of Hareth there were many caves and lurking-places.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. the prophet Gad said unto David,Abide not in the holdThis sound advice, no doubt, came from ahigher source than Gad’s own sagacity. It was right to appearpublicly among the people of his own tribe, as one conscious ofinnocence and trusting in God; and it was expedient that, on thedeath of Saul, his friends might be encouraged to support hisinterest.
forest of Harethsouthwestof Jerusalem.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the prophet Gad said unto David,…. Who either accompanied him in his exile, or was sent unto him on this account, being one of the company of the prophets, over whom Samuel was president, 1Sa 19:20;
abide not in the hold, depart, and get thee into the land of Judah; this seems to confirm it that the hold David was in was not the cave of Adullam, because that was in the tribe of Judah; but rather some hold in the land of Moab, which he is directed by the prophet to leave, and go into the country of Judah, his own tribe, where Saul would not be so forward to pursue him, and where he would be among his friends, and in the way, upon Saul’s death, to be anointed king over Judah; besides, appearing more openly would show the innocence of his cause, and his confidence in the Lord, more than to lurk about in a foreign land:
then David departed; from “Mizpeh” in “Moab”; or, however, from the hold in which he was:
and came into the forest of Hareth; where he would have places and opportunity enough to hide himself as he saw fit. Jerom a speaks of a village called Arath, where David abode, to the west of Jerusalem. Kimchi says this was a dry barren place, but for the sake of David it was made by the Lord a well watered and fruitful one.
a De loc. Heb. fol. 88. L.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES
1Sa. 22:5. Gad. It must remain a matter for conjecture whether Gad had gone with David to Adullam, or whether he now comes to him for the first time with a special Divine message. Get thee into the land of Judah. Keil thinks that 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 King of Israel, but also that he might learn to trust entirely in the Lord as his only refuge and fortress. But Erdmann sees the reason for this direction in the fact that the Philistines were now making plundering incursions into the south of Judah, help and protection against them was needed, and this David and his valiant band could give, and thus fulfil part of the theocratic calling in respect of which the distracted, arbitrary rule of Saul was now impotent. Forest of Hareth. An unknown region. Josephus calls it the city of Hareth. It was probably a woody district in the mountains of Judah.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF 1Sa. 22:5
THE PROPHET GAD
I. God does not leave His servants in their times of danger and perplexity without help and guidance. Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness (Psa. 112:4), and light often comes to men as it now came to David by means of a man of God. For the very presence of such a man is light in the cloudy and dark day. It will encourage the dejected soul to hold fast its confidence in God, and will exercise a restraining influence when we are exposed to the temptation to turn aside from the path of right which great trial sometimes brings. David had yielded to such a temptation once, but Gads companionship would be likely to prevent another such fall. The presence of a prophet of God in the hold was a token of Gods good will, and as such was a light in the darkness. And the counsel of such a man at such a time is a light which not only cheers, but guides. God can guide His servants, as He can feed them, in many different ways. As He has fed them direct from heaven, so He has guided them by a voice direct from the invisible world. He has fed men by the instrumentality of angels, and He has guided them by such an instrumentality. But He more generally helps man by man, and this was the method He employed here.
II. When Gods children have good reason to believe that the light that thus ariseth is a light from heaven, it is wise to follow its guidance implicitly. It is the first duty of a benighted traveller to make sure whether the light upon his path is an ignis-fatuus luring him to destruction, or the lamp of a friend pointing to the highway of safety. When he has made sure that it is the latter, he will only reveal his foolishness if he neglects to walk in the way which it reveals as the right one. Gad was doubtless well known to David; he was in all probability one of that company at Ramah who had grown up around Samuel, and upon whom the prophetic spirit had descended in such a manner as to qualify him to give counsel and guidance to the elect king of Israel, and David, in his unhesitating obedience to his word, acts with true humility and wisdom.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
It is to be noted here as an interesting fact, that in the hold of Adullam and in the wilderness of Judah we have, side by side, representatives of the oracular and the prophetical methods of the communication of the will of God to men; and that, in the life of David, as a whole, we have the era of the transition from the one to the other. Up to this time the priest had been the most important personage in the nation, and the only recognised channel through which God indicated his will to the people. True, there had been great outstanding prophets, like Moses and Samuel; but the former was an exception to all rules as being the leader of the Exodus; and the latter, from his training under Eli, was as much a priest as he was a prophet. True, again, in the time of the Judges there was Deborah, the prophetess; but she was raised up in connection with a particular crisis in the history of her people. The general system, however, was, that when the head of the nation, whether judge or king, wished, at any special emergency, to ask counsel of the Lord, the inquiry was made through the priest, and the, answer was given by the Urim and Thummim. But now the prophet, as a standing official personage, comes into prominence, and the mind of God begins to be made known through his human individuality, and not through any such visible media as those which were connected with the priestly breastplate.
In the hold and in the wilderness, David received divine directions through both channels, but gradually, even in his life, the breastplate oracle disappears or falls into desuetude; and from the reign of Solomon downward we have no mention made of its employment in the Jewish annals. In the same gradual manner the prophet waxes into preeminence, Gad and Nathan preparing the way for Elijah and Elisha, and these, in their turn, giving place to Isaiah and Jeremiah, who were succeeded, in the days of the exile, by Ezekiel and Daniel; and in the era of the Restoration by Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
Now, if we think out this subject a little more fully, we shall see that in the life of David a distinct forward step was taken in the education of the people of God, from the first rudiments of external symbolism, on toward that system of spiritual simplicity under which we now live in the Gospel dispensation. The call for faith was increased when the Urim and Thummin ceased, and the prophets came speaking in Gods name, giving gradually fewer and fewer specific directions as to particular matters, and more and more proclaiming great spiritual principles. And now there is, more than ever, a demand for faith, when, under the New Testament economy, the way into the holiest is made manifest to every believer, and the answers to the souls inquiries are given not by any objective oracle, but by the Christians study of Gods Word, as that is interpreted by the providences that are without him, and the Spirit of God that is dwelling within him. Hence, when we read the history of Davids sojourn in the cave, or of his wanderings in the wilderness, and see the priest Abiathar on his right hand, and the prophet Gad on his left, we feel that we are standing on one of the great landing-places of that stairway of education, up which God led His people from the childhood of walking by sight, to the glorious liberty, and graceful movement, of that spiritual manhood which walks continually by faith.Dr. W. M. Taylor.
The Lord will never permit any prince who is heartily disposed to conduct the affairs of his government in his name, to be at any time altogether without some such Gad among his soldiers or officers around himsome man who, because he seeks not his own, unites the most incorruptible fidelity with his allegiance, and by whose mouth the Lord, as often as the foot of the prince is like to slip, will by his warnings and his counsel show to him the right and safe way. Woe to the land on the steps of whose throne there is not found, in the circle of dignified officers surrounding the ruler, at least one man who bears not only in his profession, but at the same time also in his entire consecrated personality, the stamp of a man of God, and who knows at the right time to throw the weight of the divine word and commandment into the balance-scales of the government! Krummacher.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(5) The prophet Gad.From this time onward throughout the life and reign of David, Gad the prophet occupied evidently a marked place. He is mentioned as the kings seer in 2Sa. 24:11; and in 1Ch. 29:29 he appears as the compiler of the acts of David, along with Samuel and Nathan. In 2Ch. 29:25 he is mentioned with his brother prophet Nathan again, as the man who had drawn up the plan of the great Temple services, which have been the model now for eighteen centuries of the countless Christian Liturgies in all the Churches.
It was Gad also who, far on in the golden days of the exiles rule, dared to reprove the mighty king for his deed of numbering the people, which act involved a great sin, or the design of a great sin, not recorded for us, and who brought as a message from the Highest the terrible choice of three evils (2Sa. 24:11, and following verses). As he appears in the last years of the great kings life, and apparently survived his master and friend, Gad must have been still young, or at all events in the prime of life, when he joined the fugitive and his outlawed band. He had, therefore, not improbably been a fellow student and friend of Davids in the Naioth of Samuel by Ramah. It seems hardly a baseless conjecture which sees in Gad a direct messenger from the old prophet Samuel to his loved pupil David, the anointed, Samuel well knew, of the Lord. As has been before observed, among the many who were educated and brought up in the Schools of the Prophets as historians, preachers, musicians, and teachers, but very few seem to have received the Divine influence (the Spirits afflatus) which was needed to constitute a prophet in the true high sense of the solemn word as we now understand it. Gad, however, appears to have been one of these rarely favoured few, and the presence of such an one in this outlaw camp of David must have been of great advantage to the captain.
Abide not.The wise advice of the prophet, suggested by a Divine influence, told David not to estrange himself from his own country and people by remaining in a foreign land, but to return with his followers to the wilder districts of Judah. There was work for him and his followers to do in that distracted, harassed land.
The forest of Hareth.The LXX. and Josephus here read the city of Hareth. Lieutenant Conder, whose late investigations have thrown so much light upon the geography of the Promised Land, can find no trace of forest on the edge of the mountain chain of Hebron, where Kharas now stands, and he therefore believes the LXX. text the true one. Dean Payne Smith, however, considers that the thickets, which still grow here abundantly, are what the Hebrew word yar, here translated forest, signifies.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
DAVID’S RETURN TO THE LAND OF JUDAH, 1Sa 22:5.
5. The prophet Gad With much plausibility supposed to have been a member of Samuel’s school of prophets. Having made David’s acquaintance at Ramah, (1Sa 19:18,) he now joins his company at Mizpeh of Moab, and advises him to return to his native land. Whether he remained with David during the period of his wanderings we know not; but at a later day we find him attached to the royal household, and spoken of as David’s seer. 1Sa 29:11. He was also the author of a book of the acts of David. 1Ch 29:29.
Abide not in the hold Dwell no longer in this fortress at Mizpeh.
Get thee into the land of Judah A long sojourn away from his fatherland might have a tendency to alienate from him the affections of the people of Israel. These words show that when David received the message of Gad he was not in the land of Judah, and therefore the hold in which he was no longer to abide could not have been the cave of Adullam, as many have supposed, nor any other stronghold in the land of Judah. Hence our reason for regarding this hold as some fortified place in the land of Moab.
The forest of Hareth Some wooded part of the wilderness of Judah, whose exact locality is no longer known. Here it seems Abiathar joined him. 1Sa 22:20.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 22:5. The prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold It was natural to think that David would be more safe in his own tribe, and in a thick forest, than in the tribe of Saul, and a cave; and safety was all that he wanted, or God intended him before the death of Saul. But the principal reason of God’s advising him to go into the land of Judah, was, I apprehend, because God intended to do him the honour of delivering one of the cities of Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, chap. 1Sa 23:3, &c.; and therefore sent him thither, that he might be near at hand, to protect it at the proper season from the invasion and plunder of their enemies: this he effected whilst he abode with his men in that part of the country; and it was a brave action: it was, as Grotius observes upon the place, an instance of his great love to his country; who, though proscribed as a rebel by the king, was so far from injuring his country, that he served it at the cost of his enemies.
REFLECTIONS.Since innocence could be no longer his security, David seeks it by his sword. Having pitched on a fortress strong by nature, he resolves to maintain himself there.
1. Here his brethren came to him, having perhaps become obnoxious to Saul’s displeasure by their relation to him; or willing to share his lot, in confidence of his future advancement. And as he wanted an armed force, not to act against his king, but to defend himself from the malice of his persecutor, he entertained all who resorted to him. Note; (1.) They who take part in the afflictions of the people of God, shall share with them in their kingdom of glory. (2.) The Lord Jesus refuses none; let the desperate sinner, who knows not where to flee; let the miserable debtor, obnoxious to the arrests of Divine Justice; let the discontented, who are weary of the dominion of sin and Satan, come to him; he will be a captain unto them, for he receiveth such.
2. Having a guard for his own person, David is solicitous to remove his parents to a place of safety, as Saul would now probably wreak his vengeance on them and theirs. With the permission of the king of Moab, he brings them to Mizpeh, in Moab, and leaves them there, till he should know what God would do with him; how long, or in what manner he would exercise his faith and patience, before he fulfilled his promises. Note; (1.) A good man cannot but be a dutiful child, and earnest to secure the repose of his aged parents. (2.) Whilst we have the fullest assurance of God’s protection, we must be waiting upon him in the way of means, and patiently expect his salvation.
3. Gad the prophet, who had joined him in his exile, perhaps sent of Samuel to be with him to advise him, persuades him to go into the land of Judah; which being his own tribe, he might expect more friends; and by appearing publicly, would shew his own innocence, and confidence in God. David consents, and takes up his abode in the forest of Hareth.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(5) And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth.
I admire the conduct of David in thus taking counsel from the Prophet, and following his advice. He considered it as coming from the Lord. The prophet Malachi had it in commission in after ages to tell the Church, that God’s servants are his messengers to give information to his people. Mal 2:7 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 22:5 And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth.
Ver. 5. And the prophet Gad said unto David. ] It was no small comfort to distressed David to have about him a prophet, called elsewhere David’s seer, 1Ch 21:9 and afterwards also the high priest with the ephod, by whom he might and did inquire of God upon all occasions. 1Sa 23:2 ; 1Sa 23:4
Depart, and get thee into the land of Judah.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Reciprocal: 1Sa 27:1 – there is nothing 2Sa 23:14 – an hold 2Sa 24:11 – Gad Pro 27:8 – man
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 22:5. The Prophet Gad said unto David We read nothing of this prophet before; and it is likely God raised him up at this time, on purpose for the support and direction of David. Abide not in the hold That is, do not shut up thyself here; for he did not merely intend any particular strong place, where David might now be, but in general all those places where he kept himself concealed. Get thee into the land of Judah As one that confides in God, and in the uprightness of his intentions. Go, show thyself to the people, that thou mayest publicly put in thy claim to the kingdom after Sauls death; and that thy friends may be invited and encouraged to appear in thy behalf. Hereby also God would exercise Davids faith, wisdom, and courage, and so prepare him for the kingdom.