king would seize on the Straits of Ziph, David would not escape to
any other people. So the king commended them, and confessed that he
had reason to thank them, because they had given him information of his
enemy; and he promised them, that it should not be long ere he would
requite their kindness. He also sent men to seek for David, and to
search the wilderness wherein he was; and he promised that he himself
would follow them. Accordingly they went before the king, to hunt for
and to catch David, and used endeavors, not only to show their good-will
to Saul, by informing him where his enemy was, but to evidence the same
more plainly by delivering him up into his power. But these men failed
of those their unjust and wicked desires, who, while they underwent no
hazard by not discovering such an ambition of revealing this to Saul,
yet did they falsely accuse and promise to deliver up a man beloved of
God, and one that was unjustly sought after to be put to death, and one
that might otherwise have lain concealed, and this out of flattery, and
expectation of gain from the king; for when David was apprized of the
malignant intentions of the men of Ziph, and the approach of Saul, he
left the Straits of that country, and fled to the great rock that was in
the wilderness of Maon.

3. Hereupon Saul made haste to pursue him thither; for, as he was
marching, he learned that David was gone away from the Straits of Ziph,
and Saul removed to the other side of the rock. But the report that the
Philistines had again made an incursion into the country of the Hebrews,
called Saul another way from the pursuit of David, when he was ready to
be caught; for he returned back again to oppose those Philistines, who
were naturally their enemies, as judging it more necessary to avenge
himself of them, than to take a great deal of pains to catch an enemy of
his own, and to overlook the ravage that was made in the land.

4. And by this means David unexpectedly escaped out of the danger he
was in, and came to the Straits of Engedi; and when Saul had driven the
Philistines out of the land, there came some messengers, who told him
that David abode within the bounds of Engedi: so he took three thousand
chosen men that were armed, and made haste to him; and when he was not
far from those places, he saw a deep and hollow cave by the way-side; it
was open to a great length and breadth, and there it was that David with
his four hundred men were concealed.