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[275]
Then David removed thence, and came to a certain place called the
New Place, belonging to Ziph; where Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to
him, and saluted him, and exhorted him to be of good courage, and to hope
well as to his condition hereafter, and not to despond at his present circumstances,
for that he should be king, and have all the forces of the Hebrews under
him: he told him that such happiness uses to come with great labor and
pains: they also took oaths, that they would, all their lives long, continue
in good-will and fidelity one to another; and he called God to witness,
as to what execrations he had made upon himself if he should transgress
his covenant, and should change to a contrary behavior. So Jonathan left
him there, having rendered his cares and fears somewhat lighter, and returned
home. Now the men of Ziph, to gratify Saul, informed him that David abode
with them, and [assured him] that if he would come to them, they would
deliver him up, for that if the 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.
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