The king sat down in his usual place by the wall, with Jonathan opposite him ¹  and Abner at his side. ²  But David’s place was vacant.

David stayed in the strongholds that were in the desert and in the hill country of the desert of Ziph. Saul looked for him all the time, ¹  but God did not deliver David ²  into his hand.

(24:1) ¹  Then David went up from there and stayed in the strongholds of En Gedi.

Saul, his son Jonathan, and the army that remained with them stayed in Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin, while the Philistines camped in Micmash. ¹ 

So David hid in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat down to eat his meal.

So he had them stay with the king of Moab; they stayed with him the whole time ¹  that David was in the stronghold.

When the two of them had made a covenant before the Lord, David stayed on at Horesh, but Jonathan went to his house.

The length of time ¹  that David lived in the Philistine countryside was a year ²  and four months.

When the residents of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,

So her husband Elkanah said to her, “Do what you think best. ¹  Stay until you have weaned him. May the Lord fulfill his promise.” ²  So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I am certainly expected to join the king for a meal. ¹  You must send me away so I can hide in the field until the third evening from now.

David said to Achish, “If I have found favor with you, let me be given a place in one of the country towns so that I can live there. Why should your servant settle in the royal city with you?”

On one occasion in Shiloh, after they had finished eating and drinking, Hannah got up. ¹  (Now at the time Eli the priest was sitting in his chair ²  by the doorpost of the Lord’s temple.)

but Hannah did not go up with them. ¹  Instead she told her husband, “Once the boy is weaned, I will bring him and appear before the Lord, and he will remain there from then on.”

So they sent messengers to the residents of Kiriath Jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down here and take it back home with you.”

It was quite a long time – some twenty years in all – that the ark stayed at Kiriath Jearim. All the people ¹  of Israel longed for ²  the Lord.

So the Lord sent Jerub-Baal, ¹  Barak, ²  Jephthah, and Samuel, ³  and he delivered you from the hand of the enemies all around you, and you were able to live securely.

Now Saul was sitting under a pomegranate tree in Migron, on the outskirts of Gibeah. The army that was with him numbered about six hundred men.

So Jonathan told David, “My father Saul is trying ¹  to kill you. So be careful tomorrow morning. Find ²  a hiding place and stay in seclusion. ³ 

Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon ¹  Saul. He was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing the lyre. ²