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.

Saul and his men went to look for him. ¹  But David was informed and went down to the rock and stayed in the desert of Maon. When Saul heard about it, he pursued David in the desert of Maon.

So Saul arose and went down to the desert of Ziph, accompanied by three thousand select men of Israel, to look for David in the desert of Ziph.

When David heard in the desert that Nabal was shearing his sheep,

David realized ¹  that Saul had come out to seek his life; at that time David was in Horesh in the desert of Ziph.

Saul camped by the road on the hill of Hakilah near Jeshimon, but David was staying in the desert. When he realized that Saul had come to the desert to find ¹  him,

Too bad for us! Who can deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all sorts of plagues in the desert!

another band turned toward the road leading to Beth Horon; and yet another band turned toward the road leading to the border that overlooks the valley of Zeboim in the direction of the desert.

So they left and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the desert of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon.

(24:2) When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, they told him, “Look, David is in the desert of En Gedi.”

Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David left and went down to the desert of Paran. ¹ 

But one of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet ¹  our lord, but he screamed at them.

Now David had been thinking, ¹  “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the desert. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil.

When David’s ¹  oldest brother Eliab heard him speaking to the men, he became angry ²  with David and said, “Why have you come down here? To whom did you entrust those few sheep in the desert? I am familiar with your pride and deceit! ³  You have come down here to watch the battle!”