as the latter and his party could easily be taken prisoners, being shut up in a town that had gates and bars,) and immediately summoned his soldiers to assemble, that he might go and besiege Keilah. David was informed of this movement, and, through Abiathar, sought once more the Divine direction in so critical an emergency. He was told that Saul was fully resolved to come down to the city, and that the inhabitants would be ready to deliver him up into the hands of his enemy. He hesitated not a moment what course to take. He withdrew from Keilah, and, wandering about from place to place, at length sought a refuge in a mountainous and retired hold in the wilderness of Ziph between Hebron and the Dead Sea. (See Psalm 31.) In the meanwhile, Saul, having heard of David's, escape from Keilah, forbore to go thither, using, however, all the means in his power to ascertain where David was, and to surprise him and his party, but without success. "Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his hand."

In the midst of such severe trials, David was much comforted and encouraged by a visit from his friend Jonathan. The latter knew his place of concealment, and met him privately in the recesses of a thick wood, there to tender to him the sympathy which he so much needed, and to convince him that the attachment which they had mutually long since formed had suffered no di

minution. In doing this, Jonathan, we are told, inspired David with new confidence in the Almighty, "and strengthened his hand in God."-__ "Fear not," said he, "for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth.'

The interview of the two friends was a hurried, but deeply interesting one, and before they separated they renewed their solemn covenant with each other, calling upon the Lord to witness the sincerity of the transaction, and invoking his blessing upon them.

But if David had thus one faithful, devoted friend, he was surrounded, also, by many treacherous enemies. The Ziphites, who knew where he and his men were hiding themselves, formed the purpose of betraying him into the power of Saul. With this object in view, some of them went to Gibeah where the king was, informing him of David's strong holds, and promising, if he would come down, to deliver David into his hands.

"Blessed be ye of the Lord;" said Saul, "for ye have compassion on me. Go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who hath seen him there: for it is told me that he dealeth very subtilely. See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurkingplaces where he hideth himself, and come ye again to me with the certainty, and I will go with

you: and it shall come to pass, if he be in the land, that I will search him out throughout all the thousands of Judah."

It was not long before the Ziphites gave Saul such intelligence that he set out with a body of armed men in quest of David. The latter, being aware of the movement, concealed himself, with his followers, in a retreat in the rocky fastnesses of the wilderness of Maon, a mountainous region in the most southern parts of the tribe of Judah. Saul pursued after him, advancing on one side of the mountain, while David and his party, on the other, were endeavoring to elude the search, and to avoid being encompassed by their enemies. At this critical juncture, a messenger came in great haste to inform Saul that the Philistines had invaded the land, and were pouring themselves into it in vast numbers. The danger from this quarter was so pressing, that the king, for the present, abandoned the pursuit of his intended victim, and hastened to defend his territories against an old and formidable enemy.

Thus David's earnest supplications for deliverance in the fifty-fourth Psalm, which it is supposed he wrote when in this extreme peril, were signally answered by the interposition of Providence in his behalf; and he might well say,

"I will praise thy name, O Lord! for it is good. "For he hath delivered me out of all trouble;

"And mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies."

CHAPTER XIII.

David spares Saul's life, who returns home. Samuel dies. Nabal's condition and character.

David now felt that another change was necessary for his security, and retired with his men to the strong holds of En-gedi. This place took its name probably from its situation among lofty, precipitous rocks that overhang the valleys beneath. A fountain of pure water rises near the summit, which the inhabitants call En-gedi,-the fountain of the goat,—because it is hardly accessible to any other creature. It was called also Hazazon-Tamar,-the city of palm-trees,-there being a great quantity around it. It stood near the Dead Sea, in a south-easterly direction from Jerusalem, and was remarkable, also, for the fruitful vineyards in its vicinity.

Saul, having driven out the Philistines, and being apprised by his emissaries of David's new lurking-place, took with him three thousand chosen men, to renew his search among the rocks of En-gedi. In some of these rocks were vast caves, in which it was customary for the shepherds and their flocks to lodge; and in the deep recesses of one of them, David and his