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1 Samuel 22 Bible study: You will be safe with me
When David told Abiathar, "I am responsible for the death of all the persons of your father’s house" (22:22), he used in Hebrew the verb of Saul's order to his guard and to Doeg: "Turn" (22:17-18). And the man who owned his part said to the one who survived, "You will be safe with me" (22:23).
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“Stay with me. Don’t be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. You will be safe with me.”
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“Ahimelech told Saul that he knew nothing of all this.”
Is that in 1 Samuel 22, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Everyone in distress
Chapter 21 ended with David at Gath, pretending to be insane before King Achish (21:13-15). Chapter 22 begins, "David therefore departed from there and escaped to Adullam’s cave" (22:1) (tap escaped). His family came to him: "When his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him" (22:1). So did others. "Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them. There were with him about four hundred men" (22:2) (tap distress, debt and discontented). The chapter doesn't list these men's names or say what their troubles were. It says who they were, what they had in common, and that David became their captain. In Hebrew discontented is mar nefesh, the words 1 Samuel used of Hannah at Shiloh: "She was in bitterness of soul" (1:10).
Where it leads to Jesus
If they persecuted me
1 Samuel 22:23leads toJohn 15:20
David told Abiathar, "Stay with me. Don’t be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. You will be safe with me" (22:23). Jesus told his disciples, "Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you" (John 15:20). No New Testament passage cites 1 Samuel 22, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear the same thing in both: those who belong to the one who is hunted share in what is aimed at him (22:23; John 15:20). Others read each in its own setting: David speaks of one king's pursuit of him and of the one priest who had fled to him (22:20-23), and Jesus of the world's hatred of him and of those he chose "out of the world" (John 15:19).
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 1 Samuel 22
That was a taste
The rest of 1 Samuel 22 is waiting in Favor
- "Until I know what God will do for me"
- Saul under the tamarisk
- The priests of the LORD
- The word against Eli's house
- A psalm for the day Doeg spoke
- The priest and the ephod go with David
- 9 questions as you read
- 14 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach 1 Samuel 22 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
מִשְׁמֶרֶתmishmeretsay mish-ME-ret
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "guard, watch, also charge, function". Strong's: "watch, i.e. the act (custody), or (concretely) the sentry, the post; objectively preservation, or (concretely) safe". David's last words to Abiathar are "You will be safe with me" (22:23), and safe is this word. It is its only use in 1 Samuel. Elsewhere it is often the word for a charge kept, as when Moses, Aaron and his sons camp before the tabernacle, "keeping the requirements of the sanctuary" (Numbers 3:38).
For your group
1 Samuel 22 Bible study questions
- 1The men who gathered to David were "in distress", "in debt" and "discontented" (22:2), and he became their captain. Which of those three words is closest to where you are right now, and what would it mean to bring it to God instead of hiding it?
- 2David said, "until I know what God will do for me" (22:3). What are you waiting to see God do, and what are you doing in the meantime?
- 3David said to Abiathar, "I am responsible" (22:22), and then, "Stay with me" (22:23). When has owning your part in something, and staying with the person it hurt, been hard for you?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 1 Samuel 22 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home