¹⁹ Some Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah. “David is hiding among us in the fortresses at Horesh on the hill of Hachilah, south of Jeshimon,” they said. ²⁰ “So whenever you want to come down, Your Majesty, do it! Leave it to us to hand him over to the king.”

²¹ “The Lord bless you because you have shown this kindness to me!” Saul said. ²² “Go now and get everything ready. Find out everything you can: where he stays, where he goes, who has seen him. I am told he is very shrewd. ²³ Find out every hiding place he uses there and come back to me when you know for certain. I will then go with you. If David is in the area, I will hunt him down among any of Judah’s clans!” ²⁴ So they got up and left for Ziph ahead of Saul.

Meanwhile, David and his soldiers were in the Maon wilderness in the desert plain south of Jeshimon. ²⁵ When Saul and his troops went looking for him, David was told about it, so he went down to a certain rock there and stayed in the Maon wilderness. When Saul heard that, he went into the Maon wilderness after David. ²⁶ Saul was going around one side of a hill there while David and his soldiers were going around the other. David was hurrying to get away from Saul while Saul and his troops were trying to surround David and his soldiers in order to capture them. ²⁷ But a messenger suddenly came to Saul. “Come quick!” he said. “The Philistines have invaded the land!” ²⁸ So Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to fight the Philistines. That’s why that place is called Escape Rock. ^29 [a] Then David went from there and lived at the En-gedi fortresses.