1 Samuel 22:5

And the prophet Gad said unto David,.... Who either accompanied him in his exile, or was sent unto him on this account, being one of the company of the prophets, over whom Samuel was president, 1

And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth. The prophet Gad ... Abide not in the hold.

Abide not in the hold; do not shut up thyself in holes and holds. Get thee into the land of Judah; go and show thyself in the land of Judah, that thou mayst publicly put in thy claim to the kingdom after Saul’ s death, and that thy friends may be invited and encouraged to appear on thy behalf. Hereby also God would exercise David’ s faith, and wisdom, and courage; and so prepare him for the kingdom, and uphold and increase his reputation among the people. In the forest of Hareth there were many caves and lurking-places.

1 Samuel 22:5 And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth.Ver. 5. And the prophet Gad said unto David.] It was no small comfort to distressed David to have about him a prophet, called elsewhere David’ s seer, and afterwards also the high priest with the ephod, by whom he might and did inquire of God upon all occasions. Depart, and get thee into the land of Judah.] Where thou mayest be in action, and do some good to thy country. God is a pure act, and he willeth that all his should be active, "and run with patience the race that is set before them."

(5) The prophet Gad.—From this time onward throughout the life and reign of David, Gad the prophet occupied evidently a marked place. He is mentioned as the king’s seer in 2 Samuel 24:11; and in 1 Chronicles 29:29 he appears as the compiler of the acts of David, along with Samuel and Nathan. In 2 Chronicles 29:25 he is mentioned with his brother prophet Nathan again, as the man who had drawn up the plan of the great Temple services, which have been the model now for eighteen centuries of the countless Christian Liturgies in all the Churches. It was Gad also who, far on in the golden days of the exile’s rule, dared to reprove the mighty king for his deed of numbering the people, which act involved a great sin, or the design of a great sin, not recorded for us, and who brought as a message from the Highest the terrible choice of three evils (2 Samuel 24:11, and following verses). As he appears in the last years of the great king’s life, and apparently survived his master and friend, Gad must have been still young, or at all events in the prime of life, when he joined the fugitive and his outlawed band. He had, therefore, not improbably been a fellow student and friend of David’s in the Naioth of Samuel by Ramah. It seems hardly a baseless conjecture which sees in Gad a direct messenger from the old prophet Samuel to his loved pupil David, “the anointed,” Samuel well knew, “of the Lord.” As has been before observed, among the many who were educated and brought up in the Schools of the Prophets as historians, preachers, musicians, and teachers, but very few seem to have received the Divine influence (the Spirit’s “afflatus”) which was needed to constitute a prophet in the true high sense of the solemn word as we now understand it. Gad, however, appears to have been one of these rarely favoured few, and the presence of such an one in this outlaw camp of David must have been of great advantage to the captain. Abide not.—The wise advice of the prophet, suggested by a Divine influence, told David not to estrange himself from his own country and people by remaining in a foreign land, but to return with his followers to the wilder districts of Judah. There was work for him and his followers to do in that distracted, harassed land. The forest of Hareth.—The LXX. and Josephus here read “the city of Hareth.” Lieutenant Conder, whose late investigations have thrown so much light upon the geography of the Promised Land, can find no trace of forest on the edge of the mountain chain of Hebron, where Kharas now stands, and he therefore believes the LXX. text the true one. Dean Payne Smith, however, considers that “the thickets,” which still grow here abundantly, are what the Hebrew word yar, here translated “forest,” signifies.

Verse 5. Get thee into the land of Judah] Gad saw that in this place alone he could find safety.

5. the prophet Gad] Mentioned here for the first time, and not again till David had come to the throne, when he appears as holding the office of “the king’s seer.” He was one of the chroniclers of David’s reign (1 Chronicles 29:29); helped in the arrangement of the musical services in the Temple (2 Chronicles 29:25); and was sent to offer David his choice of punishments for his sin in numbering the people (2 Samuel 24:11 ff.). Abide not in the hold] The future king must not remain in a foreign land, but in the face of all risk return to his own country, in order that by such exploits as the relief of Keilah he might gain reputation, and prepare his way to the throne. the forest of Hareth] Nowhere else mentioned and not identified with any certainty. Perhaps the name survives in Kharâs on the edge of the mountain chain two or three miles east of Keilah. Psalms 63. is referred by its title to the time when David was in the wilderness of Judah: but internal evidence points rather to his flight from Absalom; 1 Samuel 22:11 implies that he was already king.

The prophet Gad - Mentioned here for the first time. One may conjecture that Samnel had sent him privately from Naioth to tell David not to abide in the hold.

DAVID’S RETURN TO THE LAND OF JUDAH, 1 Samuel 22:5. 5. The prophet Gad — With much plausibility supposed to have been a member of Samuel’s school of prophets.