1 Samuel 22:5
New International Version
But the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold. Go into the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

New Living Translation
One day the prophet Gad told David, “Leave the stronghold and return to the land of Judah.” So David went to the forest of Hereth.

English Standard Version
Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah.” So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.

Berean Standard Bible
Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold. Depart and go into the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
Now the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go to the land of Judah.” So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.

New American Standard Bible
But Gad the prophet said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold; leave, and go into the land of Judah.” So David left and went into the forest of Hereth.

NASB 1995
The prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah.” So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.

NASB 1977
And the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah.” So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.

Legacy Standard Bible
And the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the fortress; go, and enter into the land of Judah.” So David went and entered into the forest of Hereth.

Amplified Bible
Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold; leave, and go into the land of Judah.” So David left and went into the forest of Hereth.

Christian Standard Bible
Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Don’t stay in the stronghold. Leave and return to the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Don’t stay in the stronghold. Leave and return to the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

American Standard Version
And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the stronghold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And Gad the Prophet said to David: “You shall not dwell in Metspaya. Go enter by yourself to the land of Yehuda.” And David went on to the woods of Khazyuth

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Gad the prophet said to David, Dwell not in the hold: go, and thou shalt enter the land of Juda. So David went, and came and dwelt in the city of Saric.

Contemporary English Version
One day the prophet Gad told David, "Don't stay here! Go back to Judah." David then left and went to Hereth Forest.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Gad the prophet said to David: Abide not in the hold, depart, and go into the land of Juda. And David departed, and came into the forest of Haret.

English Revised Version
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 Hereth.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"Don't live in your fortified camp," the prophet Gad told David. "Go to the land of Judah." So David went to the forest of Hereth.

Good News Translation
Then the prophet Gad came to David and said, "Don't stay here; go at once to the land of Judah." So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

International Standard Version
The prophet Gad told David, "Don't remain in the stronghold. Go and enter the territory of Judah." So David left and went into the forest of Hereth.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And the prophet Gad said unto David: 'Abide not in the stronghold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah.' Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.

Literal Standard Version
And the prophet Gad says to David, “You do not abide in a fortress, go, and you have entered the land of Judah for yourself”; and David goes and enters the forest of Hareth.

Majority Standard Bible
Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold. Depart and go into the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

New American Bible
But Gad the prophet said to David: “Do not remain in the stronghold! Leave! Go to the land of Judah.” And so David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

NET Bible
Then Gad the prophet said to David, "Don't stay in the stronghold. Go to the land of Judah." So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

New Revised Standard Version
Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not remain in the stronghold; leave, and go into the land of Judah.” So David left, and went into the forest of Hereth.

New Heart English Bible
The prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold. Depart, and go into the land of Judah." Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.

Webster's Bible Translation
And the prophet Gad said to David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and come into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth.

World English Bible
The prophet Gad said to David, “Don’t stay in the stronghold. Depart, and go into the land of Judah.” Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.

Young's Literal Translation
And Gad the prophet saith unto David, 'Thou dost not abide in a fortress, go, and thou hast entered for thee the land of Judah;' and David goeth and entereth the forest of Hareth.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
David Flees to Adullam and Mizpeh
4So he left them in the care of the king of Moab, and they stayed with him the whole time David was in the stronghold. 5Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold. Depart and go into the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

Cross References
1 Samuel 22:4
So he left them in the care of the king of Moab, and they stayed with him the whole time David was in the stronghold.

2 Samuel 23:14
At that time David was in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was at Bethlehem.

2 Samuel 24:11
When David got up in the morning, a revelation from the LORD had come to Gad the prophet, David's seer:

1 Chronicles 21:9
And the LORD instructed Gad, David's seer,

1 Chronicles 29:29
Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are indeed written in the Chronicles of Samuel the Seer, the Chronicles of Nathan the Prophet, and the Chronicles of Gad the Seer,

2 Chronicles 29:25
Hezekiah stationed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres according to the command of David, of Gad the king's seer, and of Nathan the prophet. For the command had come from the LORD through His prophets.

Psalm 63:1
O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.


Treasury of Scripture

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

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Abide David Depart Departed Entered Entereth Hold Judah Prophet Stronghold
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Abide David Depart Departed Entered Entereth Hold Judah Prophet Stronghold
1 Samuel 22
1. Companies resort unto David at Adullam
3. At Mizpeh he commends his parents unto the king of Moab
5. Admonished by Gad, he comes to Hareth,
6. Saul going to pursue him, complains of his servants' unfaithfulness
9. Doeg accuses Ahimelech
11. Saul commands to kill the priests
17. The footmen refusing, Doeg executes it
20. Abiathar escaping, brings David the news














(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 2Samuel 24:11; and in 1Chronicles 29:29 he appears as the compiler of the acts of David, along with Samuel and Nathan. In 2Chronicles 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 (2Samuel 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. - The prophet Gad. This sudden appearance of the prophet suggests Stahelin's question, How came he among such people? But, in the first place, David's followers were not all of the sort described in ver. 2; and, next, this must be regarded as a declaration of the prophetic order in his favour. As we have a summary of David's proceedings in ver. 4, extending over some time, during which the massacre of the priests at Nob took place, we may well suppose that Saul had alienated from him the minds of all religious people, and that Gad, probably by Samuel's command, came to be David's counsellor. The advice he gives is most important - Abide not in the hold. I.e. do not remain in the land of Moab. Had David done so he probably would never have become king. By remaining in Judah, and protecting the people from the Philistines, which Saul could no longer do, David grew in reputation and power, and from the list of those who joined him at Ziklag (1 Chronicles 12:1-22) it is evident not only that such was the case, but that there was a strong enthusiasm for him throughout not merely Judah, but all Israel. In the happier times which followed Gad became David's seer (2 Samuel 24:11), was God's messenger to punish David for numbering the people (ibid. ver. 13), and finally wrote a history of his life (1 Chronicles 29:29). As he thus survived David, he must have been a young man when he joined him, and possibly had been a companion of David in the prophetic schools at Naioth in Ramah. The forest of Hareth. Or, rather, Hereth. "This lay on the edge of the mountain chain (of Hebron), where Kharas now stands, surrounded by the thickets which properly represent the Hebrew yar, a word wrongly supposed to mean a woodland of timber trees" (Conder, 'Tent Work,' 2:88). Yar is translated forest here. Hereth was about three miles from Adullam (see on ver. 1). MASSACRE OF THE PRIESTS AT NOB (vers. 6-19).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Then the prophet
הַנָּבִ֜יא (han·nā·ḇî)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5030: A spokesman, speaker, prophet

Gad
גָּ֨ד (gāḏ)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 1410: Gad -- a son of Jacob, also his tribe and its territory, also a prophet

said
וַיֹּאמֶר֩ (way·yō·mer)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

to
אֶל־ (’el-)
Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

David,
דָּוִ֗ד (dā·wiḏ)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 1732: David -- perhaps 'beloved one', a son of Jesse

“Do not
לֹ֤א (lō)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

stay
תֵשֵׁב֙ (ṯê·šêḇ)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 3427: To sit down, to dwell, to remain, to settle, to marry

in the stronghold.
בַּמְּצוּדָ֔ה (bam·mə·ṣū·ḏāh)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 4686: A net, capture, a fastness

Depart
לֵ֥ךְ (lêḵ)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 1980: To go, come, walk

and go
וּבָֽאתָ־ (ū·ḇā·ṯā-)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

into the land
אֶ֣רֶץ (’e·reṣ)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 776: Earth, land

of Judah.”
יְהוּדָ֑ה (yə·hū·ḏāh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3063: Judah -- 'praised', a son of Jacob, also the southern kingdom, also four Israelites

So David
דָּוִ֔ד (dā·wiḏ)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 1732: David -- perhaps 'beloved one', a son of Jesse

left
וַיֵּ֣לֶךְ (way·yê·leḵ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1980: To go, come, walk

and went
וַיָּבֹ֖א (way·yā·ḇō)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

to the forest
יַ֥עַר (ya·‘ar)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3293: A copse of bushes, a forest, honey in the comb

of Hereth.
חָֽרֶת׃ (ḥā·reṯ)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 2802: Hereth -- a forest in Judah


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OT History: 1 Samuel 22:5 The prophet Gad said to David Don't (1Sa iSam 1 Sam i sa)
1 Samuel 22:4
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