Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 23:14-29   (NKJV)

David in Wilderness Strongholds

¹⁴ And David stayed in strongholds in the wilderness, and remained in the mountains in the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand. ¹⁵ So David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. And David was in the Wilderness of Ziph in a forest. ¹⁶Then Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God. ¹⁷And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Even my father Saul knows that.” ¹⁸ So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. And David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his own house.

 ²⁹Then David went up from there and dwelt in strongholds at En Gedi.