Saul’s Second Escape: 26:1–3 The Ziphites, who nearly enabled Saul to find David once before, may have looked for a second chance. However, the wording in verse 1 is the same as that used on the previous occasion (23:19), which seems strange, even given the fact that David was likely to use the same hiding places on a number of occasions. Some scholars have concluded from this, from the similarity between the two occasions on which Saul’s life was spared, and from the fact that the second account makes no direct reference to the first, that we have two alternative accounts of the same event.

However, there are also substantial differences between the two incidents. For example, in the first Saul strays into David’s camp (24:3) and in the second David enters Saul’s camp (26:5). The writers s…