Enquired of the Lord. — At this important juncture of affairs, David’s first care is to know the Divine will. His inquiry was, doubtless, made through the high priest Abiathar, as in 1 Samuel 23:9-10 (comp. 2 Samuel 22:20; 2 Samuel 23:1; 2 Samuel 23:4). The answer definitely directed him to go up to Hebron.
Hebron is one of the most ancient cities of the world (built “seven years before Zoan in Egypt,” Numbers 13:22), long the residence of Abraham (Genesis 13:18), and the place where he and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob, were buried. Its original name was Kirjath-arba (Genesis 23:2; Joshua 14:15, &c). It is situated in a valley among the hills of Southern Judea, at a height of nearly 3,000 feet above the Mediterranean. It is about twenty miles S.S.W. from Jerusalem, somewhat more than this N.E. of Beersheba, and about fifteen miles E.S.E. of the Philistine town of Gath. From Ziklag, where David had been living, it was distant about thirty-eight miles. It has always been famous for its vineyards, and its grapes are still considered the finest in Southern Palestine. The valley in which it is situated is probably the “valley of Eshcol,” from which the spies brought the great “cluster of grapes” to Moses in the wilderness (Numbers 13:23). It was a priestly city (Joshua 21:10-11), and the most southerly of the cities of refuge (Joshua 20:7). Here was the home and the throne of David for the next seven and a half years (2 Samuel 2:11; 2 Samuel 5:5). The larger part of the land, since the recent defeat, was in the power of the Philistines; and Hebron, on account of its situation at the far south, and its strategical strength, as well as its sacred associations, was a peculiarly fitting place for the beginning of David’s reign.