So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.
David fled ... and came ... to Ramah. Samuel was living in great retirement, superintending the school of the prophets established in the little hamlet of Naioth [i:e., habitations; a small cluster of dwellings reared for the seminary or college. The Septuagint has Nauath, as if this were the proper name of the place] in the neighbourhood of Ramah (Ramathaim-zophim) [Septuagint, Armathaim. This version supplies en Rama after "Naioth," at the end of 1 Samuel 19:18.] It was a retreat congenial to the mind of David; but Saul, having found out his asylum, sent three successive bodies of men to apprehend him. The character of the place and the influence of the sacred exercises produced such an effect on them that they were incapable of discharging their commission, and were led by a resistless impulse to join in singing the praises of God (see the note at 1 Samuel 10:5).