Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the LORD: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains.
As when one doth hunt a partridge. The allusion is to the ancient method of taking these birds by throwing sticks. Wild animals of a large size were generally captured in nets and pitfalls. Dogs do not appear to have been employed in the chase at all. As to fowls, people in the East, in hunting the partridge and other game birds, pursue them until observing them becoming languid and fatigued; after they have been put up two or three times, they rush upon the birds stealthily, and knock them down with bludgeons (Shaw's 'Travels'). It was exactly in this manner that Saul was pursuing David: he drove him from time to time from his hiding place, hoping to render him weary of his life, or obtain an opportunity of accomplishing his destruction.