When the Israelites saw the king and his army marching against them, they were terrified and cried out to the LORD for help.

Didn't we tell you before we left that this would happen? We told you to leave us alone and let us go on being slaves of the Egyptians. It would be better to be slaves there than to die here in the desert."

When the men of Ai looked back, they saw the smoke rising to the sky. There was no way for them to escape, because the Israelites who had run toward the barren country now turned around to attack them.

The Ammonites even crossed the Jordan to fight the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Israel was in great distress.

Then the Israelites turned around, and the Benjaminites were thrown into panic because they realized that they were about to be destroyed.

David answered, "I am in a desperate situation! But I don't want to be punished by people. Let the LORD himself be the one to punish us, for he is merciful."

I am pulled in two directions. I want very much to leave this life and be with Christ, which is a far better thing;

So they let the Philistines see them, and the Philistines said, "Look! Some Hebrews are coming out of the holes they have been hiding in!"

Some people from Ziph went to Saul at Gibeah and said, "David is hiding out in our territory at Horesh on Mount Hachilah, in the southern part of the Judean wilderness.

He came to a cave close to some sheep pens by the road and went in to relieve himself. It happened to be the very cave in which David and his men were hiding far back in the cave.

The Midianites were stronger than Israel, and the people of Israel hid from them in caves and other safe places in the hills.

But now his people have been plundered; they are locked up in dungeons and hidden away in prisons. They were robbed and plundered, with no one to come to their rescue.

The world was not good enough for them! They wandered like refugees in the deserts and hills, living in caves and holes in the ground.