22 David swore to Saul. Saul went home; but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Saul does not appear to have invited David to return to Gibeah, or to have given him any security of doing so with safety. David, with his intuitive sagacity, perceived that the softening of Saul's feelings was only momentary, and that the situation remained unchanged.
Saul went home - Confounded at a sense of his own baseness, and overwhelmed with a sense of David's generosity.
David and his men gat them up unto the hold - Went up to Mizpeh, according to the Syriac and Arabic. David could not trust Saul with his life; the utmost he could expect from him was that he should cease from persecuting him; but even this was too much to expect from a man of such a character as Saul. He was no longer under the Divine guidance; an evil spirit had full dominion over his soul. What God fills not, the devil will occupy.
And David sware unto Saul,.... That he would not cut, off his posterity; which oath he religiously observed, in sparing Mephibosheth, 2-Samuel 21:7, and in punishing the murderers of Ishbosheth, 2-Samuel 4:12; and as for the seven sons of Saul, delivered up to the Gibeonites, 2-Samuel 21:6, it may be questioned whether they were his genuine legitimate offspring; and if they were, it was by the appointment and command of God, and according to his will and pleasure they were executed, who is not bound by the oaths of men, and to whom they must be submitted, 2-Samuel 21:1,
and Saul went home; to his palace in Gibeah:
but David and his men got them up unto the hold; in Engedi, 1-Samuel 23:29; not trusting to Saul, whose inconstancy, perfidy, cruel hatred, and malice, David full well knew; and therefore thought it not safe to return to his own house, nor to dwell in the open country, but in the wilderness, and among the rocks, and in the caves there, such as were in the wilderness of Engedi; and here, and at this time, he penned the fifty seventh psalm, see Psalm 57:1.
When David had sworn this, Saul returned home. But David remained upon the mountain heights, because he did not regard the passing change in Saul's feelings as likely to continue. המּצוּדה (translated "the hold") is used here to denote the mountainous part of the desert of Judah. It is different in 1-Samuel 22:5.
Unto the hold - Of En - gedi, 1-Samuel 24:1, for having had by frequent experience of Saul's inconstancy, he would trust him no more.
*More commentary available at chapter level.