← Places

Place

Naioth

Naioth was a place near Ramah where David fled to escape King Saul, and where Samuel and a group of prophets lived.

Naioth was a place near Ramah, a city in the territory of Benjamin, where the prophet Samuel lived with a group of prophets (1Sam. 19:18-24; 20:1). When King Saul sought to kill David, he fled to Samuel at Naioth in Ramah. Saul sent messengers to capture David, but when they arrived, they encountered the prophets prophesying with Samuel. The Spirit of God came upon the messengers, and they also prophesied. This happened three times, and when Saul himself went to Naioth, he too was overcome by the Spirit and prophesied before Samuel. This event gave rise to the saying, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" (1Sam. 19:24).

Approximate location: 31.833, 35.180 · view on a map · on the Bible atlas

Bible dictionary

Naioth Easton Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

Dwellings, the name given to the prophetical college established by Samuel near Ramah. It consisted of a cluster of separate dwellings, and hence its name. David took refuge here when he fled from Saul (1 Sam. 19:18, 19, 22, 23), and here he passed a few weeks in peace (comp. Ps. 11). It was probably the common residence of the “sons of the prophets.”

Read the full entry →

Naioth Smith Smith’s Bible Dictionary (1863)

(habitations), or more fully, “Naioth in Ramah,” a place of Mount Ephraim, the birthplace of Samuel and Saul, and in which Samuel and David took refuge together after the latter had made his escape from the jealous fury of Saul. (1 Samuel 19:18,19,22,23; 20:1) It is evident from ver. (1 Samuel 20:18) that Naioth was not actually in Ramah, Samuel’s habitual residence. In its corrected from the name signifies “habitations,” and probably means the huts or dwellings of a school or college of prophets over which Samuel presided as Elisha did over those at Gilgal and Jericho.

Read the full entry →

Naioth Hitchcock Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary (1869)

beauties; habitations

Read the full entry →

Naioth Hastings Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1898)

NA'IOTH (habitations), a place near Ramah where Samuel dwelt. 1 Sam 19:18-23; 1 Sam 20:1. Some interpret the word to mean a school of prophets over which Samuel presided.

Read the full entry →

Naioth Schaff Schaff’s Dictionary of the Bible

NA'IOTH (habitations), a place near Ramah where Samuel dwelt. 1 Sam 19:18-23; 1 Sam 20:1. Some interpret the word to mean a school of prophets over which Samuel presided.

Read the full entry →

Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.

Where Naioth appears

5 verses in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H5121

1 Samuel5

Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.