1 Samuel 22 The Outcast Of Israel
1 David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.
“‘David, therefore,’ because he could find no refuge in the land of the Philistines [a foreign country], ‘departed thence and escaped to the cave Adullam,’ in the foothills of the Judean mountains, about sixteen miles southwest of Jerusalem...” (Kretzmann's Popular Commentary), where he belonged.
Yet, he had no allies. He shows us his heart in Psalm 57: 1 {To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.} Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpass. 2 I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. 3a He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah.
God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. 4 My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. 5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.6 They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.
7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise. 8 Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. 9 I will praise thee, O Yahweh, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. 10 For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. 11 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.
As David entered the cave- the gloomy portal, “he must have asked, ‘Has it all come to this?’ But the key to this Psalm is verse 7. David’s heart s fixed on Yahweh. “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” (Isaiah 26:3) “Little did he realize at that moment that in that cave he was about to experience the Grace of God. It did not come immediately, nor did it come in any moment of high exaltation but it came in dribs and drabs, as God drew to that cave the beginnings of a unique fighting force…” (Peter Pett) yea, of a people.
This is a about a false church and a real one in Israel. “And when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him,’ all his nearest relatives joined him, evidently because they feared the revenge of Saul upon their entire family;... 'And everyone that was in distress,’ feeling that the government of Saul was an arbitrary misrule, ‘and everyone that was in debt,’ oppressed by his creditors and having failed to receive from the government that protection against the violation of the law of loan and interest which he might expect, Exo_22:25; Lev_25:36; Deu_23:19, ‘and everyone that was discontented,’ bitter or embittered of soul, whose anxiety of soul over the condition of the kingdom, as it grew worse from day to day, drove them to a leader from whom they might, for the future, hope for better things.” (Kretzmann's Popular Commentary)
“Had Saul's government been just and upright David would have had no followers; but he never rose above the level of a soldier, had developed all that arbitrariness which military command fosters in self-willed minds, and seems entirely unaware of its being his duty to attend to the righteous administration of the law. The Israelites had in him the very king they had desired, but they found that a brave general might at home be a ruthless tyrant. Debt was one of the worst evils of ancient times. The rate of usury was so exorbitant that a loan was sure to end in utter ruin, and not only the debtor, but his children might be made slaves to repay the debt (2 Kings 4:1). It was one of the first duties of an upright governor to enforce the Mosaic law against usury (Le 1 Samuel 25:36); but all such cares Saul despised, and there were probably many in the land impoverished by Saul's own exactions and favouritism (1 Samuel 22:7), and made bitter of soul by his cruelty and injustice. All such were glad to join in what seemed to them the banner of revolt.” (Pulpit Commentaries)
"So he became captain over them."
“See what weak instruments God sometimes uses, to bring about his own purposes.” (Matthew Henry) "And there were about four hundred men with him." "The number afterward rising to six hundred, 1Sa_23:13. It was not a wild and lawless band, hut a well organized company, who were here trained in warfare, so that many of them afterwards became heroes in the nation." (Kretzmann's Popular Commentary) David “did not justify nor maintain any injustice or wickedness, which some of them possibly might be guilty of; but, on the contrary, he instructed and obliged them to the practice of all justice and honesty; as appears from 1 Samuel 25:15; and he only used them for his just defense.” (Poole) And he still strictly prohibited any retribution.
“What a striking analogy there is between the gathering of these outlawed men to David, and the attraction of publicans and sinners, in all ages, to Christ! He also is outlawed by ‘the prince of this world.’ To find Christ, we must go outside the camp, where He has set up the standard of His cross. How many of those who were in distress or in debt, or who were ‘bitter of soul,’ have gathered to Him and have been received! Rejected by all others, they have found an asylum in His heart of love, and out of such refugees He is founding a Kingdom...” (F. B. Meyer)
Even with Jesus' Eternal Kingdom, there is no retribution until the Great White throne Judgment when wheat is separated from tares on the threshing floor, and the latter is destroyed in fire.
1 Samuel 22: David Provides Refuge for His Aged Parents
3 Then David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother come here with you, till I know what God will do for me.” 4 So he brought them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.
Saul no longer had the watchtower where the prophets kept watch nor the prophets of Israel themselves. David’s father and my mother, “were not able to endure those journeys and hardships which David foresaw that he was likely to be exposed to.” (Matthew Poole)
Some explore a likely scenario. “David‘s descent from Ruth the Moabitess may have had something to do with his seeking an asylum for Jesse, Ruth‘s grandson, in the land of her birth.” (Albert Barnes) But also: "Saul was a powerful man, and Israel’s enemies did not want him to remain Israel’s king. They had been unable to kill him; they wanted to find someone in Israel who would do that for them. David had been an important commander in Israel’s army, and he had many friends in Israel. Saul wanted to kill David; Saul’s enemies considered that David might be useful to them. Perhaps that was why the king of Moab was willing to help David." (Keith Simons)
Many believe that there was another Mizpah in the land of Moab other than the one one in Israel, but I prefer the thought that “the Moabites had probably taken possession of the most southerly portion of the eastern lands of the Israelites; we may also infer this from the fact that, according to 1 Samuel 14:47, Saul had also made war upon Moab, for Mizpeh Moab is hardly to be sought for in the actual land of the Moabites, on the south side of the Arnon (Mojeb).” (Keil & Delitzsch)
“Then David went from there to Mizpah“— “Watchtower”— once of Israel, but now of Moab—“and he said to the king of Moab, ‘Please let my father and mother come here with you, and be with you;’ where they might be safe from the rage of Saul.” (John Gill)— “‘till I know what God will do for me.’ — till I see the accomplishment of God’s promise made to me.” (Matthew Poole)
“And he brought them”— his parents— “‘before the king of Moab,’ to remain under his protection; ‘and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold’, in his fortified position, in his mountain fastness near Mizpeh.” (Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible)
1 Samuel 22: Gad Joins the Outlaws
5 Now the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go to the land of Judah.” So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.
It had been conjectured that the king of Moab had taken the Mizpah—“ watchtower" in Hebrew— “of the southern boundary of Reuben’s territory (Dt 3:12, 16; Jos 13:16)…. At the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan, the gorge served as a natural border between Moab to the south and the Ammonite kingdoms to the north (Nm 21:13-15).” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary) Here Gad—schooled in Samuel’s school of prophets— came to David, and he said unto hm, ‘Do not stay in the stronghold;’ do not shut up thyself in holes and holds.‘ [nor in a foreign land]— ‘depart, and go to the land of Judah;’ that thou mayst publicly put in thy claim to the kingdom after Saul’s death, and that thy friends may be invited and encouraged to appear on thy behalf. Hereby also God would exercise David’s faith, and wisdom, and courage; and so prepare him for the kingdom, and uphold and increase his reputation among the people.” (Matthew Poole)
“‘Then David departed’, out of the land of Moab, ‘and came into the forest of Hareth’,” This was his first abode in Judah on the lamb. "’This lay on the edge of the mountain chain (of Hebron), where Kharas now stands, surrounded by the thickets which properly represent the Hebrew yar, a word wrongly supposed to mean a woodland of timber trees’ (Conder, 'Tent Work,' 2:88). Yar is translated forest here. Hereth was about three miles from Adullam.” (Pulpit Commentary) In Judah, therefore, “the rest of David's exile was spent, with the exception of the time at the very end when he again resorted to Philistine territory.” (Expositor's Bible) ”The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And the Lord will preserve his people for their appointed work, however they may be hated and exposed.” (Matthew Henry)
In Judah, his own territory, the power of God which would keep him from harm. “One further thing that we learn here, and that is that while Saul lived his prophet-less life in Gibeah, the prophet of YHWH came to David in Mizpeh. David was still very much YHWH’s concern.” (Peter Pett) “This must be regarded as a declaration of the prophetic order in his favour.” (Pulpit Commentaries) “It was no small comfort to distressed David to have about him a prophet, called elsewhere David’s seer.” (John Trapp)
Finally here we see a type. “Like David, his great descendant, Jesus, accompanied by only a small band of faithful men, befriended by publicans and sinners, journeyed about in this country, in Palestine, entering into His glory through suffering and persecution.” (The Popular Commentary)
1 Samuel 22: Saul’s Call to Arms In Ramah
6 When Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered—now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants standing about him— 7 then Saul said to his servants who stood about him, “Hear now, you Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds? 8 All of you have conspired against me, and there is no one who reveals to me that my son has made a covenant with the son of Jesse; and there is not one of you who is sorry for me or reveals to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as it is this day.”
David stirs to war with a call to tribalism. “When Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered “that a great brute came on him” (Geneva Study Bible)—of his own brethren, even of other tribes— and that he was in the territory of Judah, “this vexed him at the heart, and rendered all his felicities miserable.” (John Trapp) Even Gad— the prophet of Yahweh— also abode with with David.
“Now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tamarisk tree in Ramah,”— or “rather, ‘under the tree on the height’,” (Daniel Whedon)— “A second word translated ‘high place’ is ramah (elevation), from the Hebrew meaning ‘to be high.’ Ezekiel used this term to refer to illicit worship centers (16:24- 25, 31-39) that evidently had no necessary connection with height.” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary) He had given up the old religion of the Hebrews for other less judgmental ones. — “having his spear in his hand,’ as in his royal court]…, to show that himself was ready to do execution upon anyone that was found guilty.” (Trapp) Here was his god!
“Then Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, ‘Hear now, you Benjamites— “you that are of my tribe and lineage”(Geneva Study Bible) —’will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, [and] make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds.’” — “As I have done, and yet will do. Thus also the Pope tempteth people on his side, as he did Aeneas Sylvius, Luther, and others, by great rewards and preferments.” (John Trapp) “All of you have conspired against me, and there is no one who reveals to me that my son has made a covenant with the son of Jesse; and there is not one of you who is sorry for me or reveals to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as it is this day.” Jonathan nor even David were against him. And Saul spoke this way to those who were still loyal to him. “See the nature of jealousy, and its arts of wheedling to extort discoveries of things that are not.” (John Wesley)
1 Samuel 22:9 Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, and said, “I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. 10 And he inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.” Saul’s appeal to his servants for information with promises of reward. “Then answered Doeg the Edomite”—or alien, “the race always conspicuous for hatred to Israel.” (Biblical Illustrator) “Far better did Saul’s other servants who kept silence.” (Seb Schmid), not trying to ignite his passions. Doeg was over the herdsmen of Saul. He “‘was ‘set over’ the servants of Saul,’ “This translation is entirely wrong, nor would Saul's Benjamites have endured to have an Edomite ‘set over’ them. The verb is that used in 1 Samuel 22:6, and refers simply to Doeg's place in the circle of attendants standing round Saul. The words mean, ‘Doeg the Edomite, who stood there with the servants of Saul.’ As chief herdsman he was present as a person of some importance, but far below ‘the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds.’“ (Pulpit Commentary) Perhaps he would like to become captain or head of the all servants. His place “seemed to him to be too low a place. Ambition, like the crocodile, groweth as long as it liveth.” (John Trapp) And he said , “I saw ‘the son of Jesse’, as “he calls David by way of contempt” (John Gill) as Saul also did—“‘going to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.’ — ‘And he inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.’” ‘Tis all true. But the bread was always available, according to the law, and the sword of rightly belonged to David. Moreover, anyone could inquire of the high priest. David went to the high priest to inquire of Yahweh. And the high priest likely utilized the Urim and Thummim, as was custom. “In 1 Samuel 14:41 (RSV, NIV mg, NLT mg), the Greek translation preserves what may have been lost from the Hebrew original, a mention of them in connection with Saul's effort to determine guilt in his army.” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary) However it was done, there is no sin in inquiring of the Lord concerning a matter. Yet still: “Uniformly in all ages of the church the children of the bond-woman are enemies to the children of the free. Esau's race, the Edomites, and Jacob's seed, the true Israelites, are in different covenants. Reader! put it down as a certain truth, everyone belonging to Christ must and will suffer persecution. Galatians 4:29.” (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary)
Saul is about to execute the priestly line in my meditational reading today, making me think of the political spirit in America. Both sides act with religious pretense. After all, Doeg witnessed this event in the sanctuary. “This sending for all the priestly house to Gibeah when alone Ahimelech was to blame—if blame there was—looks as though Saul and Doeg had determined upon the wholesale massacre which followed.” (C. J. Ellicott) 1 Samuel 22:11 So the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the priests who were in Nob. And they all came to the king. 12 And Saul said, “Hear now, son of Ahitub!” He answered, “Here I am, my lord!" Saul was bent for destruction, as it is written of both Jew and Gentile: “Their feet are swift to shed blood.” (Romans 3:15) “The charge brought against him"-Ahimelech the [high] priest- "was a very offensive one; in so far, it was a statement of facts, but of facts placed in an odious light, of facts coloured with a design which Ahimelech never entertained. Oh, how many an innocent man has suffered in this way! Even in courts of justice, by pleaders whose interest is on the other side, and some-times by judges (like Jeffreys) steeped in hatred and prejudice, how often have acts that were quite innocent been put to the account of treason, or put to the account of malice, or cunningly forged into a chain, indicating a deliberate design to injure another! It can never be too earnestly insisted on that to be just to a man you must not merely ascertain the real facts of his case, but you must put the facts in their true light, and not colour them with prejudices of your own or with suppositions which the man repudiates.” (Expositor's Bible) This would be a proper case for the Urim and Thummim of old in order to discover the truth of God, as David sought in going to the sanctuary in this case. “Two untranslated Hebrew words that might mean ‘lights and perfections.’ They refer to some kind of stones or tokens that the ancient high priests of Israel used for discovering the will [truth] of God (Nm 27:21) ....According to Exodus 28:30, they were kept on or in the breastpiece of the high priest.” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary) “‘Then the king sent to call Ahimelech’— under a pretence of justice, but himself will needs be both his accuser and his judge; and let him make never so good an apology, he must die for it; that is resolved on.” (Trapp) “And Saul said, ‘Hear now, son of Ahitub!’... “as though he was not worthy of his own name being given.” (Peter Pett) “He would not vouchsafe to name him.” (Poole) Nor does Saul “give him the title of his office, as high priest; though he was the second person in the kingdom, and to whose office a few years ago the civil government was annexed.” (Gill) “‘And he’— Ahimelech the [high] priest, possessed, as he was, of a good conscience— answered, ‘Here I am, my lord’” (Kretzmann), “giving due honour to Saul, though he received none from him.” (Gill)
1 Samuel 22: The Defense 13 Then Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as it is this day?” 14 So Ahimelech answered the king and said, “And who among all your servants is as faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, who goes at your bidding, and is honorable in your house? 15 Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? Far be it from me! Let not the king impute anything to his servant, or to any in the house of my father. For your servant knew nothing of all this, little or much.” David had protected Ahimelech by saying that he was on the king’s business. And it appears that he had inquired before and never told him particulars. He needed not, for Yahweh knew and revealed things to his priest, as he needed to know. “The informer, if he knew it said nothing of the cunning artifice by which David obtained the aid of Ahimelech.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) Perhaps he knew of the existing family feud between Saul and David. “For as for Saul’s attempts upon David, well might Ahimelech impute them wholly to the violence of Saul’s passion and disease, seeing even Jonathan did so, as may be gathered from 1 Samuel 20:2.” (Matthew Poole) “Ahimelech appealed to Saul on David’s behalf much as Jonathan had done earlier (1Samuel 22:14-15; cf. 1 Samuel 17:4-5).” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) He gave “a true description of the character of David. He wanted all to recognise that this really was what David was like, an honourable and trustworthy courtier and commander.” (Peter Pett)- loyal to his lord the king. Moreover: “What he—the guardian of the sanctuary—had done, he had done as a matter of course for one so closely related to the king—for one, too, ever loyal and devoted as David had ever proved himself.” (C.J. Ellicott) “‘Did I then begin to enquire of God for him?’ Have I not at other times also, when he had great affairs, consulted with the Lord for him?” (Geneva Study Bible) ”The reason why Ahimelech allowed the sacred Urim to be consulted was that he supposed David was come (as he represented) on a mission direct from King Saul. Surely, thought the blameless high priest, I never supposed my king would have been wroth with me for that... The king, when there was a king in Israel, it is nearly certain, alone had this right.” (C. J. Ellicott) “‘Be it far from me,’—viz., To have any band in a treacherous conspiracy against my sovereign.” (Trapp) — “‘Let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father’; charge me or them with the crime of treason, or conspiracy against him, or with aiding:, assisting, and abetting traitors and conspirators: ‘for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more’; was entirely ignorant of this affair; which plain, honest, account of things, one might have thought, would have been satisfying to Saul; but it seems it was not by what follows..” (John Gill)
1 Samuel 22: The Sentence and Execution
16 And the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house!” 17 Then the king said to the guards who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled and did not tell it to me.” But the servants of the king would not lift their hands to strike the priests of the LORD. 18 And the king said to Doeg, “You turn and kill the priests!” So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck the priests, and killed on that day eighty-five men who wore a linen ephod. 19 Also Nob, the city of the priests, he struck with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing infants, oxen and donkeys and sheep—with the edge of the sword.
“And the king said, ‘You shall surely die, Ahimelech,’ etc... The high priest was faithful but the unjust king / judge passed sentence as prosecutor, judge, and executioner. “He pronounces the sentence himself, without taking the opinion and advice of others.” (John Gill)— “you and all your father’s house!” The charge against the city is that their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled and did not tell it to Saul. “This he speaketh, that he may not seem to have been mad without reason.” (John Trapp) Yet, according to the law and the prophets: “The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.” (Ezekiel 18:20)
“Then the king said to the guards who stood about him, ‘Turn and kill the priests of Yahweh,’”“He owns them to be the priests of the Lord, and calls them so, and yet gave orders to put them to death, though innocent.” (John Gill) “But the servants of the king would not lift their hands to strike the priests of Yahweh,’ choosing rather to offend the king, by disobeying his wicked and bloody command, than to offend God, by shedding the blood of such innocent and sacred persons.”(Matthew Poole) “This refusal reminds us of the scene in 1 Samuel 14:45, where Saul’s sentence of death against Jonathan is opposed.” (Johann Peter Lange) Perhaps, here, afraid of the king's wrath in his worsened condition, they did not here argue for acquital, as before.
And the king said to Doeg, ‘You turn and kill the priests!’ So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck the priests, and killed on that day eighty-five men who wore a linen ephod.” “The very dress which the priests wore, as the consecrated servants of Jehovah, ought to have made them shrink from the commission of such a murder.” (Keil & Delitzsch) “A foreigner alone could be found willing to be the executioner of this bloody and sacrilegious sentence.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown)
“‘Also Nob, the city of the priests, he struck with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing infants’ etc. — He was zealous for favor, which was obtained by bloodshed. “Doeg's thirst for blood did not abate until he had gone through Nob, the city of the priests, killing both men and women, little children and domesticated animals (v.19).” (L. M. Grant)“… assisted, no doubt, by many of the herdsmen of whom he had the command (1 Sam. 21:7). ” (Daniel Whedon)
The anointed of Yahweh had backslidden greatly. “Saul had the whole city of Nob destroyed, like a city that was laid under the ban (vid., Deut. 13:13.).” (Keil & Delitzsch) “That which he wouldn’t do against the enemies of God, he is now doing against the servants of God.” (Chuck Smith)
1 Samuel 22: God’s Providence Brings Israel’s King and Hiigh Priest Together
20 Now one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. 21 And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the Lord’s priests. 22 So David said to Abiathar, “I knew that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have caused the death of all the persons of your father’s house. 23 Stay with me; do not fear. For he who seeks my life seeks your life, but with me you shall be safe.”
“Now one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David” and told David that Saul had killed Yahweh’s priests. So David said, “I knew that day… I have occasioned the death of all the persons [every soul] of thy father's house.”— “or have been the cause of all the evils that befell them, and the death they were put unto, not with design, but by accident; and it grieved him that he should be any ways an accessory thereunto, though without intention.” (John Gill)
Only one son of Ahimelech survived the massacre —Ahitub. “It has been suggested that when his father and the whole body of priests went to Gibeah, in accordance with the summons of King Saul, Abiathar remained behind to perform the necessary functions in the sanctuary, and when he heard of the death of his father and his brother priests, he made his escape, and eventually joined David…” (C. J. Ellicott) thus “rescuing he high priests vestments (1 Samuel 23:6; 23:9).” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) ’Stay with me; do not fear.’ From that time, however, Abiathar, who became after his father’s death high priest, occupies an important place in the story of David’s life.” (C. J. Ellicott)— “For he who seeks my life seeks your life, but with me you shall be safe. “He never forgot a friend. (Compare 2 Samuel 1:26; 2 Samuel 9:1, etc.) David acknowledges that Saul‘s enmity against Abiathar is the consequence of his enmity against himself, and therefore David makes common cause with him.” (Albert Barnes) “Because God will certainly preserve me to the kingdom which he hath promised; and I by his help will protect thee.” (Matthew Poole)
In the end of days, Israel’s High Priest and King will be brought together in the person of Jesus. He will occupy both positions.