Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
"To the wilderness of Paran"  (1 Samuel 25:1b).  "In a wide sense, the wilderness of Paran extended all the way to the wilderness of Beersheba and eastward to the mountains of Judah."[4] This makes it unnecessary to follow such renditions as those of the Jerusalem Bible and the New International Version which render the passage: "The wilderness of Maon."  The wilderness of Maon was on the edge of the much larger wilderness of Paran; and it should be noted that the text does not say that David entered the wilderness of Paran, but that, "he went down to it."  This he did when he was in the wilderness of Maon.  Since this smaller wilderness adjoined the much larger wilderness of Paran, David was in a position to retreat farther out of Saul's reach if necessary.