NAIOTH nā’ yŏth (נָֽיﯴת, נﯴִות, in 1 Samuel 20:1; other MSS have נָיﯴת, H5766, or נﯴִית, LXX B Lucian has Ναυιωθ; meaning dwellings is uncertain). The place to which David fled from Saul and the residence of Samuel.

Naioth occurs only in the narrative of 1 Samuel 19:18-20:1. It is uncertain whether the word is a proper name or a common noun. It always occurs in conjunction with Ramah and is said to be in Ramah (vv. 19, 22, 23; 20:1). Some think, therefore, that it described the domicile of Samuel and his school of prophets (v. 20).

When Saul pursued David to this site after first sending three groups of messengers, “the Spirit of God came upon him also, and as he went he prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah. And he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel, and lay naked all that day and all that night...” (vv. 23f.).

Ramah is well-known as the modern er-Ram c. eight m. N of Jerusalem. Naioth, however, is unknown outside the Bible.

Bibliography Lange’s Commentary, Samuel (1877), 252; S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel (1913), 158f.