Paran: According to the Masoretic Text, David went to the wilderness of Paran after Samuel’s death. The Septuagint instead reads Maon, which fits better with the following story set in the Maon/Carmel area of Judah. This town in southern Judah (see study note on 1 Samuel 23:24) was probably Nabal’s home. The wilderness of Paran itself lay much farther south, in the northern Sinai near Kadesh-barnea, and is elsewhere described as a place of refuge (Genesis 21:21; 1 Kings 11:18).