1 Samuel 23:6-16

6 After Abiathar took refuge with David, he joined David in the raid on Keilah, bringing the Ephod with him.

7 Saul learned that David had gone to Keilah and thought immediately, "Good! God has handed him to me on a platter! He's in a walled city with locked gates, trapped!"

8 Saul mustered his troops for battle and set out for Keilah to lay siege to David and his men.

9 But David got wind of Saul's strategy to destroy him and said to Abiathar the priest, "Get the Ephod."

10 Then David prayed to God: "God of Israel, I've just heard that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the city because of me.

11 Will the city fathers of Keilah turn me over to him? Will Saul come down and do what I've heard? O God, God of Israel, tell me!" God replied, "He's coming down."

12 "And will the head men of Keilah turn me and my men over to Saul?" And God said, "They'll turn you over."

13 So David and his men got out of there. There were about six hundred of them. They left Keilah and kept moving, going here, there, wherever - always on the move. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he called off the raid.

14 David continued to live in desert hideouts and the backcountry wilderness hills of Ziph. Saul was out looking for him day after day, but God never turned David over to him

15 David kept out of the way in the wilderness of Ziph, secluded at Horesh, since it was plain that Saul was determined to hunt him down.

16 Jonathan, Saul's son, visited David at Horesh and encouraged him in God.

1 Samuel 23:6-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 23

This chapter gives an account of David's relieving Keilah, when it had like to have fallen into the hands of the Philistines, 1Sa 23:1-6; and of Saul's design to surprise him there, which David having notice of, and inquiring of the Lord, departed from thence; which when Saul heard of, he forbore to come forth, 1Sa 23:7-13; and of David's being in the wilderness of Ziph, where, in a wood there, he had an interview with Jonathan, 1Sa 23:14-18; and of the Ziphites offering to deliver him up to Saul, for which he commends them, and gives them instructions how they should behave to him in that affair, 1Sa 23:19-23; and of his seeking him in the wilderness of Maon, where David and his men were in great danger of being taken; which was prevented by the news of the Philistines invading the land coming to Saul just at the nick of time, 1Sa 23:24-29.