1 Samuel 23:8-18

8 Sha'ul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Ke`ilah, to besiege David and his men.

9 David knew that Sha'ul was devising mischief against him; and he said to Avyatar the Kohen, Bring here the efod.

10 Then said David, O LORD, the God of Yisra'el, your servant has surely heard that Sha'ul seeks to come to Ke`ilah, to destroy the city for my sake.

11 Will the men of Ke`ilah deliver me up into his hand? will Sha'ul come down, as your servant has heard? LORD, the God of Yisra'el, I beg you, tell your servant. The LORD said, He will come down.

12 Then said David, Will the men of Ke`ilah deliver up to me and my men into the hand of Sha'ul? the LORD said, They will deliver you up.

13 Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Ke`ilah, and went wherever they could go. It was told Sha'ul that David was escaped from Ke`ilah; and he gave up going there.

14 David abode in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill-country in the wilderness of Zif. Sha'ul sought him every day, but God didn't deliver him into his hand

15 David saw that Sha'ul had come out to seek his life: and David was in the wilderness of Zif in the wood.

16 Yonatan, Sha'ul's son, arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.

17 He said to him, Don't be afraid; for the hand of Sha'ul my father shall not find you; and you shall be king over Yisra'el, and I shall be next to you; and that also Sha'ul my father knows.

18 They two made a covenant before the LORD: and David abode in the wood, and Yonatan went to his house.

1 Samuel 23:8-18 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.