1 Samuel 23:1-6

Saul chases David

1 David was told, "The Philistines are now attacking Keilah and looting the threshing floors!"

2 David asked the LORD, "Should I go and fight these Philistines?" "Go!" the LORD answered. "Fight the Philistines and save Keilah!"

3 But David's men said to him, "Look how frightened we are here in Judah. It'll be worse if we go to Keilah against Philistine forces!"

4 So David asked the LORD again, and the LORD reaffirmed, "Yes, go down to Keilah, because I will hand the Philistines over to you."

5 Then David and his soldiers went to Keilah and fought the Philistines, driving off their cattle and defeating them decisively. And that's how David saved the residents of Keilah.

6 Now after Abiathar, Ahimelech's son, fled to David, he had accompanied David to Keilah, bringing a priestly vest with him.

1 Samuel 23:1-6 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. LXX; MT lacks he had accompanied David to.
• [b]. Heb ephod