1 Samuel 23:1-6

1 David was asked, "Did you know that the Philistines are fighting against Keilah? They are robbing the threshing floors."

2 David asked the LORD, "Should I go and attack these Philistines?" "Go," the LORD told David, "attack the Philistines, and save Keilah."

3 David's men told him, "We're afraid of staying here in Judah. How much more [afraid do you think we'll be] if we go to Keilah against the Philistine army?"

4 David asked the LORD again, and the LORD answered him. He said, "Go to Keilah. I'm giving you the power to defeat the Philistines."

5 David and his men went to Keilah, fought the Philistines, drove off their livestock, and decisively defeated them. So David rescued the people who lived in Keilah.

6 When Ahimelech's son Abiathar fled to David at Keilah, Abiathar brought a priestly ephod 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.