The First Book of Samuel

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 23 -

One day someone told David, “You need to know that the Philistine army is attacking the town of Keilah and that they are stealing grain from where men are threshing it.”

David asked Yahweh, “Should my men and I go to fight against those men from the Philistia people group?” Yahweh answered, “Yes, go. Attack them, and rescue the people of Keilah.”

But David’s men said to him, “We are afraid that Saul will attack us here in Judah. We will be more afraid if we go to Keilah where the Philistine army is!”

So David asked Yahweh again if they should go to Keilah. Yahweh answered, “Yes, go down to Keilah. I will help you to defeat the Philistines.”

So David and his men went to Keilah. They fought against the Philistines and captured many of their cattle. David and his men killed many of the Philistine men and rescued the people of Keilah.

Abiathar son of Ahimelech, fled to be with David at Keilah, and he brought a sacred apron with him to use to determine what God wanted him to do.

Saul Pursues David

(Psalm 54:1–7)

Soon Saul found out that David was at Keilah. So he said, “That is good! God is enabling me to capture him! He has trapped himself in that town, because it has high walls with gates around it.”

So Saul summoned his army, and they prepared to go down to Keilah to attack David and his men.

But David found out that Saul was planning for his army to attack him. So he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring here the sacred apron.”

So when Abiathar brought it, David prayed, “Yahweh, God of us Israelites, I have heard that Saul is planning to come here with his army and destroy Keilah because I am here.

Will Saul come down here to Keilah, as people reported to me? Will the leaders of Keilah enable Saul to capture me? Yahweh, God of us Israelites, please tell me!” Yahweh answered, “Yes, Saul will come down.”

Then David asked, “Will the leaders of Keilah enable Saul’s army to capture me and my men if we stay here?” By means of the stones in the sacred vest, Yahweh replied, “Yes, they will.”

So David and his six hundred men left Keilah. They continued to move from one place to another, wherever they thought that Saul would not find them. And when Saul found out that David had escaped from Keilah, he did not go there.

David and his man stayed in hiding places in the desert and in the hills of the wilderness of Ziph. Every day Saul sent men to search for David, but Yahweh did not allow them to capture David.

While David and his men were at a place named Horesh in the wilderness of Ziph, he found out that Saul was coming there to kill him.

But Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and encouraged him to continue to trust in God.

Jonathan told him, “Do not be afraid, because my father will not be able to harm you. Some day you will be the king of Israel, and I will be the second most important man in Israel. My father Saul also knows that.”

Then the two of them repeated their solemn promise that Yahweh had heard them make previously, that they would always be loyal to each other. Then Jonathan went home, but David stayed at Horesh.

Some people from Ziph went to Saul when he was at Gibeah, and they told him, “David and his men are hiding in our land! They are hiding in places at Horesh on the hill of Hakilah, south of a place named Jeshimon.

So, O king, come down there any time that you want to. It is our duty to capture him and put him in your hands.”

Saul replied, “I hope that Yahweh will bless you for telling that to me.

Go back and find out more about him. Find out exactly where he is staying, and find out who has seen him there. People tell me that he is very clever, so we need to be clever also to be able to capture him.

Find out all the places where he and his men hide. Then come back and tell me everything that you have found out. Then I will take my army and go there with you. If David is in any of the clans of Judah, we will search for him and find him!”

So those people went back to Ziph before Saul went there. At that time David and his men were in the desert of Maon, south of Jeshimon.

Saul and his soldiers went to search for David, but David heard about that. So he and his men went further south to a rocky hill in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard about that, he and his men followed David and his men to the wilderness of Maon.

Saul and his soldiers were walking along one side of the hill, and David and his men were on the other side. David and his men were hurrying to escape from Saul’s soldiers, because Saul and his soldiers were coming much closer.

But then a messenger came to Saul and said to him, “Come quickly! The Philistine army is attacking the people in our land!”

So Saul stopped pursuing David, and he and his soldiers went to fight against the Philistine army. That is the reason that people call that place the Rock of Escape.

David and his men also left that place and went to places to hide safely at Engedi.

David was told, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors.”

Therefore David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go and strike these Philistines?” The LORD said to David, “Go strike the Philistines, and save Keilah.”

David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”

Then David inquired of the LORD yet again. The LORD answered him, and said, “Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.”

David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their livestock, and killed them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, he came down with an ephod in his hand.

Saul Pursues David

(Psalm 54:1–7)

Saul was told that David had come to Keilah. Saul said, “God has delivered him into my hand, for he is shut in by entering into a town that has gates and bars.”

Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.

David knew that Saul was devising mischief against him. He said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.”

Then David said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city for my sake.

Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? LORD, the God of Israel, I beg you, tell your servant.” The LORD said, “He will come down.”

Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?” The LORD said, “They will deliver you up.”

Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah and went wherever they could go. Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah; and he gave up going there.

David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God didn’t deliver him into his hand.

David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph in the woods.

Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David into the woods, and strengthened his hand in God.

He said to him, “Don’t be afraid, for the hand of Saul my father won’t find you; and you will be king over Israel, and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also.”

They both made a covenant before the LORD. Then David stayed in the woods and Jonathan went to his house.

Then the Ziphites came up to Saul to Gibeah, saying, “Doesn’t David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desert?

Now therefore, O king, come down. According to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part will be to deliver him up into the king’s hand.”

Saul said, “You are blessed by the LORD, for you have had compassion on me.

Please go make yet more sure, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who has seen him there; for I have been told that he is very cunning.

See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides himself; and come again to me with certainty, and I will go with you. It shall happen, if he is in the land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.”

They arose, and went to Ziph before Saul; but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of the desert.

Saul and his men went to seek him. When David was told, he went down to the rock, and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard that, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon.

Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain; and David hurried to get away for fear of Saul, for Saul and his men surrounded David and his men to take them.

But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land!”

So Saul returned from pursuing David, and went against the Philistines. Therefore they called that place Sela Hammahlekoth.(a)

David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.

Footnotes

(a)23:28 “Sela Hammahlekoth” means “rock of parting”.