1 Samuel 23 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

David Saves the City of Keilah

David Escapes to the Wilderness

1Sa 23:1Then they told David, saying, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and they are robbing the threshing floors.”

1Sa 23:2

1Sa 23:2Therefore David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” And the LORD said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines, and save Keilah.”

1Sa 23:3

1Sa 23:3But David’s men said to him, “Look, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”

1Sa 23:4

1Sa 23:4Then David inquired of the LORD once again. And the LORD answered him and said, “Arise, go down to Keilah. For I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.”

1Sa 23:5

1Sa 23:5And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines, struck them with a mighty blow, and took away their livestock. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

1Sa 23:6

1Sa 23:6Now it happened, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, that he went down with an ephod in his hand.

1Sa 23:7

1Sa 23:7And Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah. So Saul said, “God has delivered him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.”

1Sa 23:8

1Sa 23:8Then Saul called all the people together for war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.

1Sa 23:9

1Sa 23:9When David knew that Saul plotted evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.”

1Sa 23:10

1Sa 23:10Then David said, “O LORD God of Israel, Your servant has certainly heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city for my sake.

1Sa 23:11

1Sa 23:11“Will the men of Keilah deliver me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O LORD God of Israel, I pray, tell Your servant.” And the LORD said, “He will come down.”

1Sa 23:12

1Sa 23:12Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the LORD said, “They will deliver you.”

1Sa 23:13

1Sa 23:13So David and his men, about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah and went wherever they could go. Then it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah; so he halted the expedition.

David in Wilderness Strongholds

1Sa 23:14

1Sa 23:14And David stayed in strongholds in the wilderness, and remained in the mountains in the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand.

1Sa 23:15

1Sa 23:15So David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. And David was in the Wilderness of Ziph in a forest.[fn]

1Sa 23:16

1Sa 23:16Then Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God.

1Sa 23:17

1Sa 23:17And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Even my father Saul knows that.”

1Sa 23:18

1Sa 23:18So the two of them made a covenant before the LORD. And David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his own house.

1Sa 23:19

1Sa 23:19Then the Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is David not hiding with us in strongholds in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?

1Sa 23:20

1Sa 23:20“Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hand.”

1Sa 23:21

1Sa 23:21And Saul said, “Blessed are you of the LORD, for you have compassion on me.

1Sa 23:22

1Sa 23:22“Please go and find out for sure, and see the place where his hideout is, and who has seen him there. For I am told he is very crafty.

1Sa 23:23

1Sa 23:23“See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides; and come back to me with certainty, and I will go with you. And it shall be, if he is in the land, that I will search for him throughout all the clans[fn] of Judah.”

1Sa 23:24

1Sa 23:24So they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. But David and his men were in the Wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon.

1Sa 23:25

1Sa 23:25When Saul and his men went to seek him, they told David. Therefore he went down to the rock, and stayed in the Wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued David in the Wilderness of Maon.

1Sa 23:26

1Sa 23:26Then Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. So David made haste to get away from Saul, for Saul and his men were encircling David and his men to take them.

1Sa 23:27

1Sa 23:27But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have invaded the land!”

1Sa 23:28

1Sa 23:28Therefore Saul returned from pursuing David, and went against the Philistines; so they called that place the Rock of Escape.[fn]

1Sa 23:29

1Sa 23:29Then David went up from there and dwelt in strongholds at En Gedi.

See the NKJV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NKJV Footnotes

(23:15)

Or in Horesh

(23:23)

Literally thousands

(23:28)

Hebrew Sela Hammahlekoth

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