The Wilderness of Ziph at first light: bare, rounded chalky hills folding away east toward a faint line of the Dead Sea, a dark thicket of scrub in one fold and a cave mouth in a pale cliff, under a calm dawn sky.

The Book of

1 Samuel 23

David saves a town, and the town would hand him over. In the wilderness, God keeps him.

29 verses≈ 6 min4 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–7SamuelA boy who listened
8–15SaulA king like the nations
16–20David risesThe LORD looks at the heart
21–27David huntedThe anointed one waitsChapter 23
28–31Saul fallsEndor and Gilboa

David Delivers Keilah

Now it was reported to David, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and looting the threshing floors.”

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David

So David inquired of the LORD, “Should I go and attack these Philistines?”

God

And the LORD said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.”

David's men

But David’s men said to him, “Look, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”

God

Once again, David inquired of the LORD, and the LORD answered him: “Go at once to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.”

Then David and his men went to Keilah, fought against the Philistines, and carried off their livestock, striking them with a mighty blow. So David saved the people of Keilah.

By a small clay lamp in a cave, the young priest Abiathar lifts the gold-worked ephod out of a plain wool wrapping while David kneels before it, watching, and a few of his men stand in the shadows.

(Now Abiathar son of Ahimelech had brought the ephod with him when he fled to David at Keilah.)

Question

Quick question

Keilah was under attack, and David had only a band of frightened outlaws.

How did David decide whether to go to Keilah?

Saul Pursues David

When Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, he said, “God has delivered him into my hand, for he has trapped himself by entering a town with gates and bars.”

Then Saul summoned all his troops to go to war at Keilah and besiege David and his men.

David

When David learned that Saul was plotting evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod.”

And David said, “O LORD, God of Israel, Your servant has heard that Saul intends to come to Keilah and destroy the city on my account. Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O LORD, God of Israel, please tell Your servant.”

God

“He will,” said the LORD.

David

So David asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?”

God

“They will,” said the LORD.

Then David and his men, about six hundred strong, set out and departed from Keilah, moving from place to place. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he declined to go forth.

1 Samuel 23:14

Reflect

“Day after day”

“Day after day Saul searched for him, but God would not deliver David into his hand.” Saul had an army and David had a cave, but the deciding word was God’s. Where do you feel hunted or pressed right now? Write down what it would mean to trust that your life is in God’s hand and not in theirs.

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Hunted in the wilderness

From Keilah in the low hills, David’s men, “about six hundred strong,” moved into the Wilderness of Ziph, then south to the Wilderness of Maon, and at last east to “the strongholds of En-gedi” above the Dead Sea. Saul came down after them from Gibeah. Horesh, the hill of Hachilah and Sela-hammahlekoth, the rock where Saul turned back, cannot be placed today, and Keilah, Ziph and Maon are probable sites.

Late afternoon in a thicket of scrub oak on a wilderness hillside: Jonathan, bow and quiver on his back, grips David's forearm in both hands, the two men face to face in dappled light, a few of David's men keeping watch among the rocks.

While David was in Horesh in the Wilderness of Ziph, he saw that Saul had come out to take his life.

1 Samuel 23:16–17

And you will be king over Israel, and I will be your second-in-command. Even my father Saul knows this is true.”

So the two of them made a covenant before the LORD. And David remained in Horesh, while Jonathan went home.

The Ziphites

Then the Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah south of Jeshimon? Now, O king, come down whenever your soul desires, and we will be responsible for delivering him into your hand.”

Saul

“May you be blessed by the LORD,” replied Saul, “for you have had compassion on me. Please go and prepare further. Investigate and watch carefully where he goes and who has seen him there, for I am told that he is extremely cunning. Observe and find out all the places where he hides. Then come back to me with certainty, and I will go with you. If he is in the land, I will search him out among all the clans of Judah.”

Evening in the wilderness of Maon: a long column of soldiers with spears turning away along a valley floor, dust trailing behind them, while high on the shadowed side of a great rock a small band of men watches them go, under a calm amber sky.

Then a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Come quickly, for the Philistines have raided the land!” So Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to meet the Philistines. That is why that place is called Sela-hammahlekoth.

0:13

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En-gedi.

Pray

Strengthened in God

Thank God that He guards His people day after day, and that no one can take from His hand those He keeps. Thank Him for friends who, like Jonathan, have “strengthened his hand in God” in your own life. Ask Him to make you that kind of friend to someone who is weary this week.

You’ve experienced

1 Samuel 23

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A verse to carry with you

And Saul’s son Jonathan came to David in Horesh and strengthened his hand in God, saying, “Do not be afraid, for my father Saul will never lay a hand on you.

1 Samuel 23:16–17

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