Deeper Commentary
1Sa 23:1 David was told, The Philistines are fighting against Keilah
and are robbing the threshing floors-
A lesser man would have considered that he had so many issues that he
just couldn't possibly get involved in the issues of others. But like the
Lord looking beyond His own immediate pain to the fate of the women lining
the via Dolorosa, so David looked beyond his immediate circumstance to the
needs of others- even those who would later betray him. This grace is the
more wonderful because the people of Keilah were for Saul and against David
(see on :7); it was grace indeed on David's part, and he was confirmed in it
by God.
1Sa 23:2 Therefore David inquired of Yahweh, Shall I go and attack these
Philistines? Yahweh said to David, Go, attack the Philistines and save
Keilah-
The Hebrew phrase "attack... and save" is used in Jud. 3:31 of the
judge Shamgar, also in the context of attacking Philistines. David is being
pointed back by this allusion to the zeal of Shamgar the son of Anath, 'the
answer'. The answer to David's question was in Shamgar. David was
spiritually and mentally exhausted at this time, and God's way forward for
him at this time was to get up and be proactive for others. That is not
always the right answer for us in our low moments, but when it is, we will
be directed to it by God, perhaps through allusion to Biblical characters.
1Sa 23:3 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?-
David’s whole experience with Saul was of course led
and arranged by a loving Father. The sensible thing would have been for
David to get out of Saul’s way and lay quiet- and this is what he tried to
do, by going to Moab. But then God tells him to go back into Judah (1 Sam.
22:5). This was political suicide. It made no human sense to expose
himself to Saul again. And then God tells David to go and fight with the
Philistines in order to rescue the people of Keilah. Yet the men of Keilah
weren’t allies worth having- even they were prepared to betray David to
Saul, and by this action he made the Philistines hate him yet more, so
refuge amongst them was no longer possible. Again and again, God led David
into situations that were politically suicidal, that only made things
worse for him… because He wanted David to trust in Him alone. And so it
happens in our lives. Time and again.
1Sa 23:4 Then David inquired of Yahweh yet again. Yahweh answered him, Get
up and go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into your
hand-
Like Gideon, David's faith wavered and he wanted a second
confirmation. He "inquired of Yahweh" as he had done through Ahimelech (1
Sam. 22:10), so presumably he did so through Ahimelech's son who had fled
to be with David with the ephod (:6). "Get up and go" could be read as a
slight rebuke of David's inaction; for God loves a "yes straight away"
attitude from His children. Perhaps David was being directed back to
Gideon (Jud. 7:9) and Moses, who were addressed by God with the same words
(Dt. 9:12). He would have earlier seen Moses as Judaism does today, the
unreachable acme of spirituality and closeness to God. But now he was
being taught, as we are, that no Biblical character is a mere Sunday
School figure; but rather our real practical inspiration. Elijah was
addressed in the same way in 1 Kings 21:18, directing him back to Gideon
(Jud. 7:9), David (1 Sam. 23:4) and Moses (Dt. 9:12).
1Sa 23:5 David and his men went to Keilah and fought against the
Philistines and carried off their livestock and killed them with a great
slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah-
By doing so, David was burning any possible bridges he had with the
Philistines; for he had taken refuge with Achish in Gath before and nearly
perished because of it. When he again goes there in 1 Sam. 27:1, he is
really going against God's education of him and intention for him. For God
had sent him against the Philistines in 1 Sam. 23 to help him realize that
he was not to consider refuge with them again.
1Sa 23:6 When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, he
brought an ephod with him-
Here we have an example of how a statement is given either before or
after a historical description, explaining how that historical situation
came about. Here, the fact Abiathar was with David with the ephod explains
how David had inquired of Yahweh in :4, and how he would inquire now in
the next verses.
1Sa 23:7 Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah and he said, God has
delivered him into my hand, for he is trapped by going into a town that
has gates and bars-
Saul assumes that the people of Keilah are going to be on his side
and will agree to betray David. David presumably knew this when he was
first told about their calamity, and wondered if he should go and save
them. His decision was therefore an example of him showing extreme grace.
The pain of it was all the more tragic in that Keilah was in Judah and
these people were from David's own tribe.
1Sa 23:8 Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah to
besiege David and his men-
Keilah had just been attacked by the Philistines, and now it had
Saul's army marching towards it; thus Saul is shown to be no better than
the Philistines. He as the king of Israel ought to have saved Keilah from
the Philistines; for Israel wanted a king to save them from their enemies.
The fact David had saved them would have provoked Saul's jealousy.
1Sa 23:9 David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him, so he said to
Abiathar the priest, Bring the ephod here-
"Plotting evil" is the phrase only elsewhere used by Solomon, when
repeatedly he condemns those who "plot evil" in his Proverbs (Prov. 3:29;
6:14; 12:20; 14:22). All Solomon writes is true, but he always harnesses
God's truth to the agenda of his own self justification through knocking
down the enemies of his father. And the house of Saul were still around
and feared by Solomon as potential threats to his kingship. We can misuse
Divine truths in the same way.
1Sa 23:10 Then David said, O Yahweh the God of Israel, Your servant has
definitely heard that Saul intends to come to Keilah to destroy the city
for my sake-
See on 1 Sam. 18:1-3. Saul had come to besiege Keilah and force them
to deliver David to him. It could be that his guilt by association complex
was so strong that Saul was wanting to destroy all Keilah because David
had saved them and was living with them. But another possibility is that
David is being as it were manipulative with God, alluding to the situation
with Lot and Sodom, exaggerating Saul's desire to destroy him into Saul
wanting to destroy all Keilah.
1Sa 23:11 Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul
come down, as Your servant has heard? Yahweh, the God of Israel, I beg
you, tell Your servant. Yahweh said, He will come down-
David had "definitely heard" that Saul would come down. But he
doesn't trust his own intelligence or the hearing of his own ears. He
wants this confirmed by God. Perhaps he was entertaining the dream of
living safely with the grateful people of Keilah and thereby being safe
from Saul. For surely his experience should have told him that Saul would
come down. He probably got the impression that some of the people of
Keilah would hand him over to Saul, but he struggled to believe that
people he had saved from death at the risk of his own life... could be so
ungrateful. And so he asks God to show him.
1Sa 23:12 Then David said, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men
into the hand of Saul? Yahweh said, They will deliver you-
God appears to only answer one request at a time. And then the other
request has to be repeated. This would be understandable if the ephod
contained the stones of urim and thummim, which flashed out only a binary,
yes / no response to a question. Therefore only one question could be
answered at a time.
1Sa 23:13 Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and
left Keilah, and went wherever they could go. Saul heard that David had
escaped from Keilah so he gave up going there-
Saul had a network of spies watching David (1 Sam. 18:20,24; 19:11,19;
23:7,13,25; 24:1; 27:4). In the type of Christ, this looks ahead to Mk.
3:2; Lk. 6:7; 14:1; 20:20; Jn. 11:57. If the people of Keilah had appeared
grateful for David saving them, and were vowing total loyalty to him even
if Saul besieged their town, then David's actions here would have seemed
foolish. People didn't know Saul was thinking of coming against Keilah.
They would have wisely crowed after the event that David ought to have
remained with the grateful people of Keilah. But the ways of God are
always geared ultimately toward our salvation, and involve our doing
things which seem counter intuitive and not the humanly smart thing to do.
1Sa 23:14 David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds and in the
hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day-
Saul "sought" David, implying a great level of mental effort (1 Sam.
19:10; 23:14,15,25; 24:2; 25:26,29; 26:2,20; 27:1,4; 2 Sam. 4:8). In the
type of Christ, the Jews sought to kill the Lord (Mt. 21:46; Mk. 11:18;
12:12; 14:1,11,55; Lk. 19:47; 20:19; 22:2,6; Jn.5:16,18; 7:1,11,25,30;
8:37,40; 10:39; 11:8,56; 18:4,7,8).
But God
didn’t deliver him into his hand-
The contrast is with the men of Keilah, who would have delivered
David into Saul's hand. Yahweh is presented as kinder than men; and any
undue fear of Him as a hard God must always remember this.
1Sa 23:15 David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life when he was in
the wilderness of Ziph, in the forest-
Saul sought the life of David (s.w. 1 Sam. 20:1; 22:23; 23:15; 25:29; 2
Sam. 4:8). In the Psalms, David frequently imprecates judgment upon those
who sought his life (s.w. Ps. 35:4; 38:12; 40:14; 54:3; 63:9; 70:2; 71:13;
86:14). He loved Saul, the life of Saul was precious in David's sight,
indeed the historical records seem to emphasize David's patient love of
Saul; and yet in the Psalms he gives vent before God to his anger with
Saul and desire to see Saul punished and judged by God. This is absolutely
true to human experience; we may act with great patience and apparent love
toward those who abuse us, and yet within we fume about it. The lesson of
David is that we are to pour out those feelings to God in prayer, leaving
Him to judge.
1Sa 23:16 Jonathan, Saul’s son, went to David into the forests and
strengthened his hand in God-
We observe how he is called "Saul's son", emphasizing the extreme
difficult of their relationship and their very different environments. And
yet faithfulness to God was possible in both. Only occasionally could Jonathan and David meet, brief moments of
intense fellowship away from the rest of the world, strengthening each
other's hand in the Lord, re-confirming their covenant
together (1 Sam. 18:3; 20:8,16; 23:18). No wonder their goodbyes were so
hard: "they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David
exceeded" (1 Sam. 20:41). Not surprisingly, they looked forward to the
promised day of David's Kingdom: "Thou shalt be king over Israel, and I
shall be next unto thee" (1 Sam. 23:17). Our communion meetings with the
Lord Jesus during our wilderness journey must surely mirror those meetings.
Just the same phrase is used of how David later strengthened himself in
Yahweh, with 600 of his own men against him and wanting to kill him (1
Sam. 30:6). It happens with us too that the encouragement others give us,
we later have to give to ourselves when alone and isolated.
1Sa 23:17 He said to him, Don’t be afraid, for the hand of Saul my father
will not find you; you will be king over Israel and I shall be next to
you. Saul my father well knows that-
See on 1 Sam. 20:15 and 1 Sam. 20:30,31. As noted on 1 Sam. 20:3, when David feels Saul is about to
succeed in killing him, we might have wished to see at times more faith by
both of them in Samuel's prophetic word that David should become king.
Their faith in that word went up and down, with 1 Sam. 23:17 being a high
point in it, and 1 Sam. 27:1 being the low point in it. Jonathan totally
believed Samuel's prophetic word, even though it meant that he would not
be king himself. And Saul too knew this. His efforts to kill David were
therefore futile, for he was thereby seeking to as it were disallow that
prophetic word coming true. But knowing all this, Saul still tried to
murder David. His jealousy blinded him to such an extent that he was
simply blind to the implications of the Divine word which on another level
he believed.
1Sa 23:18 They both made a covenant before Yahweh, and David stayed in the
forests but Jonathan went home-
The record powerfully presents the picture of David and Jonathan as two
men living in totally different worlds, and yet being bound together,
despite the tangles of their lives, by the hope of the Kingdom, and the
pure intensity of their spiritual bond with each other in the Lord. The
love of David for Jonathan is surpassing. The juxtaposition of their
lifestyles is shown by passages like this, where Jonathan goes to "his
house" (Heb.) whilst David is in the forests; and 1 Sam. 20:42, where
Jonathan returns to the city and David goes into the scrubland.
"Jonathan Saul's son (note the emphasis again!) arose, and went to David into the wood" (1 Sam. 23:16). We are invited to imagine Jonathan walking into the wood, stumbling through it, until he found David, concealed in some deep thicket; and then, after brief but intense fellowship, stumbling back through the undergrowth, brushing himself down, and returning to his stately home. The same impression is given by 1 Sam. 20:42: "We have sworn both of us... and David arose and departed (to his den): and Jonathan went into the city". There seems more than an echo here of Abraham and Lot parting company in Gen. 13:8-12. How many of us, coming out of a memorial meeting and returning to the world, have gone through the same emotions. The clandestine nature of the David: Jonathan friendship is surely replicated between us and Christ. The love of David for Jonathan is Christ's love for us. Their souls were "knit", a Hebrew word also translated "conspire", hinting at the secretiveness (1 Sam. 18:1). Yet as Jonathan became too involved in his surrounding world (so it seems), so we run a similar gauntlet. The question arises: Should Jonathan have run away from his situation, and gone to join David in the wilderness, like others did? Should we? To close down a career, move down the property ladder, change our eating, travelling, holiday habits.... or stay where we are in Saul's court, to some degree living out a lie, hoping Gilboa won't come for us?
1Sa 23:19 Then the Ziphites came to Saul in Gibeah saying, Isn’t David
hiding among us in the strongholds in the forest, on the hill of Hachilah,
which is on the south of the desert?-
These people come over as proactively seeking to betray David.
Doubtless Saul had been offering major incentives to people for
information leading to the capture or destruction of David. That David
could later weld these people together into one kingdom was only achieved
thanks to his great grace and forgiveness.
1Sa 23:20 Now therefore, O king, come down when you are ready; our part
will be to deliver him into the king’s hand-
Saul's spies aimed to deliver David into Saul's hands, looking
ahead in the type of Christ to Lk. 20:20. We are intended to compare this
with :14: "But God didn’t deliver him into his hand". The men of Keilah
likewise would have delivered David into Saul's hand. Yahweh is presented
as kinder than men; and any undue fear of Him as a hard God must always
remember this.
1Sa 23:21 Saul said, Yahweh bless you, for you have had compassion on me-
David's later criticism of
1Sa 23:22 Please go and make sure and find out where his haunt is and who
has seen him there, for they tell me that he is very crafty-
The "they" refer to Saul's network of spies seeking to inform on
David. Perhaps this desire for the names of those who had reported
sightings of David was because Saul had promised a reward for every
sighting.
1Sa 23:23 So find out all the hiding places he uses and come back to me
with definite information, and I will go with you. If he is in the area I
will search him out among all the thousands of Judah-
This sounds like some kind of 'final solution' to eliminate David by
listing all his possible hiding places in the area. We note Saul's
personal obsession: "I will go with you... I will search him out".
Jealousy can progress to a point where a man becomes shameless in his
addiction to personal hatred.
1Sa 23:24 They set out and went to Ziph ahead of Saul, but David and his
men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of the
desert-
"Arabah" is GNB "a desolate valley"; "to the south of Jeshimon"
(ESV).
1Sa 23:25 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 into the wilderness of Maon-
As will be explained on :26, it seems David thought this rock was an
area where he could hide undetected from Saul. Perhaps he saw in it a kind
of representation of God whom he often calls his rock. He would have
really felt God was no longer his rock when that rock appeared to be his
destruction (see on :26). But then when he was saved, he would have
understood that God is a "rock" not in the sense of some obvious and
visible fortress of defence; but in more subtle yet more powerful ways.
1Sa 23:26 Saul went on one side of the mountain and David and his men on
the other, and David hurried to get away for fear of Saul, for Saul and
his men surrounded David and his men to take them-
David bore a charmed life from Saul's persecution; humanly, he should
surely have perished at this point (1 Sam. 23:26,27; 27:1). This looks ahead to Jn. 7:30
in the type of Christ. The "rock" or "mountain" was a cone shaped hill.
David went one way around it and Saul another, chasing him; this is the
idea behind "surrounded". David with his large company of men must have
felt unable to stop and fight Saul because they were so outnumbered. David
originally intended to hide out there. But now Saul was on him, and as
David moved ever higher up the tracks towards the top of the cone shaped
hill, it was only a matter of time before Saul caught up with him at the
top. David was very close to death at this point; but his desperate
prayers as he went higher up the cone shaped hill received a truly
miraculous answer (:27).
1Sa 23:27 But a messenger came to Saul saying, Hurry and come, for the
Philistines have made a raid on the land!-
The way Saul returns from pursuing David because of a rumour of
invasion is so similar to Rabshakeh’s retreat from Jerusalem after rumours
of incursions. Circumstances repeat within our lives and between our lives
and those of others in Biblical history; that we might learn the lessons
and take comfort from the scriptures, that man is not alone.
1Sa 23:28 So Saul returned from pursuing David and went against the
Philistines. Therefore they called that place Sela Hammahlekoth-
ESV "The rock of escape", GNB "The rock of division", LXX "The
divided rock", perhaps connecting with how Moses divided the rock in the
desert to bring forth water whereby Israel survived when otherwise they
would have died.
1Sa 23:29 David went from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi-
This verse appears to belong to the next chapter. The Bible's chapter
divisions were not inspired and were added some time after the originals
were written.
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