^23:1They told David, “The Philistines are fighting in Keilah and are looting the threshing floors.” ^23:2So David asked the Lord, “Should I go and strike down these Philistines?” The Lord said to David, “Go, strike down the Philistines and deliver Keilah.”

^23:3But David’s men said to him, “We are afraid while we are still here in Judah! What will it be like if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” ^23:4So David asked the Lord once again. But again the Lord replied, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.”

^23:5So David and his men went to Keilah and fought the Philistines. He took away their cattle and thoroughly defeated them.¹ David delivered the inhabitants of Keilah.

David Eludes Saul Again

^23:6Now when Abiathar son of Ahimelech had fled to David at Keilah, he had brought with him an ephod.²^23:7When Saul was told that David had come to Keilah, Saul said, “God has delivered³ him into my hand, for he has boxed himself into a corner by entering a city with two barred gates.”⁴^23:8So Saul mustered all his army to go down to Keilah and besiege David and his men.⁵

^23:9When David realized that Saul was planning to harm him,⁶ he told Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod!” ^23:10Then David said, “O Lord God of Israel, your servant has clearly heard that Saul is planning⁷ to come to Keilah to destroy the city because of me. ^23:11Will the leaders of Keilah deliver me into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? O Lord God of Israel, please inform your servant!”

Then the Lord said, “He will come down.” ^23:12David asked, “Will the leaders of Keilah deliver me and my men into Saul’s hand?” The Lord said, “They will deliver you over.”

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Footnotes

1 Heb “and struck them down with a great blow.”
2 Heb “an ephod went down in his hand.”
3 The reading (“God has alienated him into my hand”) in v. 7 is a difficult and uncommon idiom. The use of this verb in Jer 19:4 is somewhat parallel, but not entirely so. Many scholars have therefore suspected a textual problem here, emending the word נִכַּר (nikkar, “alienated”) to סִכַּר (sikkar, “he has shut up [i.e., delivered]”). This is the idea reflected in the translations of the and , although it is not entirely clear whether they are reading something different from the or are simply paraphrasing what for them too may have been a difficult text. The has “God has sold him into my hands,” apparently reading מַכַר (makar, “sold”) for ’s נִכַּר. The present translation is a rather free interpretation.
4 Heb “with two gates and a bar.” Since in English “bar” could be understood as a saloon, it has been translated as an attributive: “two barred gates.”
5 Heb “So Saul mustered all his army for battle to go down to Keilah to besiege against David and his men.”
6 Heb “Saul was planning the evil against him.”
7 Heb “seeking.”