1 Samuel 23
23
Keilah Liberated. 1David was informed that the Philistines were attacking Keilah and plundering the threshing floors.#Jos 15:44. 2So he consulted the Lord, asking, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” The Lord answered, Go, attack them, and free Keilah.#1 Sm 28:6. 3But David’s men said to him: “Even in Judah we have reason to fear. How much more so if we go to Keilah against the forces of the Philistines!” 4Again David consulted the Lord, who answered: Go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into your power.#1 Sm 17:47. 5So David went with his men to Keilah and fought against the Philistines. He drove off their cattle and inflicted a severe defeat on them, and freed the inhabitants of Keilah.
6Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, who had fled to David, went down with David to Keilah, taking the ephod with him.#1 Sm 22:20; 30:7.
Flight from Keilah. 7When Saul was told that David had entered Keilah, he thought: “God has put him in my hand, for he has boxed himself in by entering a city with gates and bars.” 8Saul then called all the army to war, in order to go down to Keilah and besiege David and his men. 9When David found out that Saul was planning to harm him, he said to the priest Abiathar, “Bring the ephod here.”#1 Sm 2:28. 10“Lord God of Israel,” David prayed, “your servant has heard that Saul plans to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. 11Will they hand me over? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? Lord God of Israel, tell your servant.” The Lord answered: He will come down. 12David then asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?” The Lord answered: They will deliver you. 13So David and his men, about six hundred in number, left Keilah and wandered from place to place. When Saul was informed that David had fled from Keilah, he did not go forth.
David and Jonathan in Horesh. 14David now lived in the strongholds in the wilderness, or in the barren hill country near Ziph. Though Saul sought him continually, the Lord did not deliver David into his hand. 15While David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh he was afraid that Saul had come out to seek his life. 16Then Saul’s son, Jonathan, came down to David at Horesh and encouraged him in the Lord.#1 Sm 18:1. 17He said to him: “Have no fear, my father Saul shall not lay a hand to you. You shall be king of Israel#King of Israel: to emphasize the inevitability of the Lord’s plan, the narrator frames Jonathan’s statement with two accounts of David’s mercy toward Saul. and I shall be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this.”#1 Sm 20:14–16. 18The two of them made a covenant before the Lord in Horesh, where David remained, while Jonathan returned to his home.#1 Sm 18:3; 20:8.
Treachery of the Ziphites. 19Some of the Ziphites went up to Saul in Gibeah and said, “David is hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh on the hill of Hachilah, south of Jeshimon.#1 Sm 26:1–3; Ps 54. 20Therefore, whenever the king wishes to come down, let him do so. It will be our task to deliver him into the king’s hand.” 21Saul replied: “The Lord bless you for your compassion toward me.#2 Sm 2:5. 22Go now and make sure once more! Take note of the place where he sets foot for I am told that he is very cunning. 23Look around and learn in which of all the various hiding places he is holding out. Then come back to me with reliable information, and I will go with you. If he is in the region, I will track him down out of all the families of Judah.” 24So they went off to Ziph ahead of Saul. At this time David and his men were in the wilderness below Maon, in the Arabah south of the wasteland.#1 Sm 25:2.
Escape from Saul. 25When Saul and his men came looking for him, David got word of it and went down to the gorge in the wilderness below Maon. Saul heard of this and pursued David into the wilderness below Maon. 26As Saul moved along one side of the gorge, David and his men took to the other. David was anxious to escape Saul, while Saul and his men were trying to outflank David and his men in order to capture them. 27Then a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Come quickly, because the Philistines have invaded the land.” 28Saul interrupted his pursuit of David and went to meet the Philistines. This is how that place came to be called the Rock of Divisions.
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Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc
1 Kings 23
23
1And they told David, saying: Behold, the Philistines fight against Ceila, and they rob the barns.
2Therefore David consulted the Lord, saying: Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord said to David: Go. And thou shalt smite the Philistines, and shalt save Ceila.
3And the men that were with David said to him: Behold, we are in fear here in Judea. How much more if we go to Ceila against the bands of the Philistines?
4Therefore David consulted the Lord again. And he answered and said to him: Arise, and go to Ceila: for I will deliver the Philistines into thy hand.
5David therefore, and his men, went to Ceila, and fought against the Philistines; and brought away their cattle; and made a great slaughter of them. And David saved the inhabitants of Ceila.
6Now at that time, when Abiathar the son of Achimelech fled to David to Ceila, he came down having an ephod with him.
7And it was told Saul that David was come to Ceila. And Saul said: The Lord hath delivered him into my hands; and he is shut up, being come into a city, that hath gates and bars.
8And Saul commanded all the people to go down to fight against Ceila, and to besiege David, and his men.
9Now when David understood, that Saul secretly prepared evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest: Bring hither the ephod.
10And David said: O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath heard a report, that Saul designeth to come to Ceila, to destroy the city for my sake.
11Will the men of Ceila deliver me into his hands? And will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, tell thy servant. And the Lord said: He will come down.
12And David said: Will the men of Ceila deliver me, and my men, into the hands of Saul? And the Lord said: They will deliver thee up.
13Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose, and departing from Ceila, wandered up and down uncertain where they should stay. And it was told Saul that David was fled from Ceila, and had escaped: wherefore he forbore to go out.
14But David abode in the desert in strongholds; and he remained in a mountain of the desert of Ziph, in a woody hill. And Saul sought him always: but the Lord delivered him not into his hands.
15And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life. And David was in the desert of Ziph, in a wood.
16And Jonathan the son of Saul arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hands in God. And he said to him:
17Fear not. For the hand of my father Saul shall not find thee: and thou shalt reign over Israel: and I shall be next to thee. Yea, and my father knoweth this.
18And the two made a covenant before the Lord. And David abode in the wood: but Jonathan returned to his house.
19And the Ziphites went up to Saul in Gabaa, saying: Lo, doth not David lie hid with us in the strongholds of the wood, in mount Hachila, which is on the right hand of the desert?
20Now therefore come down, as thy soul hath desired to come down: and it shall be our business to deliver him into the king's hands.
21And Saul said: Blessed be ye of the Lord; for you have pitied my case.
22Go therefore, I pray you, and use all diligence, and curiously inquire, and consider the place where his foot is, and who hath seen him there. For he thinketh of me, that I lie craftily in wait for him.
23Consider and see all his lurking holes, wherein he is hid; and return to me with the certainty of the thing, that I may go with you. And if be should even go down into the earth to hide himself, I will search him out in all the thousands of Juda.
24And they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. And David and his men were in the desert of Maon, in the plain at the right hand of Jesimon.
25Then Saul and his men went to seek him. And it was told David: and forthwith he went down to the rock, and abode in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul had heard of it he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon.
26And Saul went on this side of the mountain: and David and his men were on the other side of the mountain: and David despaired of being able to escape from the face of Sau. And Saul and his men encompassed David and his men round about to take them.
27And a messenger came to Saul, saying: Make haste to come, for the Philistines have poured in themselves upon the land.
28Wherefore Saul returned, leaving the pursuit of David, and went to meet the Philistines. For this cause they called that place, the Rock of Division.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.