1 Samuel 23
He Saved a City That Would Have Handed Him Over
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David Delivers Keilah
23:1It was reported to David, saying, “Look, the foreigners are fighting at Keilah. They are plundering and trampling the threshing floors.”
23:2David inquired through the Lord, saying, “Shall I go and strike these foreigners?” The Lord said, “Go, and you will strike these foreigners and save Keilah.”
23:3David’s men said to him, “Look, we are afraid here in Judea. How will it be if we go to Keilah? We will go into the foreigners’ spoils.”
23:4David inquired again through the Lord. The Lord answered him and said to him, “Rise and go down to Keilah, for I am handing the foreigners into your hands.”
23:5David and the men with him went to Keilah. He fought the foreigners, and they fled before him. He drove away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. David saved Keilah’s inhabitants.
23:6When Abiathar son of Abimelech fled to David, he went down with David to Keilah, having an ephoud in his hand.
David Inquires of the Lord
23:7It was reported to Saul that David had come to Keilah. Saul said, “God has sold him into my hands, for he has been shut in by entering a city with doors and bars.”
23:8Saul commanded all the people to go down to Keilah for war, to hem in David and his men.
23:9David knew that Saul was not keeping silent about the evil concerning him. David said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the Lord’s ephoud.”
23:10David said, “Lord, God of Israel, Your servant has heard that Saul seeks to come against Keilah and destroy the city because of me.
23:11Will it be shut up? And now, will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? Lord, God of Israel, tell Your servant.” The Lord said, “It will be shut up.”
23:13David and the men with him, about four hundred, rose and went out from Keilah. They went wherever they went. It was reported to Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, and he gave up going out.
David in the Wilderness of Ziph
23:14David stayed in the wilderness at Maserem, in the narrow places. He stayed in the wilderness on Mount Ziph, in the parched land. Saul sought him all the days, but the Lord did not hand him into his hands.
23:15David saw that Saul was coming out to seek David. David was on the parched mountain at Kaine of Ziph.
23:16Saul’s son Jonathan rose and went to David at Kaine and strengthened his hands in the Lord.
23:17He said to him, “Do not fear. My father Saul’s hand certainly will not find you. You will reign over Israel, and I will be second to you. My father Saul knows this.”
23:18The two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David stayed at Kaine, and Jonathan went to his house.
The Ziphites Betray David
23:19The Ziphites went up from the parched land to Saul on the hill, saying, “Look, is David not hidden among us at Messara, in the narrow places at Kaine, on the hill of Echela, to the right of Jessaimoun?
23:20Now let the king come down to us according to all his soul’s desire to descend. They have shut him into the king’s hands.”
23:21Saul said to them, “Blessed are you by the Lord, for you have taken trouble for me.
23:22Please go, prepare further, and find out his place where his foot will be, quickly, there where you said, lest he act cunningly.
23:23See and find out, and we will go with you. If he is in the land, I will search him out among all Judah’s thousands.”
23:24The Ziphites rose and went ahead of Saul. David and his men were in the wilderness of Maan, toward the west, to the right of Jessaimoun.
23:25Saul and his men went to seek him. They reported to David, and he went down to the rock in the wilderness of Maan. Saul heard and pursued David into the wilderness of Maan.
Saul Turns Back
23:26Saul and his men went along a side of this mountain, and David and his men were along a side of this mountain. David was keeping under cover to get away from Saul, while Saul and his men camped against David and his men to seize them.
23:27A messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the foreigners have attacked the land.”
23:28Saul turned back from pursuing David and went to meet the foreigners. Therefore that place was called the Divided Rock.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.