Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 23:1
Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors.
1Sa 23:1-6. The rescue of Keilah
1. Then they told David ] Simply, And they told. There is no mark of time. The appeal to David shews that he was growing to be regarded as the champion of Israel.
Keilah ] A fortified city ( v, 7), named in Jos 15:44 as one of a group of cities in the Shephlah or “Lowland,” which included the low limestone hills bordering on the Philistine plain. It was perched on a steep hill above the valley of Elah, about three miles south of Adullam, where the name Kila still survives to mark the site.
they rob the threshing floors ] This indicates that the raid took place immediately after harvest, when the corn was stacked by the floors ready for threshing.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Davids growing importance, fugitive as he was, is marked by this appeal to him for deliverance from the Philistines. The threshing floors were the natural objects of plunder Jdg 6:11. Keilah was in the Shephelah (marginal reference), probably close to the Philistine border, but its site is uncertain.
Jos 2:11 Samuel Jos 23:1 PP1
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XXIII
David succours Keilah, besieged by the Philistines; defeats
them, and delivers the city, 1-6.
Saul, hearing that David was at Keilah, determines to come and
seize him, 7, 8.
David inquires of the Lord concerning the fidelity of the men of
Keilah towards him; is informed that if he stays in the city,
the men of Keilah will betray him to Saul, 9-12.
David and his men escape from the city, and come to the
wilderness of Ziph, 13-15.
Jonathan meets David in the wood of Ziph, strengthens his hand
in God, and they renew their covenant, 16-18.
The Ziphites endeavour to betray David to Saul, but he and his
men escape to Maon, 19-22.
Saul comes to Maon; and having surrounded the mountain on which
David and his men were, they must inevitably have fallen into
his hands, had not a messenger come to call Saul to the succour
of Judah, then invaded by the Philistines, 25-27.
Saul leaves the pursuit of David, and goes to succour the land;
and David escapes to En-gedi, 28, 29.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXIII
Verse 1. The Philistines fight against Keilah] Keilah was a fortified town in the tribe of Judah near to Eleutheropolis, on the road to Hebron.
Rob the threshing-floors.] This was an ancient custom of the Philistines, Midianites, and others. See Jdg 6:4. When the corn was ripe and fit to be threshed, and they had collected it at the threshing-floors, which were always in the open field, then their enemies came upon them and spoiled them of the fruits of their harvest.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then they told David; or, Now they had told David, to wit, before he heard of the slaughter of the priests. Keilah; a city in the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:44, not far from the forest of Hareth, where David now was, 1Sa 22:5.
The threshing-floors usually were without the cities, in places open to the wind. See Jdg 6:11; Rth 3:2, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Then they told Davidrather,”now they had told”; for this information had reached himprevious to his hearing (1Sa 23:6)of the Nob tragedy.
Keilaha city in thewest of Judah (Jos 15:44), notfar from the forest of Hareth.
and they rob thethreshing-floorsThese were commonly situated on the fields andwere open to the wind (Jdg 6:11;Rth 3:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then they told David,…. Either the men of Keilah sent to him, being near them, or some well wishers of theirs, and of their country, acquainted him with their case:
saying, behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah; had laid siege to it, being a fortified place, 1Sa 23:7; it was a city in the tribe of Judah, on the borders of the Philistines; of which
[See comments on Jos 15:44];
and they rob the threshing floors; took away the corn upon them, which they were threshing and winnowing, which were usually done without the city for the sake of wind, see Jud 6:11; it was harvest time when the three mighty men came to David in the cave of Adullam, and so now it might be the time of threshing, harvest being over, see
1Sa 22:1; compared with 2Sa 23:13.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1Sa 23:1-14 Rescue of Keilah. – After his return to the mountains of Judah, David received intelligence that Philistines, i.e., a marauding company of these enemies of Israel, were fighting against Keilah, and plundering the threshing-floors, upon which the corn that had been reaped was lying ready for threshing. Keilah belonged to the towns of the lowlands of Judah (Jos 15:44); and although it has not yet been discovered, was certainly very close to the Philistian frontier.
1Sa 23:2 After receiving this information, David inquired of the Lord (through the Urim and Thummim of the high priest) whether he should go and smite these Philistines, and received an affirmative answer.
1Sa 23:3-6 But his men said to him, “ Behold, here in Judah we are in fear (i.e., are not safe from Saul’s pursuit); how shall we go to Keilah against the ranks of the Philistines? ” In order, therefore, to infuse courage into them, he inquired of the Lord again, and received the assurance from God, “ I will give the Philistines into thy hand.” He then proceeded with his men, fought against the Philistines, drove off their cattle, inflicted a severe defeat upon them, and thus delivered the inhabitants of Keilah. In 1Sa 23:6 a supplementary remark is added in explanation of the expression “ inquired of the Lord,” to the effect that, when Abiathar fled to David to Keilah, the ephod had come to him. The words “ to David to Keilah ” are not to be understood as signifying that Abiathar did not come to David till he was in Keilah, but that when he fled after David (1Sa 22:20), he met with him as he was already preparing for the march of Keilah, and immediately proceeded with him thither. For whilst it is not stated in 1Sa 22:20 that Abiathar came to David in the wood of Hareth, but the place of meeting is left indefinite, the fact that David had already inquired of Jehovah (i.e., through the oracle of the high priest) with reference to the march to Keilah, compels us to assume that Abiathar had come to him before he left the mountains for Keilah. So that the brief expression “to David to Keilah,” which is left indefinite because of its brevity, must be interpreted in accordance with this fact.
1Sa 23:7-9 As soon as Saul received intelligence of David’s march to Keilah, he said, “ God has rejected him (and delivered him) into my hand.” does not mean simply to look at, but also to find strange, and treat as strange, and then absolutely to reject (Jer 19:4, as in the Arabic in the fourth conjugation). This is the meaning here, where the construction with is to be understood as a pregnant expression: “ rejection and delivered into my hand ” (vid., Ges. Lex. s. v.). The early translators have rendered it quite correctly according to the sense , , tradidit , without there being any reason to suppose that they read instead of . “ For he hath shut himself in, to come (= coming, or by coming) into a city with gates and bolts.”
1Sa 23:8 He therefore called all the people (i.e., men of war) together to war, to go down to Keilah, and to besiege David and his men.
1Sa 23:9-12 But David heard that Saul was preparing mischief against him ( lit. forging, , from ; Pro 3:29; Pro 6:14, etc.), and he inquired through the oracle of the high priest whether the inhabitants of Keilah would deliver him up to Saul, and whether Saul would come down; and as both questions were answered in the affirmative, he departed from the city with his six hundred men, before Saul carried out his plan. It is evident from 1Sa 23:9-12, that when the will of God was sought through the Urim and Thummim, the person making the inquiry placed the matter before God in prayer, and received an answer; but always to one particular question. For when David had asked the two questions given in 1Sa 23:11, he received the answer to the second question only, and had to ask the first again (1Sa 23:12).
1Sa 23:13 “ They went whithersoever they could go ” ( lit. “they wandered about where they wandered about”), i.e., wherever they could go without danger.
1Sa 23:14 David retreated into the desert (of Judah), to the mountain heights (that were to be found there), and remained on the mountains in the desert of Ziph. The “ desert of Judah ” is the desert tract between the mountains of Judah and the Dead Sea, in its whole extent, from the northern boundary of the tribe of Judah to the Wady Fikreh in the south (see at Jos 15:61). Certain portions of this desert, however, received different names of their own, according to the names of different towns on the border of the mountains and desert. The desert of Ziph was that portion of the desert of Judah which was near to and surrounded the town of Ziph, the name of which has been retained in the ruins of Tell Zif, an hour and three-quarters to the south-east of Hebron (see at Jos 15:55).
1Sa 23:14. “And Saul sought him all the days, but God delivered him not into his hand.” This is a general remark, intended to introduce the accounts which follow, of the various attempts made by Saul to get David into his power. “ All the days,” i.e., as long as Saul lived.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| David Delivers Keilah. | B. C. 1057. |
1 Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors. 2 Therefore David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the LORD said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah. 3 And David’s men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? 4 Then David enquired of the LORD yet again. And the LORD answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand. 5 So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. 6 And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.
Now we find why the prophet Gad (by divine direction, no doubt) ordered David to go into the land of Judah, ch. xxii. 5. It was that, since Saul neglected the public safety, he might take care of it, notwithstanding the ill treatment that was given him; for he must render good for evil, and therein be a type of him who not only ventured his life, but laid down his life, for those that were his enemies.
I. Tidings are brought to David, as to the patron and protector of his country’s liberties, that the Philistines had made a descent upon the city of Keilah and plundered the country thereabouts, v. 1. Probably it was the departure both of God and David from Saul that encouraged the Philistines to make this incursion. When princes begin to persecute God’s people and ministers, let them expect no other than vexation on all sides. The way for any country to be quiet is to let God’s church be quiet in it. If Saul fight against David, the Philistines shall fight against his country.
II. David is forward enough to come in for their relief, but is willing to enquire of the Lord concerning it. Here is an instance, 1. Of David’s generosity and public-spiritedness. Though his head and hands were full of his own business, and he had enough to do, with the little force he had, to secure himself, yet he was concerned for the safety of his country and could not sit still to see that ravaged: nay, though Saul, whose business it was to guard the borders of his land, hated him and sought his life, yet he was willing, to the utmost of his power, to serve him and his interests against the common enemy, and bravely abhorred the thought of sacrificing the common welfare to his private revenge. Those are unlike to David who sullenly decline to do good because they have not been so well considered as they deserved for the services they have done. 2. Of David’s piety and regard to God. He enquired of the Lord by the prophet Gad; for it should seem (by v. 6) that Abiathar came not to him with the ephod till he was in Keilah. His enquiry is, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? He enquires both concerning the duty (whether he might lawfully take Saul’s work out of his hand, and act without a commission from him) and concerning the event, whether he might safely venture against such a force as the Philistines had with such a handful of men at his feet, and such a dangerous enemy as Saul was at his back. It is our duty, and will be our case and comfort, whatever happens, to acknowledge God in all our ways and to seek direction from him.
III. God appointed him once and again to go against the Philistines, and promised him success: Go, and smite the Philistines, v. 2. His men opposed it, v. 3. No sooner did he begin to have soldiers of his own than he found it hard enough to manage them. They objected that they had enemies enough among their own countrymen, they needed not to make the Philistines their enemies. Their hearts failed them when they only apprehended themselves in danger from Saul’s band of pursuers, much more when they came to engage the Philistine-armies. To satisfy them, therefore, he enquired of the Lord again, and now received, not only a full commission, which would warrant him to fight though he had no orders from Saul (Arise, go down to Keilah), but also a full assurance of victory: I will deliver the Philistines into thy hand, v. 4. This was enough to animate the greatest coward he had in his regiment.
IV. He went accordingly against the Philistines, routed them, and rescued Keilah, (v. 5), and it should seem he made a sally into the country of the Philistines, for he carried off their cattle by way of reprisal for the wrong they did to the men of Keilah in robbing their threshing-floors. Here notice is taken (v. 6) that it was while David remained in Keilah, after he had cleared it of the Philistines, that Abiathar came to him with the ephod in his hand, that is, the high priest’s ephod, in which the urim and thummim were. It was a great comfort to David, in his banishment, that when he could not go to the house of God he had some of the choicest treasures of that house brought to him, the high priest and his breast-plate of judgment.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
First Samuel – Chapter 23
Ungrateful Keilah, vs. 1-12
David is now hiding with his men in the wildnesses of the tribe of Judah, according to the command of the Lord, through the prophet Gad (1Sa 22:5). During the time the Philistines made a foray into Judah, attacking the town of Keilah, which was about fifteen miles northwest of Hebron, next to the Philistine lowlands. They were robbing the people of their grain as it was threshed, and David hit upon the idea of attacking them. His men thought, however, it would be a foolish move, for they were afraid of Saul, and David was proposing assaulting the might Philistine army with their few hundred men.
When Abiathar fled form the slaughter of the priests he had brought with him the ephod by which the priests could inquire and find out the will of the Lord. Therefore David called for the ephod and asked the Lord if he should attack the Philistines and save Keilah, receiving an affirmative answer. At the protest of his men David made a second inquiry, also, and again the Lord said, “Arise and go, for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.” So they went and won a great victory over the Philistines, slaughtering many and taking the cattle which they had with them, probably as food for their army.
Why was David able to get answer from the Lord through the ephod in the hands of Abiathar, who like his father was of the family of the rejected Eli? It would appear that the Lord answered David, in spite of Abiathar, because David was chosen of Him, and David sought His will contrary to the way of Saul.
When news reached Saul that David had moved into the walled city of Keilah he concluded that the Lord had put David within his grasp, because he was inside a walled city. But David heard that Saul planned to trap him in Keilah and to take him. Again he called for the ephod and inquired of the Lord whether Saul would surely come to take him. The Lord answered David in the affirmative. David again asked the Lord whether the people of Keilah would deliver him into Saul’s hands. The Lord informed David that the men of Keilah would certainly deliver him and his men to Saul.
One cannot censure the Keilah populace too much, for they doubtless knew the temperament of the king. They knew he would slaughter entire towns (as witness the priest city of Nob, chapter 1Sa 22:17-19), and would have no scruples about destroying Keilah if they succoured David.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES1Sa. 22:1. Keilah. A city of Judah, mentioned in Jos. 15:44, and identified by Lieut. Van de Velde with a site containing ruins, and now called Kila, a few miles from Hebron. (See Smiths Biblical Dictionary.)
1Sa. 23:2. Inquired of the Lord. (See 1Sa. 22:6.) Save Keilah. These words are a promise of victory.
1Sa. 23:3. We be afraid, etc. As persecuted fugitives, we are always in danger from Saul, and now shall we march against the Philistine ranks? (Erdmann.)
1Sa. 23:6. This verse is a supplementary historical explanation relative to the possibility of the inquiry of the Lord in 1Sa. 22:2-3, which was not possible without the high-priestly cape or ephod, to which was attached the Urim and Thummim. (Erdmann.) The words are not to be understood as signifying that Abiathar did not come to David till he was in Keilah, but that, when he fled after David (1Sa. 22:20), he met with him as he was already preparing for the march to Keilah, and immediately proceeded with him thither. (Keil.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Sa. 23:1-6
DAVID DELIVERS KEILAH
I. The indulgence of enmity towards one makes men neglect their duty to the many. It is very dangerous for the passengers in a vessel if those in command are at enmity with each other, or if the captain is filled with envy of those who divide with him the responsibility of directing the ship. When such is the case, he is likely to be laying plans to injure the man whom he hates when he ought to be concerning himself about the safety of those committed to his care, and a storm, which ought to have found him well prepared, descends upon him unexpectedly, and places all the lives on board in jeopardy. His lawless hatred to one individual makes him forget what he owes to many. The warrior king of Israel at this time was so possessed by his enmity to David that he permitted one of his frontier towns to be threatened and the lives of its inhabitants to be endangered without making an effort on their behalf. How is it that his conduct on this occasion differs so widely from his prompt and brave action on behalf of Ramoth Gilead (chap. 11) in the beginning of his reign, and why was the appeal for help at this time made to David and not to him? Was it not because the demon of envy had stifled his sense of duty and every generous and patriotic emotion? So long as he could satisfy his feelings of revenge against David he cared not if half his kingdom became a prey to the Philistines. His personal enmity to one man left no room for any concern about the welfare of the nation committed to his charge. This thing repeats itself from age to age. Men charged with heavy responsibilities in relation to their fellow-creatures allow a personal enmity to engross the energies which ought to be employed on their behalf, and myriads suffer on account of a quarrel between two individual men; or, as in the case before us, because one only is filled with a deadly hatred towards a supposed rival. And this devil of envy is not active merely among men who make no pretensions to godliness, or even to those who are mere pretenders. Envy at the promotion of a better man, and a desire, unconsciously indulged it may be, to lessen or extinguish his influence, has often led a shepherd of the flock of God to leave the sheep open to the attacks of their foes while he has been engaged in some private and personal quarrel.
II. In critical periods the want of faith on the part of the many gives an occasion for the display of faith on the part of one. The fearfulness and distrust of Davids followers at the time bring into fuller relief the courage and faith of David himself, and it often happens in critical periods of human history that this is the case. When an eclipse of the sun is witnessed by men who are quite unacquainted with the laws of nature by which it is caused, it often fills them with distrust and fear, but such a phenomenon gives rise to no terror or doubt in the mind of one who is acquainted with natural laws. His superior knowledge keeps his faith in them unshaken during the crisis; he feels quite sure that the sun is still shining in all its glory, although it is hidden from human sight at the present moment. And the ignorant terror of the many make the enlightened confidence of the one the more striking. Something like this often takes place in the region of Gods providential workings. A dark dispensation overshadows a community, and men who are ignorant of the character of God and of the unchangeable nature of His moral laws are filled with fear, while those who have made themselves acquainted with the method and reasons of His dealings stay themselves upon His faithfulness, and are certain that His wisdom and love are as active in the cloudy day of adversity as when all looks bright and prosperous. And their faith shines all the more brightly because of the ignorance and unbelief all around them. So did the faith of David at this time in contrast with the distrust of his men. A common sense of wrong had drawn them to throw in their lot with him, but although they probably admired his courage they did not share it because they lacked the faith in God which he possessed. They looked only at the difficulties and dangers which surrounded them, and he looked through these difficulties and dangers to the God whom he knew and whom he therefore trusted.
III. The faith and obedience of one good man in times of trial make him the refuge and the deliverer of many. When we are saddened and perplexed by looking at the misery which may come to many by the unfaithfulness of one man, we must remember also how much good also comes to many by the faithfulness of one. Although no man can transgress the laws of God without involving others in the consequences of his wrong-doing, no man can obey the Divine commands without being a blessing to many. If the people of Keilah were brought into danger by the sin of one man they owed their deliverance to the faith and obedience of one man, for no Israelitish army would have gone up against the Philistines at this time if the son of Jesse had not rallied his forces to the attack. This dependence of the destinies of the many upon the character of one has its bright, therefore, as well as its dark side.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
1Sa. 23:2. Had David been governed by personal considerations, he would have suffered the Philistines to take their course. It was occupation enough to defend himself,to preserve his own life from the relentless malice that pursued him. Besides, the defence of the kingdom did not properly devolve on him, but on Saul, whom it might be policy to embarrass as much as possible in order to draw off his attention from the object of his bitter persecution. The more the country was left exposed to such attacks the more odious would Saul be rendered in the eyes of the people, and the more popular might David become. But he was a stranger to all such unworthy views. He saw his country invaded, and he thought no more of his own wrongs: he saw it distressed, and he determined if possible to relieve it, although he was thus strengthening the hands of his most virulent enemy.Lindsay.
1Sa. 23:3. Davids difficulties were not over, though his personal anxieties were at an end when Gods will was made known to him. He was not acting alonehe had four hundred men with him, most of them probably animated by a very different spirit from his. A leader of other men often finds his greatest difficulty not in deciding what should be done, but in prevailing upon them to do it. Especially is this the case if he be a spiritual man, and they carnal men; he bent on following the will of God, they the inclinations of their hearts. It is sad when such a division exists in families and we know of no course which the godly head of a house, opposed by an unwilling family, could take with more advantage than that now taken by David. Let all be made to understand that the will of God is the rule by which he is resolved to act. Let him solemnly appeal to them, whether they are prepared to set up another; let him use the best means for ascertaining Gods will, and then let him fearlessly go forward.Blaikie.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Sauls Pursuit of David to Keilah, 1Sa. 23:1-29.
Abiathar, the Priest, With David. 1Sa. 23:1-6
Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors.
2 Therefore David enquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah.
3 And Davids men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?
4 Then David enquired of the Lord yet again. And the Lord answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand.
5 So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
6 And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.
1.
Why did David save Keilah? 1Sa. 23:1
Keilah is a city in the Plains of Judah now identified with Khirbet Kila. The location is some nine miles northwest of Hebron. The city was on the Philistine border, but the inhabitants were evidently Israelites of the tribe of Judah. David himself was of that tribe; and although the people of the community later betrayed David, his deliverance of them would have endeared him to the upright men of the place. Such activity on the part of David demonstrates that he was still behaving himself wisely, even while fleeing for his life from the king. He had the best interests of the people at heart.
2.
How did David enquire of the Lord? 1Sa. 23:2
As Moses appointed Joshua to be his successor, the Lord told Moses that Joshua would stand before Eleazar who was to ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the Lord (Num. 27:21). It was at the word of the priest as given to him by the Lord that Joshua was to lead the people out to battle and to bring them back in again when it was over. Of Moses himself it was said that And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face (Deu. 34:10). Both Gad and Abiathar, the prophet and the priest, were with David. More than likely David used the Urim and the Thummim, Gods appointed means for revealing His will. The inspired prophet could also receive the Lords message and deliver it. In either way David moved only at the Lords directive. He did this regardless of the fear which gripped men. Naturally they were afraid to take the offensive against the Philistines by themselves since they were on the defensive against any attack Saul might make. Such activity seemed foolhardy to them. They were in enough trouble on their own without stirring up the opposition of the Philistines.
3.
Why did Abiathar bring an ephod with him? 1Sa. 23:6
The ephod was the distinctive garment of the high priests clothing. Such wearing apparel would identify Abiathar as the priest with Davids men. It would signify that he was an heir of the priests who were slain at Nob and would indicate orderly procedure on the part of David in appointing him as his priest. There is no indication that the ephod mentioned here was in any way a fetish such as was made of the spoils of war taken by Gideon after he defeated the Midianites. The idolatry practiced with regard to the ephod in Gideons day is soundly condemned (Jdg. 8:27), and if there had been anything wrong with Abiathars having an ephod, it would more than likely be mentioned.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Then they told David. . . .For this and like duties the prophet Gad (1Sa. 22:5) had summoned David to return with his armed band to Judah. There was a great work ready to his hand in his own country at that juncture. Saul was becoming more and more neglectful of his higher dutythat of protecting his people; as time went on and his malady increased, his whole thoughts were concentrated on Davids imaginary crimes, and the history of the latter part of his reign is little more than a recital of his sad, bewildered efforts to compass the young heros destruction. The task of protecting the people from the constant marauding expeditions of the Philistines, and probably of the neighbouring nations, then was entrusted to David. To point this out to the son of Jesse was evidently the first great mission of Gad the seer. Samuels mind was, no doubt, busied in this matter. It is more than probable that Gad was first dispatched to join David at the instigation of the aged, but still mentally vigorous, prophet.
Keilah.This town lay in the lowlands of Judah, not far from the Philistine frontier, some miles south of Adullam, being perched on a steep hill overlooking the valley of Elah, not far from the thickets of Hareth (Conder; Tent Life in Palestine).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
DAVID AT KEILAH, 1Sa 23:1-13.
1. Keilah The modern Kila, situated about four miles northwest of Hebron on a projecting cliff on the right bank of Wady el-Feranj. See on Jos 15:44. It was a fortified place defended by gates and bars. 1Sa 23:7.
Threshing floors See on Jdg 6:11, and Rth 3:2.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DAVID’S FLIGHT TO RAMAH, AND SAUL’S PURSUIT, 1Sa 19:18 to 1Sa 24:18.
David fled to Samuel Whither could he better go for help and counsel at a time like this? Surely, he thinks, Samuel will defend me against Saul.
He and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth Naioth is not to be regarded as a proper name. The word means habitations, dwelling places, and refers to the dwellings of the band of prophets over whom Samuel presided. The plural is used because of the number of cells or huts in this locality. The Targum renders the word house of instruction, and Ewald defines it as studium, or school. Here these disciples of Samuel dwelt, and disciplined themselves in holy exercises. How long David enjoyed this society of Samuel and these prophets before Saul ascertained whither he had fled we cannot determine, but probably not long.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
David Delivers Keilah From The Philistines ( 1Sa 23:1-5 ).
The last we heard David and his men were in the Forest of Hareth (whereabouts unknown). If they were still there when Abiathar sought them out it would appear that this was in the area around Keilah (1Sa 23:6). But, of course, they would always be on the move in order to avoid Saul, so it is not certain. It may be that they had now returned to the cave of Adullam. Keilah (Jos 15:44) was a city in the Shephelah, the low limestone hills bordering the coastal plain where the Philistines were settled, It was a city of Judah built on a steep hill overlooking the valley of Elah, and was named in the Amarna letters as a Canaanite strongpoint. The area around would be included under the name.
The importance of this passage is that it brings out that YHWH was still delivering Israel, and was doing it through the one on whom His Spirit had permanently come (1Sa 16:13). That David and his men had a good reputation comes out in that when a Philistine raiding party attacked Keilah in order to rob it of its harvest, a cry for help was sent to them from the people informing them of what was happening. It is clear that David’s exploits against the Philistines were still not forgotten.
Recognising what an opportunity this presented to him and his men he sought YHWH’s guidance through the ephod brought by Abiathar, and on receiving a positive reply put it to his men that they deliver Keilah. But his men were not happy with the idea of annoying the Philistines. Did they not have enough trouble keeping out of Saul’s way? Thus David consulted the ephod again. Again the reply was positive. This appears to have satisfied the men because they now followed David to Keilah where they slaughtered the fairly large Philistine raiding party, and took possession of their cattle, which would provide necessary provisions for some time to come. In this way they also saved Keilah from the Philistine depredations.
Two things stand out in this passage. The first is that David acted in obedience to YHWH. It was his constant desire to discover YHWH’s will and do it. Perhaps he remembered the mess that he had made of things when he had acted without consulting YHWH at Nob and at Gath. The second is the contrast between David’s act of saving Keilah and Saul’s act of destroying Nob. The saving compassion of David contrasts strongly with the vindictiveness of Saul.
Analysis.
And they told David, saying, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing-floors” (1Sa 23:1).
Therefore David enquired of YHWH, saying, “Shall I go and smite these Philistines?” And YHWH said to David, “Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah”(1Sa 23:2).
And 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?” (1Sa 23:3).
Then David enquired of YHWH yet again. And YHWH answered him, and said, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand” (1Sa 23:4).
And David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and slew them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah (1Sa 23:5).
Note that in ‘a’ the Philistines attacked Keilah seeking to rob their threshing floors (steal their harvest), while in the parallel David and his men defeated the Philistines and took their cattle as spoil, and in the process saved Keilah. In ‘b’ David enquired of YHWH and got a positive response, and in the parallel did the same. Central in ‘c’ is an indication of the precarious situation David and his men were in.
1Sa 23:1
‘ And they told David, saying, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing-floors.” ’
We do not know who ‘they’ were, but presumably some local inhabitants, who knew of the presence of David and his men in the area, sought them out with the hope that they would come to the assistance of the beleaguered city. It would appear that the Philistines had their eyes on Keilah’s harvests which had been gathered in and were in process of being threshed. Alternately ‘robbing the threshing-floors’ may simply signify that they were after their grain stores. The border cities of Judah would unquestionably constantly experience such raids. That was why Keilah was a fortified city. But Saul could not monitor the whole border, and by the time he had raised help the Philistines would have disappeared with their booty leaving a devastated city behind. The one hope of the city, therefore, was that they could persuade David and his men, who were on the spot close by, to help them.
This is a reminder to us of the constant to and fro of life in Israel when they had no strong leader, with danger constantly threatening from the Philistines (and in other parts from other raiders). Life was hard and they often felt threatened, and if cities prospered they could always be sure that envious eyes would be watching so as to take advantage of it. This was especially true near the borders. On the border, raids and death would be a regular occurrence, but this was seemingly a raid in some force.
1Sa 23:2
‘ Therefore David enquired of YHWH, saying, “Shall I go and smite these Philistines?” And YHWH said to David, “Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah.”’
As he now had the means to do so because Abiathar was present with the ephod (1Sa 23:6), which presumably contained the Urim and Thummim (Exo 28:6-35), David consulted YHWH about the position and was given the go ahead to smite the Philistines and save Keilah. The writer is reminding us that this indeed was why YHWH had put His Spirit within David, so that he could deliver His people while he would be allowed to do so. It was not by coincidence that David and his men were around at this time.
1Sa 23:3
‘ And 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?” ’
But David’s men were wary when he informed them of YHWH’s decision. They did not yet have David’s faith. And they were tired of being constantly harried by a vengeful Saul. Surely if they upset the Philistines they could find themselves being harried on two fronts? They preferred to melt into the background and live off what they could get, and avoid trouble. Besides, they felt that the trained Philistine soldiers were too strong for them. After all they themselves were only a motley band of outlaws.
1Sa 23:4
‘ Then David enquired of YHWH yet again. And YHWH answered him, and said, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.” ’
It is probable that we are now to see that David consulted the oracle publicly, so that all could be aware of the result. What the oracle would probably produce was ‘yes’ and ‘no’ decisions (or ‘no answer’) which are here interpreted for us. But its conclusions were quite clear in this case. YHWH would deliver the Philistines into the hands of David and his men. As a result David then managed to persuade his men that they could do this, and benefit by it. And he would point out that it would win them local support. But above all he was concerned to obey YHWH. Note, however, the emphasis on the fact that it was YHWH Who would give deliverance. It was ‘not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says YHWH of Hosts’ (Zec 4:6).
1Sa 23:5
‘ And David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and slew them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.’
David was no mean general, and he would unquestionably have spent time training his men (it would keep them busy if nothing else). But this was the first time that they had faced a professional army. He knew that their real calibre was about to be tested. Nevertheless, true to YHWH’s word they proved successful, fought the Philistine raiding band, slaughtered them and captured their cattle. And at the same time they saved Keilah. They would go back to their hide out feeling a lot better about themselves, and with much booty as well. And what was more, without upsetting the people of Judah (which was always David’s aim. He had his eye on the future).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Section 4 Subsection B. David Delivers Keilah From An Invasion By The Philistines, Is Visited by Jonathan, And Evades Capture By Saul ( 1Sa 23:1-28 )
a
b Saul Calls In The Levy Of The Tribes In Order To Trap David In Keilah, David Learns That Keilah Will Hand Him Over To Saul (1Sa 23:6-13).
c Jonathan Visits David In Order To Assure Him That He Need Not Be Afraid Of Saul’s Searches Because YHWH Is With Him (1Sa 23:14-18).
b The Ziphites Try To Hand David Over To Saul And Saul Calls On His Men To Pursue David (1Sa 23:19-24).
a David Is Delivered From Saul By An Invasion Of The Philistines (1Sa 23:25-29).
In this subsection we have emphasised before us the undependability of men and the total dependability of God. Whether it was in delivering a needy city, or escaping from a vengeful Saul, men could not be relied on, and it was God alone Who would prove reliable. This would even be confirmed by Saul’s son as he declared that David’s future was secure, not because of his men, but because God was with him. That is not, however, to deny that there were faithful men who were ready to stand by him to the end.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Sa 23:1-5 David Smites the Philistines – It was King Saul’s responsibility to defend the nation of Israel, but Saul lost his sense of purpose due to pride. He lost his anointing to defend his own nation. The Philistines were keeping Israel unstable by using terrorist tactics. They would find opportunities to wreak havoc in outlying cities. This is why they attacked Keilah, a city in the lowlands of Judah.
1Sa 23:4 Then David enquired of the LORD yet again. And the LORD answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand.
1Sa 23:4
1Sa 23:9 And David knew that Saul secretly practised mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod.
1Sa 23:9
1Sa 30:7-8, “And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.”
2Sa 6:14, “And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.”
1Sa 23:17 And he said unto him, Fear not: for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth.
1Sa 23:17
1Sa 23:28 Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Selahammahlekoth.
1Sa 23:28
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
David’s Rescue of Keilah
v. 1. Then they told David, v. 2. Therefore David enquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? v. 6. Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah. v. 3. And David’s men, v. 4. Then David inquired of the Lord yet again, v. 5. So David and his men. went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. v. 6. And it came to pass, v. 7. And it was told Saul, v. 8. And Saul called all the people together to war, v. 9. And David, v. 10. Then said David, v. 11. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Thy servant hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, I beseech Thee, tell Thy servant. v. 12. Then said David, v. 13. Then David and his men, which were about six hundred,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
ADVENTURES OF DAVID AT KEILAH AND IN THE WILDERNESS OF ZIPH (1Sa 23:1-29).
EXPOSITION
DAVID RESCUES KEILAH, BUT HAS TO ESCAPE FROM THE TREACHERY OF ITS INHABITANTS (1Sa 23:1-13).
1Sa 23:1
They told David, etc. The return of David into his own land was quickly followed by exploits which not only increased his power, but turned the eyes of all the people towards him as their protector. His first success was the deliverance of the city of Keilah from a body of Philistines who were plundering it of the produce of its harvest. This place lay a few miles south of the stronghold of Adullam, and itself occupied a defensible position, being perched on a steep hill overlooking the valley of Elah, not far from the thickets of Hareth (Condor, ‘Tent Work,’ 2:88). Being thus at no great distance from the Philistine border, a band of men started thence on a foray for the purpose of robbing the threshing floors. As no rain falls in Palestine in the harvest season (1Sa 12:17), the corn is threshed out in the open air by a heavy wooden sledge made of two boards, and curved up in front, with pieces of basalt inserted for teeth, drawn over it by horses, or it is trampled out by cattle. Conder (‘Tent Work,’ 2:259) describes the threshing floor as “a broad flat space on open ground, generally high. Sometimes the floor is on a flat rocky hill top, and occasionally it is in an open valley, down which there is a current of air; but it is always situated where most wind can be found, because at the threshing season high winds never occur, and the grain is safely stored before the autumn storms commence.” As the grain after winnowing is made into heaps until it can be carried home, there is always a period when the threshing floors have to be watched to guard them from depredation, and this was the time chosen by the Philistines for a foray in force.
1Sa 23:2-5
David enquired of Jehovah. This seems to show that Abiathar was already with David, as the prophet Gad had no ephod, and at this time, and for a considerable period subsequently, the usual way of consulting God was by the Urim and Thummim (see 1Sa 23:6). Though the answer was a command to go, yet David’s men hesitated; not that they had any doubt of the immediate result, but, regarding Saul as their most dangerous enemy, they were unwilling to embroil themselves also with the Philistines. They argue, We be afraid here in Judah: why then should we close the Philistine territory against us by attacking their armies! Hebrew, “ranks,” men disciplined and drawn up in array (see 1Sa 17:22). In order to remove these prudential doubts, David again consults God, and being a second time encouraged to undertake the rescue of Keilah, proceeds thither with his men. This attack, being unexpected, was entirely successful. The Philistines were driven back with great slaughter, and David brought away their cattle. The word signifies “small cattle,” such as sheep and goats. Besides robbing the threshing floors, the Philistines apparently had been driving off the flocks from the neighbouring pastures. Both Hareth, where David and his men had lain hid in the thickets (1Sa 22:5), and Keilah were in the tribe of Judah, in the southern portion of the Shephelah (Jos 15:44).
1Sa 23:6
When Abiathar fled to David to Koilah, he came down with an ephod in his hand. Literally, “an ephod came down in his hand, and so, word for word, the Syriac. The object of this verse is to explain how it was that David (in 1Sa 23:2 and 1Sa 23:4) was able to inquire of Jehovah. The words to KeilahHebrew, Kelah-wardsdo not mean that it was at Keilah that Abiathar joined David, but that he came in time to go thither with him. In 1Sa 22:20 it seems as if Abiathar must have joined David even at an earlier date, for he is represented as fleeing to him immediately after the massacre of the priests at Nob. Now, granting that David’s stay at Gath with Achish was very brief, he must have remained at Adullam a considerable time, inasmuch as men joined him there in large numbers (1Sa 22:2), which seems to show that his hiding place had become generally known. It was probably this concourse of men to him that was “discovered,” i.e. made known, to Saul, and, as being an act of formal revolt, so raised his ire. As being supposed to be in league with David, Saul put the priests to death, and Abiathar fled; but probably the news of this terrible act had already reached David, and, in anxiety about his father and mother, he had gone to find refuge for them in Moab. Thither Gad follows him, bringing prophetic approval of his conduct, but ordering him to return into the territory of his own tribe. If then David was on his way to Moab when Abiathar reached Adullam, he may have remained in hiding there till David’s return to the thickets of Hareth. But, possibly, even before Abiathar joined him the news may have arrived of the Philistine foray, and David’s mind was set Keilah-wards. But there were those who doubted of the prudence of this proceeding, and Abiathars arrival with the ephod enabled him to consult Jehovah’s will. By his presence also David had now the approval of the priesthood.
1Sa 23:7, 1Sa 23:8
It was well nigh a hopeless matter to hunt David as long as he remained on the borders of the desert of Judah, but once shut up in a town his capture was inevitable. When Saul, therefore, heard that David was at Keilah, he said, God hath delivered him into my hand. The Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate translate in the same way, probably as the nearest equivalent to the Hebrew, while the Septuagint has a different readingsold. The Hebrew phrase is a very strong one; literally, “God hath ignored him,” hath treated him as a stranger, and so let, him fall “into my hand.” Possibly Saul s metaphor was taken from the popular language, and no attempt should be made to get rid of unusual expressions, as if they were false readings. By entering into a town that hath gates and bars. Either the people of a walled town would give up David rather than expose themselves to the horrors of a siege (2Sa 20:21, 2Sa 20:22), or, if they stood by him, its capture would be a mere matter of time. David, it seems, would have run the risk, but happily was prevented.
1Sa 23:9-13
Saul secretly practised mischief. This phrase is correctly translated “devised evil” in Pro 3:29; Pro 14:22. There is no idea of secrecy in the Hebrew verb, which literally means “to work in metals,” “to forge.” Saul’s purpose was open enough, and when David heard of it he tells Abiathar to bring the ephod, and then offers earnest prayer to God for counsel and advice. In his prayer his two questions are put inversely to the logical order, but in accordance with their relative importance in David’s mind, and no ground exists for altering the text. But when the ephod was brought forward the questions were of course put in their logical sequence. To the first question, “Will Saul come down to besiege Keilah?” the answer was, “He will.” To the second, “Will the citizens of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?” the answer also was, “They will. Whereupon he and his followers, now increased to 600 men, withdrew, and went whithersoever they could go. Literally. “they went about whither they went about,” i.e. without any fixed plan, as chance or their necessities dictated. As David was once again at large, Saul had no longer any reason for besieging Keilah, especially as its citizens had preferred his side, as that of the more powerful, to gratitude for the safety of their lives and property.
HOMILETICS.
1Sa 23:1-5
Deference to the Divine will.
The facts are
1. David, being informed of the inroads of the Philistines against Keilah, seeks counsel of God.
2. Being directed to go against them, he finds his men in doubt of the safety of the enterprise.
3. Hence, to satisfy them he makes further inquiry of the Lord, and is again directed to go, with promise of victory. Acting on these instructions, he saves Keilah. The moral degeneracy of Saul seems to have been accompanied with some degree of inefficiency of government, by reason of which portions of the country were still exposed to incursions of the Philistines. The subsequent conduct of Keilah, bad enough as it was in itself (1Sa 23:12), would lead us to infer that the people who sought David’s interposition were patriotic men not resident in the city. Possibly David’s reputation for energy and courage had been sustained of late by the manner in which he had developed his few resources in defence against the wiles and force of his personal foe, and hence it would be natural for oppressed neighbours to seek his aid on an emergency. The narrative relates how he met the demand on his intervention, and with what result. It brings out a fine truth bearing on both public and private life.
I. THE HABIT OF DEFERENCE TO THE DIVINE WILL IS A NECESSARY AND VALUABLE ELEMENT IN LIFE. It is remarkable how, without choice of his own, David had been forced into a position of isolation and danger. There perhaps never was a life, except that of our Saviour, in which habitual submission to a supreme will was more conspicuous. The critical position in which he found himself when urged to make war on Philistine plunderers brought out into more public view a condition of mind habitual in private life. His unwillingness to take the step without being sure of the will of God was a revelation to those who sought his services of what was constant in his experience. The question was not, Can I gain wider reputation, or win Israel to my standard? Is it the will of God, was the first and last thought. David’s conception of life was that which becomes every Christian. Whether our lot be kingly or lowly, our calling public or private, it should be a primary thought with us that God has a will of his own as to what manner of persons we ought to be, and what line of conduct we should adopt in the most common affairs of our life; forevery action, and word, and spirit possesses in God’s sight a moral character derived from the motive in which it originates and the final result to which it is made subservient. Our great business is to form an estimate, by a study of God’s character and providence and of our own position and capabilities, of what he would regard as a pure and righteous course, and then strive, as demands are made on us, to translate that into our actual deeds and temper. There is abundant scope for this habitual deference to God’s will in the demands which come upon us from all quarters. By reason of the strong interaction of various tendencies within us: and the opposing claims of what seem to be benevolence and prudence, we may, like David, find ourselves in an ambiguous position, and it is at such junctures especially that the habitual deference will manifest its valuable presence. The difference between a really good man and one of formal godliness comes out in this, that the one always feels as though another and higher will was present and supreme over his own, while the other only thinks of that superior will on special occasions when painful events fill him with fear. This habitual deference is partly owing to the fact that a correct view is taken of life. David understood his vocation in the world. He had a part to perform in the great Messianic purpose. Although his vision of the future unfoldings of that purpose, varying in distinctness at different periods (Psa 2:1-12; cf. Psa 72:1-20), was not of details, yet he had faith enough in its reality and grandeur to induce the conviction that every step of his daily course was in some way associated with its realisation. And in like manner the humblest Christian is permitted to believe that he has a similar vocation in the world, as a member of Christ’s mystical body. Hence we, as members of Christ’s body, have no raison d’etre apart from habitual deference to the will of Christ. And as, by the varied experience of life, this deference deepens, so its effect on our general character is more conspicuous. It induces a sobriety of judgment, for haste and rashness are due to self-will; it creates a refined susceptibility of spirit by which moral perfections are quickened and the existence of evil is discerned from afar; and it gives zest and carefulness in use of means to ascertain, in cases of difficulty, what is the perfect will of God.
II. THE MANIFEST APPROVAL OF GOD IN ANY CASE OF DIFFICULTY OR PERIL IS AN ALL–SUFFICIENT ENCOURAGEMENT TO A SINCERE MAN. David’s position was still one of embarrassment and danger. He was potentially king, but could not avow it. He was loyal to Saul, though strongly tempted by his persecutions to rise in open rebellion. He was assured by. the anointing and by Samuel’s sanction and encouragement that a great future was awaiting him, and yet, like many since his time, he had to bear all the pains and sorrows of the outcast. The agony of feeling expressed in the Psalms can be understood only as we remember his call to a holy work and the consciousness of innocence. The recent experience at Nob caused him to feel how incidentally others might be compromised in his procedure, even when undertaking useful service. But all fear, all sorrow, every feeling of uneasiness as to consequences, disappeared when God recognised him by an answer to the official inquiry of Gad or Abiathar. The fact of the inquiry on his behalf is very important (Num 27:18-21; Jdg 20:26-28). That one or both of these after the slaughter of Nob sought counsel for David was a declaration in most emphatic form that he was the coming king. God thus by his servants openly sanctioned him, and hence his soul was encouraged to brave any danger, to bear any consequences, so long as God approved (Psa 56:11). It is the assured approval of God, obtained in diverse ways according to the nature of the case, that emboldens Christians in courses of extreme difficulty and peril. The apostles feared not Jewish or Roman power when they had, after the ascension of Christ, received the inward and outward testimony of the Holy Spirit of the Divine character of the cause they professed. The same spirit is created in others when called to go forth to heathen lands, or to wage war with fearful evils at home. Let the youth, the sire, the statesman, the parent, the merchant, and the pastor only hear the word “go,” at once the soul may take courage and assert its strength.
III. THE MEANS BY WHICH GOD AFFORDS GUIDANCE TO HIS PEOPLE VARY IN DIFFERENT AGES. David now is guided in his public capacity as the coming king by prophet or by priest using the ephod. As a private man he depended for the ordinary course of life on the more private and unexpressed guidance which God insures to all his faithful children. The means by which his public course was directed were unlike the more ancient and the more modern. From the beginning of human history we have to distinguish between the communications which God may have given to men for their personal comfort and use and that which was designed to reveal the fact of his purposes of mercy to the world and gradually unfold their scope, although in some instances, as in the case of Abraham (Gen 15:1), the personal and general might coincide. The guidance granted to the patriarchs for the unfolding of the redemptive purposes was chiefly in form of visible or audible manifestations, a method well suited to a primitive life without religious literature, precedents, fixed regulations, and official teachers, and needing greatly, in the midst of visible surroundings and material tendencies, to be impressed with the reality of the unseen power. To Israel in the desert the guidance and spiritual impressment was given by the visible pillar of cloud and of fire, and by the stupendous signs on Mount Sinai which accompanied the communications to Moses for their benefit. The Urim and Thummim of the high priest were chiefly employed during the years subsequent to Moses, thus largely dispensing with the irregular visible display. In the prophets Samuel, Gad, and others after them a more spiritual method came into use, God making known his will to the people by some spiritual manifestation to or elevation of the prophet’s spirit. In Christian times the personal prophetic medium reached its culmination in Christ and his apostles, who, out of the fulness of the Spirit that dwelt in them, gave forth such teaching and guidance in action as the Church required. Thus in divers manners God has spoken for the guidance of the Church. We have to consult the “living oracles” (2Ti 3:16) for our guidance as a Church of Christ in reference to the general principles and the manifold details involved in establishing “the kingdom” (Isa 8:20; Joh 5:20; Act 17:11). As individual Christians, besides acting in unison as a Church for the common objects of the kingdom of Christ, we may seek guidance daily by private use of the same means as those enjoyed privately by David.
IV. THE HIGHEST QUALITIES OF THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER may be associated with THE MORE ORDINARY AND PRACTICAL, and when so associated THEY GIVE VALUE AND COMPLETENESS to them. It is a too frequent belief in the world that a man absorbed in the pursuit of the highest religious vocation and distinguished by the loftiest spiritual aspirations, such as are revealed in the Psalms and in David’s life, becomes thereby one sided in development, and fails by neglect in the detailed and minor moralities of life. A saint is synonymous with a moody, unpractical man, too much occupied with spiritual realities to be careful of little things. David’s conduct in the affairs of Keilah is a refutation of this false conception. The narrative brings out his full orbed religion, and in this he may be considered as a fit representative of the well developed Christian.
1. The line of conduct pursued with reference to Keilah, taken in historic connection with his call to service, brings out a remarkable combination of high and ordinary qualities. With his consciousness of high mission was joined a patient endurance of bitter trials as a consequence of the very position to which Providence was calling him. Not a word of complaint and distrust escapes his lips during this weary hiding from his foe, although in his agony he was constrained to cry, “How long, O Lord!” Then there was that beautiful self reserve, lest by any impetuous act he should seem to forestall the ways of God and force on the final issueas seen in his unwillingness to annoy or embarrass Saul and press him to a conflict by an attack, without royal commission, on the Philistines. This following and not going before appears also in his using the official means of guidance only when Providence had placed them clearly in his way, and not by privately enticing Gad and Abiathar to join his company. But while intent on these high spiritual objects, there was a generous disinterestedness in relieving the troubles of others, even at a time when his own sorrows were multiplied, for he spared not himself when Keilah was oppressed. Nor did he feel for them alone, since the second inquiry of the Lord (verse 4) was evidently dictated by a tender consideration for men whose faith was unequal to his own, And, finally, all this also associated with a wonderful tenderness for his personal enemy, based on a recognition of his kingly office, and more so on pity for a character once hopeful, but now fast on the way to ruin. Never, perhaps, were the precepts of the New Testament with respect to personal enemies (Mat 5:38-44) more truly exemplified in combination with so utter a detestation of the sins that tended to frustrate the spiritual ends for which Israel existed in the world.
2. Taking, then, the conduct of David and the special qualities indicated therein as a basis, we may summarise the qualities which seem to enter into a well developed religious character,
(1) Recognition of a high vocation in life, associated with God’s merciful purposes toward mankind. No man is great whose energies do not in their results aim at something beyond himself; nor is that a high style of character which is governed by aspirations terminating with the material and temporal wants of mankind. As David was conscious of a vocation in life which linked his whole existence with the advancement of the highest spiritual interests of the world, and with the highest material as naturally included in the spiritual, so every truly religious man believes and rejoices to know that his business in life lies outside his fleeting earthly occupation and possessions, and in fact coincides with that for which Christ came into the world. What tone and power the Church would have in the world if all her members duly realised for what end Christians exist! A lofty ideal always gives power and elevation to actual life; and no higher ideal can be set before us than that which is the normal vocation of every one of Christ’s disciples.
(2) Submission to God’s ways and times. The realisation of the ideal before David was by a process which seemed to run counter to the dictates of human wisdom. The great scope of a religious ideal, while it expands the intellect and fills the imagination with the glowing colours of future good, also makes a present demand on the more sober and less brilliant qualities of the soul. The course of nature and the progress of spiritual forces are determined by primary principles of government and a combination of incidental and final issues which in their entirety are comprehensible alone to God, as, indeed, they received their coordination from him. A mind that forms a just estimate of itself, and regards the outworking of the powers of the kingdom of God as the visible index of an infinite secret, will bow in loving submission to all the methods and seasons appointed by God in bringing on the setting of his King on the holy hill of Zion.
(3) Confidence in God in spite of adverse events. The key to David’s life when fleeing from cave to cave, and through all the lowly submission to years of waiting, was, as so often expressed in the Psalms, trust in the Lord. The trusting power of our nature is large, but unfortunately has been injured in its development by the suspicions created in our intercourse with untruthful, selfish men. There is a danger of importing this impaired confidence from the secular to the spiritual sphere, and practically treating God as though he were one of us (Jer 15:18). There is a spiritual heroism in believing in God against hope (Rom 4:17-21; Heb 11:1-40.). The religious trust is not founded on knowledge of things, either as to their intrinsic nature or their correlation, but on the fact that God is over all and is true to his word. What some would call unreasoning fanaticism is the soul’s rational, loving homage to the wisdom that never errs, the goodness that ever blesses, and the power that works all things to its own ends. History justifies the faith of God’s people. “They are dead which sought the young child’s life” (Mat 2:20). “He shall live,” and “upon himself shall his crown flourish,” was predicted of the most despised and reviled (Psa 72:15; Psa 132:18; Isa 53:3); and, in a modified sense, it will hold true of all who endure and are faithful to the end (Rev 3:21).
(4) Kindliness towards the weak and the oppressed. The kindly feeling which prompted an effort to save Keilah, although not personally interested, and which sought support for the weak faith of doubting men by a second inquiry of the Lord (verses 2-4), is but an illustration of the humane spirit of true religion when properly developed. The virtues of submission and confidence, which find exercise toward God as their object, are supplemented by those which bear on the sorrows of men. The loftiest spiritual aspirationsof the severest purity, of the widest range of vision, and of intensest gaze on the realisation of a spiritual salvation for manwere combined in Christ with the tenderest and the most considerate regard for the weaknesses and woes of men, and did, directly or indirectly, during a brief sojourn on earth, more than anything else to alleviate temporal sufferings and finally break the bonds of social and political oppression (Luk 4:18).
3. The attainment of this well developed personal religion is within reach of all. The character of David was not supernatural, but the outgrowth of a mental and moral constitution, under the carefully cherished influences of such religious privileges as fell to his lot. The position of each one of us is in the main that of David: we have our natural temperament, which may determine the prominence of this over that virtue; we, as Christians, have received our solemn call by One greater than Samuel; we, in our private or public sphere, have, as the business of our life, the maintenance of a theocracy more blessed and wide in its influence than that for which David lived; the Divine truth for our instruction and admonition embraces more than he was wont to meditate on by day and night; and it is our privilege to wait on the Lord daily for both strength and wisdom. A nature less capactous than that of David’s, and called to a department of service for God less conspicuous to the public eye, may, by corresponding diligence in self-culture, attain to a symmetry of Christian excellence akin to that of David, and embracing all the qualities we have just sketched. Every man is a well developed Christian when such a nature as he happens to possess is brought, in all its tendencies and developments, entirely under the sway of the Christian spirit. A knowledge of our constitutional tendencies should be accompanied by special guarding of those forms of temperament which imperil symmetry of character. Occasional reviews of our vows and of the goodness and mercy of our God will prompt to a renewed and fuller consecration, which will not fail to develop patience in worse trials possibly than those of David, and confidence in God despite the most adverse of circumstances.
1Sa 23:6-12
Misinterpretation and miscalculation.
The facts are
1. The moral position of David at Keilah is strengthened by the presence of Abiathar with the ephod.
2. Saul, believing David to be shut up in the city, prepares a force to lay siege to Keilah.
3. David, aware of this, has recourse to the ephod, and asks through Abiathar whether Saul was really coming, and whether, in case he came, the men of Keilah would give him up to Saul.
4. He receives an affirmative reply to each inquiry. We have here two men moving in opposite lines and under totally diverse principles, yet each making reference to God in relation to his own conducta fair illustration of the intelligent and the ignorant use made of religious language and sentiments in human affairs. And while David in the deep earnestness of his soul seeks through the appointed means to know the will of God, and Saul in his infatuation concludes God to be on his side, the Eternal reveals his knowledge of the secret tendencies of men and his tender regard for the upright in heart. The actual conduct of Saul and the hypothetical conduct of the men of Keilah suggest the misinterpretation of conduct and the miscalculation consequent thereon. No doubt the action of an energetic man at the head of a band of followers might cause uneasiness to a monarch whose hold on the people was not very strong, and consequently the movement of David, viewed at a distance and considered irrespective of his known character, might suggest the thought of an attempt to ingratiate himself with the nation, and gain a position from which a blow might, with greater chance of success, be struck at the throne. Saul’s interpretation of the attack on the Philistines, and consequent entry into Keilah, was either that David was carrying on a freebooting expedition from mere love of plunder and exploit, or that, under cover of aiding the oppressed, he was entering upon active hostilities against himself. He could not conceive of such an act as compatible with friendliness to himself, and called forth by pure regard for the honour and freedom of Israel, patriotic hostility to the national foe, generous sympathy for the weak, and readiness to benefit sufferers, even though in so doing a man should pursue a course open to the possibility of being misunderstood. The Saul of this date was not the Saul who once (1Sa 11:1-8), with large-hearted patriotism and generous impulse, rescued the men of Jabesh from the power of Nahash the Ammonite. Hence his misinterpretation of David’s conduct. But thought and action are closely allied, and a false view of things is the basis of a miscalculation of the results of action when we proceed to carry out a purpose. So reversely did Saul now read all the lessons of the past few years in the life of David and himself as to comfort himself with the belief that God, in the order of his providence, was now shutting up David in a city in order that Saul might take and slay him. This phenomenon of a morally diseased nature is worthy the study of Christian men, and may well make the resolutely impenitent to stand aghast at their possible madness. Quem Deus vult perdere. Miserably did Saul miscalculate the course of events. God does not act for men because their wishes are made a substitute for knowledge. Generalising the truth involved in the case of Saul and David, we may notice
I. That MISINTERPRETATION AND MISCALCULATION ARE COMMON IN THE AFFAIRS OF MEN. It is a truism that men make mistakes; but making mistakes is not always identical with misinterpretation of human conduct, and the false reckoning proceeding therefrom. There is a too prevalent opinion among certain classes of men that they do understand their fellows, and, by the exercise of keen observation, can avoid the error of referring actions to wrong motives. On the other hand, there are ingenuous minds that imagine that no one will ever think of referring their conduct to an origin other than that which is so clear and pure to their own conscience. Such persons need to be instructed. The question may be raised whether, even in the most holy and blessed society of intelligent beings, there is ever a sufficient capacity in one mind to unravel and ascertain perfectly the secret springs of action in others. We each, some time or other, have to bear the frown and condemnation of our fellow creatures, because what we do is not associated, in their judgment, with the motives which are clear in our consciousness; and in so far as they have to calculate on the issue of the conduct misjudged, error is inevitable. The Bible affords notable instances of misinterpretation and miscalculation. We have seen how Hannah’s heart was misread by Eli (1Sa 1:14). The Apostle Paul was supposed by false brethren to display zeal for Christ for reasons utterly alien to his nature. The rejection of Christ by the Pharisees was the practical form of their interpretation of his words and deeds. Some of the bitterest trials of private life consist in generous, true hearts having to bear the consciousness that suspicion and distrust are meted out to them when, were all known, love and confidence would abound. In like manner the false reckonings of men are manifold. Every one calculates amiss when he has laid a false foundation in a partial or wrong reading of character. True prophecy, in relation to what will come of the conduct of those we criticise, can only proceed from a just estimate of their moral position. Saul was a false prophet when he predicted that God would now deliver David into his hand. No laws exist for bringing events to pass so that they shall harmonise with our estimate of men. “God hath forsaken him,” may be said of a David; but the false judgment of his desert will not destroy the loving kindness which endureth forever. On the basis of their interpretation of Christ’s character and conduct men esteemed him “smitten of God and afflicted,” and calculated that the silent tomb would put an end to his influence in the world. Those who contend with a holy, Christ loving people, whose spiritual principles are not appreciated, forget that they are embarked in a war against the mightiest forces that operate in the universe.
II. That MOST OF THE MISINTERPRETATIONS AND MISCALCULATIONS OF LIFE ARE TO BE REFERRED TO A DOUBLE ORIGIN. The source of these evils is partly intellectual and partly moral. Saul understood not David and miscalculated the issue of his entering Keilah because of his defective knowledge of human nature and of the order of Providence. In his case, however, apart from radical narrowness of mental range, his mind was injured, with respect to the normal exercise of his intellect, by the moral disturbance consequent on his dreadful alienation from God. He furnishes a typical instance of what may be regarded as the power of the moral state over the intellectual facultiesfearfully suggestive of what demented, shrivelled beings men may become should they in another life still be under the domination of a masterful aversion to God. The liability of every man to fall into the evils of misinterpretation should induce attention to the twofold cause in ourselves. The intellectual cause is often seen in a radically defective know]edge of human nature and its possibilities; in a structure in the mind of rigid lines of conduct, based on a narrow experience; and in a partial acquaintance with the actual facts connected with the case on which judgment is exercised and reckonings are made. The moral cause is often more subtle in operation, and therefore more difficult of detection; but frequently it appears in the morally wrong act of applying our limited power to questions not fairly within their reach, in the obstinate tendency to make the possibly imperfect governing principles of our own life the infallible tests by which all conduct is estimated, in the embittered spirit with which we contemplate the course of events, and in the active presence of envy, jealousy, suspicion, and selfishness. As a rule, moral causes have more influence in determining our judgments of conduct and character, and in calculating the issues of action, than intellectual. It is easy to believe what we wish, and to see evil where we cherish ill will. A very pure, loving soul will avoid errors where others of superior intellect will fail; for purity and love will hold the will back from judgment on uncertain data, and will also, by a sort of moral intuition, recognise goodness where less spiritual natures would not discriminate.
III. That THE EVILS INCIDENT TO MISINTERPRETATIONS AND MISCALCULATIONS ARE OF BOTH SHORT AND LONG DURATION. The evils are twofoldthose affecting the injured and those attaching to the wrong doer. David and Saul suffered by Saul’s errors. It is true some of the evils affect both for the same time, such as the mutual distrusts, the alienations, the loss of cooperation which inevitably attend the misreading of character and conduct; and it is impossible to estimate the grievous loss to the world arising from this source. But in instances such as that of David and our Saviour, and of all truly good, the injury on their side is soon removed; for Providence so orders events that what was hidden becomes revealed, and their righteousness shines forth as the light, and their judgment as the noon day (Psa 37:28-40). The day of judgment will, to many, be a day for lifting up their head with joy. On the other hand, in so far as we are governed by the tendencies which induce wrong judgments, so far and so long our whole nature is impaired and debased. Indeed, the sum total of our mental and moral wealth is lessened forever by the indulgence in wrong habits of this class; for we can never become the intellectually and morally perfect beings we should be had no energy, no faculty been perverted and abused. No amount of growth and development, after years of defective mental action, can overtake the position due to a healthful advance from the first. But especially will the evils be of long duration in the case of those who, by persistent, persecuting, false judgments, seek to harass and wound the children of God. The shame and the remorse of having bruised a tender heart or misjudged a holy character cannot easily die out. Saul’s anguish of spirit consequent on his sin against David survived David’s injury.
General lessons:1. If we would escape undesirable judgments we should avoid, as much as possible, ambiguous actions and the appearance of evil.
2. Nevertheless, in the cause of humanity we ought to be ready to act, even though men, not knowing our feelings, may misinterpret us.
3. We should hold our judgment in strong reserve when but partial knowledge is within reach, even though plausible reasons appear to urge a criticism.
4. Proper weight should always be allowed for the modifying influences of education, habit, and range of experience.
5. We may take consolation in the knowledge that God weighs conduct in reference to its intention, and that he rules events so as to vindicate the just.
6. If ever we have wronged another by harsh and wicked judgment, we are bound to make some amend by word or deed.
Undeveloped tendencies.
The second topic suggested by this section is evidently that involved in the predicted conduct of the men of Keilah under the circumstances specified in the inquiry of David. The service rendered by David to Keilah was such as gave him a just claim to their gratitude. No doubt zeal was abundant in expressing their obligation to him, and judging from appearances one might suppose that the men would be quite prepared to befriend him in case of need. In the early overflowings of gratitude for favours received men are wont to be strong and lavish in the expression of personal attachment and readiness to return kindness for kindness; and most certainly the men of Keilah, had they then been questioned as to the possibility of their ever casting aside one who had so generously befriended them in a time of sore distress, would each have felt inclined to say, “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?” But there was more in their complex human nature than they themselves imagined, and the sentiments ruling their will just then and creating agreeable words and kind intentions might, under new conditions, subside and give scope for the play of a different set of tendencies, kept by the present auspicious events in abeyance. David appears to have surmised the existence within their hearts of weaknesses which would not bear the strain of the tests that must be created by his sojourn in their city, and hence, not to be misled in so important a matter, he calls for the priest and makes special inquiry as to whether, in case Saul should come against the city, these men, now so grateful and devoted, would deliver him up. The answer which David received from the Searcher of hearts was to the effect that, should they be brought to the test, they would develop tendencies which gave no sign of present existence, and which if charged on them would probably be emphatically repudiated. Thus do we see how there may dwell in men, unconsciously to themselves, latent tendencies which, though repressed and rendered by present surroundings inoperative, are so real and patent as, under conditions yet to be created, to become the determinant powers in regulating conduct.
I. THE EXISTENCE OF UNDEVELOPED TENDENCIES IS A GENERAL FACT IN HUMAN LIFE. It is a truth that as we find ourselves in daily life we each possess a complex nature in which an inextricable interweaving of thought and feeling is the prominent feature. Every idea and feeling that has become an item stored in memory becomes a power in the subsequent course of our inner experience, even though not distinctly traceable. There are certain fundamental dispositions by which the great lines of action are decided, and minor feelings or sentiments which are tributary to them as servants and prompters. But experience proves that all contained within our nature cannot operate at once, and which of the inner forms of activity may be brought into exercise at any given moment depends on the influences brought to bear and the laws of association thereby set in operation. The tendency to shrink from pain and conflict found no occasion to indicate its presence when the entry of a victorious David into Keilah aroused sentiments of joy and gratitude. It is possible for a tendency to be apparently annihilated by the constant demand on a feeling or sentiment antagonistic with its nature. Hence men may often carry within them possibilities of action while ignorant of their reality, and they may: therefore, be induced to make professions and undertake obligations without reckoning on what may be aroused within when circumstances require the fulfilment of the obligations. Theories of conduct are held which may be belied by the hidden man of the heart when his unhappy hour for development comes. Are we not all now and then startled by the uprising from the unfathomed deeps of our nature of a hideous form which lets us see just enough of its unholy self to create distrust and fear that other powers of evil are there waiting to appear in actual life? The precautions employed in educating youth and the care bestowed on enforcing public sentiment proceed on the belief that the genus of ruin in young and old only await nourishment in order to gain a destructive ascendancy. Nor is the fact confined to what is evil. There are latent tendencies to goodto truthfulness, gentleness, generosity, chivalrous consideration, kindliness, and kindred virtueswhich by reason of circumstances do not always find expression. There is a tender place in the hardest heart, though not often touched. Have we not seen a wordy an allusion, draw out feelings not supposed to have existence? And in many a Christian there is much more germinal goodness than is developed in outer life. Christ shocked the complacent Pharisees by assuring them of the latent wickedness of their hearts, and the Apostle Paul urged Timothy to “stir up the gift” bestowed on him (2Ti 1:6).
II. THE RECOGNITION OF THE EXISTENCE OF LATENT TENDENCIES IS OF PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE IN ALL DEPARTMENTS OF LIFE. Our course through life is not regulated simply by what is known. A recognition of the unknown or at least undeveloped forces of our own nature ought to exercise considerable influence in the conduct we daily pursue.
1. In our association with men. David clearly recognised the fact of certain undeveloped tendencies in the men of Keilah, and he discreetly dealt with that unknown factor by endeavouring to find out whether it would come into ascendancy. It should be a maxim with us that there is far more in the men we have to do with than appears in overt act and uttered sentiment, and this, without degenerating into a painful suspicion and cruel distrust, will enable us often to escape being placed within their power; and also, if our intention is to draw out their better qualities, will stimulate to that end.
2. In our professed allegiance to Christ. It should be our rule to watch and govern ourselves in his name on the supposition that there lie within us on the one hand secret tendencies which, under favourable conditions of temptation, may, at least, embitter our life by a fearful struggle for the mastery, and possibly, in consequence of lack of resolution and forethought, for the time mar our character; and on the other hand tendencies germinal repressed, and scarcely conscious, which, if we bring to bear on our heart the warm light of his truth, will expand and assume in our outward life permanent forms of usefulness and beauty.
3. In our work for Christ. Both the kind and character of Christian work are influenced by our recognition of the less manifest tendencies of human nature. It is noticeable how constantly Christ spake to the hidden thoughts and feelings of men rather than to the questions they raised and the attitude they professed to assume. A preacher may often effect most by directing his effort toward some unuttered and even deliberately suppressed sentiment of his hearers. In so far as our persistence in Christian work is concerned we have to consider not merely the value of the impulses and principles that make us earnest during the day of prosperity, but what weaknesses are inherent in us that may develop themselves in unwelcome proportions when trials and adversities threaten. The men of Keilab could sympathise with and swear by the “anointed” when no thought of Nob was present. We may count on this undeveloped factor as One of our best allies in Christian work. Beneath all the vices and superstitions of heathenism and all the shams and scepticism of modern civilisation there lies the hidden, slumbering sense of God and immortality.
III. IT IS GOD‘S PERFECT KNOWLEDGE OF ALL THE UNDEVELOPED TENDENCIES OF LIFE THAT RENDERS HIS GOVERNMENT SO STRONG AND HIS PROVISION FOR MAN‘S REDEMPTION SO WISE. This is included in the broad truth that there is nothing hidden from his sight. According to Psa 139:1-24, every incipient forcechemical and mechanical, moral and spiritualin every point of space, through all the ages, has been and still is as clear to the eye of the Eternal, and as traceable in all its endless and intricate developments, as is the mighty sun that sheds its light on our earth. It is this knowledge of the undeveloped which lies at the foundation of prophecy, and renders it possible that, notwithstanding the developments resulting from adverse human wills, the great end for which Christ lived and died shall at last be attained. The warnings and admonitions, “here a little and there a little,” for the guidance of our conduct; the form and variety of the promises; the ordinances of religion; the special features of the redemptive work effected by Christall these are adapted to the possibilities, and not merely to the present actualities, of human life. “He knoweth our frame.” Hence the reasonableness of submitting our reason to his revelations.
IV. IT IS OUR WISDOM, IN ALL TIMES OF DOUBT, TO HAVE RECOURSE TO THE MEANS OF ASCERTAINING GOD‘S KNOWLEDGE OF THINGS. No doubt David speculated on the probable course of the men of Keilah should they ever be brought to decide between grateful attachment to him and the frown of Saul, and his general acquaintance with human nature may have inclined him to believe in their treachery when under the influence of fear. But as it was a question of his personal safety, and involved in that a question also of ultimately realising the great purposes of a Messianic kingdom, he wisely sought a solution of all doubts by a recourse to the available means of putting himself in possession of God’s knowledge with reference to this particular matter. The knowledge which God has of the secret powers of the universe does in effect become ours when in any instance he condescends to make us acquainted with the result in which they will issue. A really wise man in seasons of uncertainty, when important interests are at stake, whether temporal or spiritual, will not rest with speculations on what may be; but will, like David, inquire of the Lord, so as to regulate his present action according to God’s knowledge of what is inevitable. The means of ascertaining God’s knowledge may vary with the case in hand; it may be by laying the candid mind open to direct Divine illumination, or by devoting special attention to the monitions of Providence, or by consulting the “lively oracles” which are to us the voice of God on great moral and religious matters. In one respect we are all in a position analogous to that of David; for there are intricate and hidden powers at work within and without which, when fully developed by the new circumstances that may arise, may have the effect of delivering us bound to a condemnation far more terrible than any Saul could pass on a captive David. Now it is a serious question to each whether this one enemy will ever gain power over us, and by what means its dominion can be escaped. In a case of such importance we cannot afford to trust to speculation and humanly grounded hope. We are permitted to inquire of God, who in his word and in the redemption provided in Christ has put us in possession of his knowledge of the undeveloped tendencies of sin in human nature, by assuring us that under certain conditionsour following our own independent coursewe shall come into condemnation on the day of judgment, and that under other conditionsour self-surrender to Christ for pardon and renewalwe shall be not only free from that woe, but shall rise to sit on thrones of honour and power (2Ti 2:10-12).
Practical lessons:
1. Inasmuch as the great issues of life are determined by the mastery of one set of principles over another, it is very important to seek the expulsion or entire suppression of latent evil tendencies by the careful nurture of tendencies of opposite character, for the strength of principles is in proportion to their exercise.
2. In so far as tendencies to evil lie within us, we should avoid unnecessary exposure to influences that may draw them into activity; and, reversely, we should seek those conditions of life that will aid the development of the good.
3. Caution should be exercised lest we be misled in our estimate of what we can do in resisting evil inclinations by basing our calculation on circumstances hitherto helpful; for the men of Keilah, in the flush of David’s achievement, and not yet threatened by Saul, were like Peter, who could fearlessly avow fidelity to Christ while he was present to inspire and cheer.
4. The fact that in the emergencies of their life God gave specific replies to the inquiry of his chosen servants, because they were instruments of working out the great Messianic purpose, is encouragement to believe that he will give heed to every one whose life is devoted to the same issue, and who is equally sincere in prayer.
HOMILIES BY B. DALE
1Sa 23:1-6. (HARETH, KEILAH.)
Public spirit.
“So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah” (1Sa 23:5). Another step in advance was now made by David. Whilst Saul (in addition to alienating the prophets, and well nigh exterminating the priests) failed to afford adequate protection to his subjects, David was called to defend them against the incursions of the Philistines. This was doubtless the chief purpose for which he was recalled from Moab to Judah. And he fulfilled it, in obedience to the direction of God, which he sought and received through Abiathar, who had come down to him “with an ephod in his hand.” “For his conscience and his assurance of faith, as well as for the certainty and success of the whole undertaking, he needed the Divine authorisation; if he had not the sanction of the theocratic king, he must have that of God himself, since the question was of a matter important for the people of God and for the affairs of God’s kingdom in Israelwar against Israel’s hereditary foe” (Erdmann). His public spirit was
I. INDICATIVE OF A NOBLE DISPOSITION. Some men are unduly concerned about their own convenience, safety, interest, and refuse to look beyond them. Others render public services from selfish motives. But the truly public spirited man, like David, possesses
1. An intense desire for the welfare of the people, to whom by Divine providence he is united by special ties, not contrary to, but closer and more immediately affecting him than those which unite him to all mankind.
2. Genuine sympathy with the distresses of the weak, the injured, and the imperilled (1Sa 23:1). Their condition fills his heart with generous impulses, and makes him forget his own troubles.
3. Supreme concern for “God’s kingdom and righteousness,” which inspires him with zeal against evil doers, and (along with his unselfish regard for his people) makes him willing to undergo labour, conflict, sacrifice, suffering, and death. “Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people,” etc. (2Sa 10:12).
II. DIRECTED BY THE DIVINE WORD (1Sa 23:2, 1Sa 23:4) in
1. General principles, such as are contained in the commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Le 1Sa 19:18), and others of a similar nature (Gal 6:10; Php 2:4). In order that our love to the whole human race (included in the commandment in its widest sense) may be real and effectual, it must begin by the exercise of love toward those who are nearest to us and have the first claim upon us (Psa 122:6-9; Psa 137:5, Psa 137:6; Luk 13:34; Luk 24:47; Rom 9:3).
2. Particular precepts pertaining to the varied relationships, capabilities, and needs of men, as rulers, subjects, etc.
3. Joined with numerous promises and encouragements to the performance of duty. If public spirit in the form of patriotism is not expressly enjoined in the New Testament, it is not without reason. “It was worthy of the wisdom of our great Legislator to decline the express inculcation of a principle so liable to degenerate into excess, and to content himself with prescribing the virtues which are sure to develop it, as far as is consistent with the dictates of universal benevolence” (R. Hall).
III. OPPOSED BY PRUDENTIAL FEARS. “David’s men said unto him, Behold, we are afraid here in Judah,” etc. (1Sa 23:3). They were not of the same mind as himself, had not a proper sense of their obligation, were unduly concerned about their own safety, and full of doubt and fear. But he was not disheartened nor deterred. And on a further revelation of the Divine will they were (as others often are)
1. Persuaded that their opposition was wrong.
2. Convinced that their fears were groundless.
3. Induced to accompany their leader in a brave and generous enterprise (1Sa 23:5). One man imbued with strong faith and public spirit thus overcomes the opposition of many, and converts them into zealous helpers.
IV. PRODUCTIVE OF IMPORTANT CONSEQUENCES. The hand of God was with them, and
1. Injustice was punished, the public enemy defeated, and the prey taken from the mighty.
2. Those who were in the utmost peril were saved.
3. All the people were taught where to look for their deliverer. In seeking the good of others David found his own honour, and received a Divine testimony to his royal destination.D.
HOMILIES BY D. FRASER
1Sa 23:1-12. (HARETH, KEILAH.)
Answers to prayer.
Inquiry of the Lord by Urim and Thummim really meant prayer in which Divine direction was sought in a particular manner (see 1Sa 14:19, 1Sa 14:36). It was made by David soon after the arrival of Abiathar, on three several occasions (1Sa 23:2, 1Sa 23:4, 1Sa 23:10),on the last of them by two separate questions,and in each case a definite answer was received. “God shows great care for David, instructing him now by prophets (1Sa 22:5), and now by Urim and Thummim” (Grotius). “That which in the olden Jewish times was the prerogative of a few becomes in Christian days the privilege of the many. Christ makes all his faithful followers ‘kings and priests unto God.’ And much of the sacred symbolism that gathered around the ancient priesthood now gathers in another form around the believer in Christ. Mere symbols have given place to true spiritual power. The Spirit of God which once underlay the symbols, and spake through them to the devout mind, now communicates directly with the heart, and needs no material intervention” (‘Bible Educ.,’ 4:38). Those who seek guidance of God in a right spirit never fail to obtain it, especially in
I. PERPLEXITY concerning the knowledge of duty. Asking, “Shall I go?” (1Sa 23:9.) they receive, perchance, the definite answer, “Go;” not, indeed, by an audible voice, but by means of
1. The elevating, calming, and enlightening of their minds through communion with God, and more particularly by the purifying of their moral nature from carnal and selfish affections by his indwelling Spirit, which enables them to see “what the will of the Lord is.” “Our notions resemble the index and hand of the dial; our feelings are the hidden springs which impel the machine; with this difference, that notions and feelings react on each other reciprocally” (Coleridge). “The understanding resembles not a dry light, but admits a tincture of the will and the passions, which generate their own system of truth accordingly” (Bacon). And when the heart (which is the soul’s eye) is pure we see God (Pro 28:5; Mat 5:8; Joh 7:17).
2. A clear understanding of the meaning of the written word, and of its application to the circumstances in which they are placed. As by that word thoughts, impressions, and purposes are tried, in order that it may be proved whether they are of God, so by the same word they are formed and directed (Isa 8:20; Joh 16:13).
3. A correct judgment of what is right and most expedient, accompanied by an inward assurance of the Divine approbation. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,” etc. (Jas 1:5; Psa 25:9).
II. DIFFICULTY arising from hindrances to the performance of duty. “David inquired of the Lord yet again” (1Sa 23:4). The obstacles placed in the way of duty, especially by friends, ought to lead to renewed consideration and prayer, and these are often followed by
1. Strong confirmation of the conviction previously entertained. “Arise, go down to Keilah.”
2. Increased confidence of success. “I will give the Philistines into thine hand.”
3. Entire removal of the difficulty. “David and his men went.” It appears to have been chiefly for their satisfaction that the second inquiry was made. Whilst we should endeavour to persuade men to adopt a right course, we ought above all things to look to God to dispose them to walk therein.
III. DANGER, which sometimes occurs on the fulfilment of duty (1Sa 23:7-12). “In the deed of deliverance itself lies the seed of new suffering.” Saul misinterprets events (1Sa 23:7), like other men blinded by sin and “using the name of God when God is farthest off from them,” confidently calculates on seizing David, levies war, and openly devotes himself to the execution of his wicked purpose. But David is warned; he has also, probably, reason to suspect the fidelity of the citizens of Keilah, and again inquires of the Lord. He does so with much fervour, calling him the “Lord God of Israel,” and humbly acknowledging himself to be his servant; and the answers he obtains afford him
1. Foresight of the perilous events of the future. “He will come down.”
2. Insight into the hidden purposes of men. “They will deliver thee up.” We may often ascertain more of the secret thoughts of men by communion with God than by consultation with men themselves.
3. Guidance for the frustration of ungrateful and evil intentions, and escape from every danger. “David and his men, etc.” (1Sa 23:13). How perfect is the knowledge which God possesses of all things! How sure is the guidance which he affords to those who seek him! How safe are they who make him their Rock and their Fortress! In the midst of all his troubles David can sing of “his marvellous loving kindness in a fenced city;” as he does in Psa 31:1-24.: “In thee, O Jehovah, have I found refuge.”
“See Judah’s promised king bereft of all;
Driven out an exile from the face of Saul.
To distant caves the lonely wanderer flies,
To seek that peace a tyrant’s frown denies.
His soul exults; hope animates his lays;
The sense of mercy kindles into praise;
And wilds familiar with the lion’s roar
Ring with ecstatic sounds unheard before”
(Cowper).D.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
1Sa 23:1. Then they told David Or, Now they had told.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
V. 1. Davids expedition against the Philistines for the rescue of Keilah. 2. His abode in the wilderness of Ziph, and the treachery of the Ziphites against him. 3. His deliverance from Saul in the wilderness of Moon
Chap. 23. [Eng. A. V. 1Sa 23:1-28]
1Then [And] they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, 2and they rob the threshing-floors. Therefore [And] David enquired of the Lord [Jehovah], saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord 3[Jehovah] said unto David, Go and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah. And Davids men said unto him, Behold, we be [are] afraid here in Judah; how much more, then, if we come1 [go] to Keilah against the armies [ranks]2 of the Philistines? 4Then [And] David enquired of the Lord [Jehovah] yet again. And the Lord [Jehovah] answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will deliver 5[give] the Philistines into thine hand. So [And] David, and [with]3 his men, went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter; so [and] David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. 6And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand [an ephod came down in his hand].4
7And it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered5 him into mine hand, for he is shut in by6 entering into a town [city] that 8hath gates and bars. And Saul called all the people together [summoned all the people] to war, to go down7 to Keilah to besiege David and his men. And David 9knew that Saul secretly [om. secretly] practised8 mischief against him, and he said 10to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod. Then said David [And David said], O Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that9 Saul seeketh to come to Keilah to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men [citizens] 11of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And 12the Lord [Jehovah] said, He will come down. Then said David [And David said], Will the men [citizens] of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord [Jehovah] said, They will deliver thee up.
13Then [And] David and his men, which were about six10 hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul 14that David was escaped from Keilah; and he forbare to go forth. And David abode in the wilderness in [ins. the] strongholds, and remained [abode] in a [the] mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his hand.
15And David saw11 that Saul was come out to seek his life. And David was in 16the wilderness of Ziph in a [the] wood. And Jonathan, Sauls son arose, and went 17to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God, And he [om. he] said to him, Fear not, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee, and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father 18knoweth [and that knoweth Saul my father also]. And they two made a covenant before the Lord [Jehovah]. And David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.12
19Then came up the Ziphites13 to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in [ins. the] strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah,14 which 20is on the south of Jeshimon [the desert]? Now, therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down, and our part shall be to deliver 21him into the kings hand. And Saul said, Blessed be ye of the Lord [Jehovah], 22for ye have compassion on me. Go, I pray you, prepare yet [be yet heedful],15 and know and see his place where his haunt [foot] is, and [om. and] who hath seen16 23him there; for it is told me that he dealeth very subtilly. See therefore, [And see], and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hideth himself, and come ye again to me with the certainty, and I will go with you; and it shall come to pass, if he be in the land, that I will search him out throughout [among] all the thousands 24of Judah. And they arose and went to Ziph before Saul; but [and] David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon 25[the desert]. Saul also [And Saul] and his men went to seek him.17 And they told [it was told] David, wherefore [and] he came down into a [to the] rock [cliff] 26and abode in the wilderness of Maon. And Saul18 went on the side of the mountain; and David made haste to get away for fear of Saul, for [and] Saul and his 27men compassed David and his men round about to take them, But [And] there came a messenger unto Saul, saying, Haste thee and come, for the Philistines have 28invaded the land. Wherefore [And] Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against [to meet] the Philistines. Therefore they called that place Sela hammahlekoth.19
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Sa 23:1-14. Davids march against the Philistines to rescue Keilah.
1Sa 23:1. Davids recall to Judah by Gad, and the distress of a part of Judah in consequence of a Philistine inroad stood probably in pragmatical connection. In this, his peoples time of need, David the fugitive was to do them a service by a successful feat of arms against the hereditary enemy; and this was to be of service to him by gaining for him higher consideration as Gods chosen one for the throne and the helper of his people. The Philistines were warring against Keilah, a fortified city (1Sa 23:7) in the lowland of Judah (Jos 15:44), according to the Onomasticon eight miles from Eleutheropolis towards Hebron, with an evil-disposed population, who acted ungratefully and treacherously toward David (verse 12), though he had saved them from imminent danger. Inhabitants of this city took part (Neh 3:17-18) in the building of the wall of Jerusalem. According to Kieperts map (from the Onom. , Ceila, or ), it lay somewhat south-west of Tarkumieh, and is, according to Tobler (3 Wand. 151), the present Kila, near the Philistine border.20The Philistine inroad was also a predatory incursion, in which they had an eye to the grain which was threshed and stored in the threshing-floors. 1Sa 23:2. The news of the Philistines incursion determined David to attack them. It is probable, as we have already intimated, that he was brought to Judah by Gad for this purpose. But here, in Davids inquiry of the Lord, the agent is not the prophet Gad (Ew.), of whom it is not said, that he remained with David after 1Sa 22:20, but the high-priest Abiathar21 by Urim and Thummim, the expression to inquire of Jehovah being never used when the divine will was sought through a prophet, but undoubtedly of the high-priests inquiry by the sacred lot (as in 1Sa 22:10; 1Sa 22:13; 1Sa 22:15).By this inquiry David learns Gods will; to attack the Philistines and rescue Keilah is now a divine command with the promise of victory in the order: Rescue Keilah.
1Sa 23:3. Against this Davids men protest from the point of view of their present situation, which on merely human grounds was certainly not of a nature to inspire them with courage.We are afraid here in Judah, namely, as persecuted fugitives, who have abandoned a comparatively safe abode for the present more dangerous one, and are now further to rush into this danger by open war against the Philistines; we are always in danger from Saul, and now shall we march against the Philistine ranks at Keilah? Being not safe in Judah,22 ought we forsooth to go to Keilah against the Philistines? ( , comp. Hab 2:5; 1Sa 14:30; 1Sa 21:6; Ew., 354 c [= yea, is it that? or: how much more when?Tr.]).
1Sa 23:4. David holds to his resolution against these objections; to confirm it and to encourage his men he again inquires of the Lord and receives the same affirmative answer with the assurance that the Lord has given his enemies into his hand.Though treated by the king as an outlaw, he yet maintains true love to his people, which impels him to help them in their need, and to show that, in spite of his undeserved sufferings, he will not sin against them by refusing to perform a deed of deliverance which is well-pleasing to God.The go down indicates that David was still in the mountains of Judah whence he must descend in order to reach Keilah.
1Sa 23:5. In accordance with the divine declaration the attack on the Philistines was successful; David inflicted a severe defeat on them, and gained large booty, driving off their flocks. Thus he rescued the people of Keilah.
1Sa 23:6 is a supplementary historical explanation relative to the possibility of the inquiry of the Lord in 1Sa 23:2-3, which was not possible without the high-priestly cape or ephod to which was attached the Urim and Thummim. The main point is that, when Abiathar fled from Saul to David, he brought with him the high-priestly dress from Nob. But it was before this time that Abiathar came to David; he came as fugitive (1Sa 22:20) before David went to Keilah, for before this David inquired of the Lord through the high-priestly oracle. Accordingly, the remark: when Abiathar fled to David to Keilah is an indefinite statement, in which Keilah is by anticipation put as the first goal of his flight. The Sept. correctly explains: When Abiathar, the son of Ahitub, fled to David, the ephod was in his hand, and he had gone down with David to Keilah, the ephod in his hand. [Dr. Erdmann here gives not the reading of the Sept., but the Hebrew text as amended by Thenius after the Sept.; the Greek text, however does imply that Abiathar had come to Keilah with David, having fled to him before. Thenius amended Heb. text would indicate the back reference of this statement in 1Sa 23:6; but the present Heb. text naturally means that it was at Keilah that Abiathar first came to David, and so it is understood by Ewald, Stanley and the Bible Commentary. In 1Sa 22:20-23 it is not said where or when the priest reached David, and the statement may be an anticipatory conclusion of the narrative of the massacre, the intermediate fact 1Sa 23:1-5 being then taken up with its consequent procedures. Ewald also remarks that the account of the inquiry in 1Sa 23:2-3 is differently worded from that in 1Sa 23:9-12; the former may have been by the prophet Gad, against which, however, as Erdmann remarks, is the use of the phrase inquire of the Lord, which regularly refers to the sacred oracle.On the whole, if we retain the Heb. text of 1Sa 23:6, we must hold that Abiathar joined David after the rescue of Keilah; but a slight change in the text23 (which seems to be corrupt) will permit us to adopt the view of Thenius, Keil, Philippson, and Erdmann, which is in other respects more satisfactory. This latter is also the view of Wordsworth, while Bp. Patrick adopts the other (referring to the employment of Urim and Thummim by Saul 1Sa 28:6, on which see Erdmann), but neither of these writers mentions the difficulties of the question.Tr.].
1Sa 23:7. On hearing of Davids march to Keilah, Saul imagines that God has given him into his hands. He thinks that he will act as an instrument of the Lord against David. His reason therefor is indeed external and superficial enough: for he is there shut in in a city with gates and bars. ( in pregnant sense = look at, ignore, Deu 32:27, despise, reject, Jer 19:4); into my hands [Heb. hand], that is, he hath given him, by abandoning and rejecting him. By blinding and self-deception Saul has fallen into the dreadful illusion that it is David, instead of himself, that is rejected by God.The difficulty of the pregnant expression [God has rejected him into my hands] no doubt occasioned the change in the Sept. to sold.For he is shut in in entering.24 The fact that David has entered or been drawn into this city with gates and bars, Saul thinks equivalent to his being shut in.
1Sa 23:8. And Saul caused the whole people to hear, summoned them to war (comp. 1Sa 15:4). Such summons to war was a royal right. The reason assigned to the people for the summons was to drive out the Philistines. Sauls real purpose, which he could the more easily conceal under this pretext of war on the Philistines, was: to besiege David and his men, who were already in Keilah, the city with gates and bars.
1Sa 23:9. David, however, had information of these evil plans, which Saul was forging against him; the Heb. () is literally to work in metals, and so vigorously to work evil, as in Pro 3:29; Pro 14:22; comp. Hos 10:13. [The secretly of Eng. A. V. is to be omitted.Tr.]. This gives David occasion again to consult the divine oracle. Bring hither the ephod, said he to Abiathar (comp. 1Sa 14:13; 1Sa 30:7). The high-priestly dress had to be brought, because it was the sacred dress for official duties.
1Sa 23:10. This inquiry of the Lord by the ephod was connected with outspoken prayer, whereby is indicated the innermost kernel and most essential significance of this questioning of the divine oracle. In the invocation of God there is here to be noted 1) the designation of the covenant-God as the God of Israel, and 2) Davids avowal that he is the servant of this God, in whose service he knew himself to be. The reason for his questions is given in the words: I, thy servant, have heard that Saul seeks to come, etc.
1Sa 23:11. The two questions. The first is: Will the citizens of Keilah deliver me into his hand?Citizens ( ) comp. Jos 24:11, citizens of Jericho, 2Sa 21:12; Jdg 9:6. That this question stands first is certainly surprising, since logically this position belongs to the second question: Will Saul come down? We cannot regard this as a mere inconcinnity in the narrative. We may see in it the expression of Davids excited state of mind. Thenius proposed reading in order to secure logical arrangement in the two questions, namely: Saul comes to destroy the city, in order that the citizens of Keilah may deliver me into his hand (he omits the suffix in in 1Sa 23:10 and for reads ) is all the more hazardous and untenable, as no version gives any hint for such a reading.The divine answer, which is affirmative, refers only to the second question. Therefore the first question is repeated in 1Sa 23:12, and is then answered in the affirmative. There is thus a sort of chiasm or crossing in the order of the questions and answers. 1Sa 23:13. The certainty that Saul will come with an army, and that the men of Keilah will treacherously deliver him up,25 determines David to depart with his band (about six hundred men) before Saul can carry out his plan. They went about whither they went, whither their way led them (Maurer), as chance circumstances required, without fixed plan or aim. A mode of warfare by means of scouts and spies now arose between the two men. They have precise information of each others plans and enterprises. Saul soon learns that David has escaped from Keilah, and accordingly abandons his intended march thither.
1Sa 23:14. David in the wilderness of Ziph and the treachery of the Ziphites towards him. 1Sa 23:14. Davids next place of abode is in general the wilderness, that is, of Judah, and its sheltering heights; but the mountain in the wilderness of Ziph is specially mentioned as a more permanent dwelling-place. Ziph (different from the place named in Jos 15:24, which lay southwest of Arad), perhaps the present Kuseifeh (Rob. III., 184, 188 [Am. ed., II., 200]) Jos 15:55, lay farther north on the highland, about eight miles southeast of Hebron; see Robins., II., 47 [Am. ed., I., 492] who found there a hill, Tell Zif, and near by considerable ruins of old fortifications. [Mr. Grove, who formerly objected to Robinsons conjecture, now accepts it, but puts Zif (= Ziph) three miles south of Hebron. See his Art. in Smiths Bib.-Dict., and Dr. Hacketts note in Am. ed.Tr.] Individual parts of the great wilderness of Judah, which extended from the north of Judah to the Amorite mountain in the south between the mountains of Judah and the Dead Sea, were named from the various cities on the border of the mountains and the wilderness; so, besides the wilderness of Ziph, the wilderness of Maon, whither David afterwards went from Ziph (1Sa 23:25). The mountain in the wilderness of Ziph is probably the mount Hachilah of 1Sa 23:19. The general remark is here proleptically made that all Sauls attempts against David were vain. Saul sought him every day, not: throughout his life (Keil), but = continually; but God gave him not into his (Sauls) hands.David was under the special protection of God. These words form the contrast to Sauls word, 1Sa 23:7 : God has rejected [delivered] him into my hand. After the general remark on the failure of Sauls continued attempts follows (1Sa 23:15) the mention of special cases, and the description of Davids persecution. Thus connected with the preceding this verse (15) is not a useless repetition (Then.); for, after the statement that Saul pursued David, it is here first declared that David received information of this pursuit, and then Davids retreat in the wilderness is more exactly described by the word wood, or thick wood (, from , with parag.). Here, too, the forest is Davids chief means of concealment. Perhaps the word is also a proper name [Horesh], so called from the forests, of which there is now no trace in that region.
1Sa 23:16-18. Here is related how Jonathan comforted and strengthened David, when the latter, having heard of Sauls attempts against him, greatly needed consolation. There is no ground for regarding this (Then.) as merely the essential content of the traditional narration of Jonathans secret interview with David in 1 Samuel 20. It is another interview of Jonathan with his friend, whose distress and danger led him to hasten to him in order by consoling and encouraging words to give him the most precious proof of his faithful friendship.26 The fact is especially emphasized that Jonathan went to David into the wood; there they could be safest from Saul. He strengthened his hand in God; that is, he revived his sunken courage (comp. Neh 12:18), by pointing to the divine promises, the divine protection, and the great things that God had in store for him. Not wholly correct and exhaustive is Clericus remark: he drew consolation from his innocence and Gods promises.
1Sa 23:17. The words of Jonathan, explaining what was just before said. Fear not, is the key-note of Jonathans address. As ground of which he points 1) to Gods almighty help: Sauls hand will not find thee,he is firmly convinced that he (David) is under Gods protection, and that therefore Saul can gain no advantage over him,and 2) to the fixed divine decree: Thou wilt be king over Israel; Jonathan was certain through divine illumination that David was called by the Lord to be king of Israel, and could therefore console and encourage him; for Saul could not make void Gods counsel and will (comp. 1Sa 20:13 sq.). I shall be next to thee,herein Jonathan shows 1) his absolute willingness to resign all claim to the throne, and 2) his hope that David will confer on him as a subject the place nearest in association to himself. And so also Saul knows, my father is sure that thou wilt be king. Saul must therefore have already learned this through the voice of God and of the people.
1Sa 23:18. A new covenant is made by the two men, comp. 1Sa 20:16 sq., 42. Here, as there, the parting is briefly and vividly described: David remained in the thicketJonathan went his way home. [The two friends meet no more in life. How it would have been if Jonathan had lived we cannot tell; but all possible complications were avoided by his death. His life thus presents an untarnished picture of pure, self-denying friendship. This parting is one of the many dramatic situations that occur in this Book.Tr.]
1Sa 23:19-24 a. The Ziphites betray to Saul Davids abode among them; Saul forms with the betrayers his crafty scheme against David. 1Sa 23:19 is connected with 1Sa 23:15, not with 1Sa 23:14 (Thenius). Ziphites, people of Ziph [without the Art.Tr.] Some Ziphites went up to Saul to Gibeah to betray to him Davids abode. The mountain Hachilah, with its wood and its rocks, lay on the right of the desert; that is, south of the waste region which stretched out on the west of the Dead Sea within the steppe of Judah. The Article indicates the desert to be that well-known desert in this region, the designation being almost a proper name [written as nom. pr. Jeshimon in Eng. A. V.Tr.] So in Num 21:20; Num 23:28, a desert is called the desert [Eng. A. V. Jeshimon]. This is the desert northeastern border of the Dead Sea.
1Sa 23:20. The lively tone of the address of the Ziphites shows that they were somewhat passionate adherents of Saul, and acquainted with his most secret desires. Two things they say to him: 1) Come down to us, for all thy desire to get David in thy power may now be fulfilled; 2) it is our affair to deliver him up to thee. [Bib.-Com. less well renders: it is in our power, etc.Tr.].
1Sa 23:21. The feeling expressed in Sauls answer agrees with the Ziphites word as to his keen desire to come down to them. He invokes Gods blessing on them for their offer and promise. He remains true to his illusion that David is attempting his throne and life, and so committing a crime against God. He imagines that he is in a dangerous situation, and that the Ziphites had compassion on him or sympathy with him in making him this offer.
1Sa 23:22. He directs them how to act in order to gain information of every retreat of David in his constant shifting of place. Fix your mind, observe (supply as in Jdg 12:6; 2Ch 29:36). The heaping up of synonyms is no argument against this rendering; the conception see is not thrice expressed (Then.), but there is a gradation, Saul describing in an animated manner how they are to get information of Davids abode: Keep a good look-out still, that ye may learn, and that ye may see in what place his foot will be, that is, where he fixes himself in his wandering. Who has seen him refers to the last: And see his place, etc. The words, in keeping with Sauls animated manner, are loosely put together, he having in mind the moment when the man who discovers Davids abode comes to inform him. Saul affirms the necessity for this espionage in the remark: for it is told me that he is very subtle. This trait of character in David agrees with what we otherwise know of him in this respect.
1Sa 23:23. Saul continues his directions, and cannot say enough (to satisfy himself) to exhort them to search in every nook and cranny. Return to me unto what is certain; that is, when you have gotten certain information. Not till then will he go down with them. He confidently declares that he will then seize him among all the thousands of Judah. The Alaphim, thousands are, according to Num 1:16; Num 10:4, the larger divisions of the twelve Tribes.
1Sa 23:24 a. The Ziphites went back to their region before Saul, who, according to the agreement, was to follow later.
1Sa 23:24 b28. David retires to the wilderness of Maon, and is delivered from Saul.
1Sa 23:24 b. The wilderness of Maon lay farther south. The name still exists, = Man, eight miles southeast of Hebron; the distance from Ziph is therefore only six miles. Man lies on a conical hill, which commands a wide view, so that Rob. (II., 433 [Am. Ed., I., 493495]) thence saw nine cities of the hill-country of Judah, Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah, Jattir, Socho, Anab, Eshtemoa, and Hebron (Jos 15:48-55). On the character of the ground see Van de Velde II. 107 sq. [Mr. Grove in Smiths Bible Dict. thinks that the wilderness of Maon formed part of the larger region called the Arabah, rendered in Eng. A. V. 1Sa 23:24, the plain.Tr.].David, doubtless in consequence of information received as to the designs of Saul and the Ziphites, betook himself to the wilderness of Maon.
1Sa 23:25. And Saul went, namely, after he had gotten information from the Ziphites. The rock, on which it is here presupposed that David was staying, and which was in the wilderness of Maon, is perhaps the conical hill of the present Man, whose summit is surrounded with ruins. He went down not (as Sept.) into the rock, nor to the rock (Buns.), but descended the rock, in order to conceal himself in the lowland or in the caves at its base. It is the same mountain that is mentioned in 1Sa 23:26, on opposite sides of which Saul and David found themselves. Here (1Sa 23:26) David was sore troubled () to escape Saul, while, on his part, Saul attempted to surround and seize him.
1Sa 23:27. But suddenly, when David is in the greatest danger of being surrounded, Saul receives information of a new Philistine incursion. He must desist from farther pursuit. This was Gods plan to save David. The Philistines had seized on the moment when Saul had withdrawn his men to the south in pursuit of David, to invade the upper part of the land.
1Sa 23:28. The place was called Sela hammahlekoth ( ). There are two explanations of the name: 1) rock of smoothness, that is, of escape, and 2) rock of dividings or divisions. The first (Ges., De Wette, Keil), takes the notion of escape from the signification of the verb () to be smooth, for which application, however, only Jer 37:12, and that very doubtfully, can be adduced. Further the substantive here used never means escape, but always distribution (Jos 11:23; Jos 12:7; Jos 18:10; Eze 48:29) and division (1Ch 26:1; 1Ch 27:1; 2Ch 31:17) and it must so be taken here. This explanation is favored also by the word therefore, which clearly refers to the circumstantially related fact that the armies of Saul and David were separated, divided by the rock. Ewalds explanation: lot of fate (= ) is unfounded. It accordingly means: Rock of division. Cler.: rock of divisions, where Saul and David were separated. The rock divided the two armies, held them asunder. Bttcher conjectures that the rock might originally from its nature have been called rock of smoothness, and this name might afterwards from historical recollection have been made to refer to the movements of Saul and David, who according to 1Sa 23:26 had divided the rock-ground between them. Certainly this explanation of the name Rock of dividings, partings, would be possible as respects the ground. But, by reason of the therefore, the reference to Saul and Davids relation to one another suits the connection better.
HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL
1. David did not seek, but received from the Lords hand the opportunity by the march to Keilah to perform a heroic deed, and thus to win further consideration in the eyes of the people as a warrior blessed by God and crowned with glorious success. The king left the city open to the attacks of the Philistines. He neglected his duty as protector of his people against the hereditary foe, thinking only of revenging himself on David. Here also David was under Gods protection, to which he humbly resigned himself. After he had at the Lords command returned from Moab to Judah, he must, in the fact that the Philistines undisturbed besieged Keilah and carried off the grain, while Saul took no steps to oppose them, have recognized Gods command to draw the sword for his people, especially as he was the kings general, though he had received no order from the king. But for his conscience and his assurance of faith, as well as for the certainty and success of the whole undertaking, he needed the divine authorization; if he had not the sanction of the theocratic king, he must have that of God Himself, since the question was of a matter important for the people of God and for the affairs of Gods kingdom in Israel,war against Israels hereditary foe. He received the divine authorization and the promise of success through a twice affirmed divine oracle. By the divine promise he is inwardly certain of success. Even in straits and danger, he now with the Lords support becomes the saviour of his people out of straits and danger. But in the deed of deliverance itself lies the seed of new suffering. The rescue of Keilah by David occasioned Sauls march to Keilah against David. The inhabitants of Keilah exhibit base ingratitude towards him. By Gods word he learns what dangers here threaten him. By Gods direction he again takes to flight to save himself from Saulbut the incursion of the Philistines, occasioned by Sauls march to the south, compels him to desist from following David, who thus escapes his persecutor. Thus this section exhibits David anew in the clearest light of divine guidance as the Chosen and Anointed of God: 1) submitting himself unconditionally to Gods determining word and guiding will, and 2) guided directly by Gods hand and determined in all his affairs by Gods will and word.
2. Whatever may have been the form of the inquiry of God through the Urim and Thummim (which was attached to the ephod of the high-priest), yet in this section it is clearly and distinctly indicated that it was an embodied prayer to God for the revelation of His will, and only to such prayer was Gods counsel and will thus revealed. Ones own natural objection and other mens opposition to Gods will must by this repeated questioning of the Lord and decision and confirmation of His will be most completely refuted and set aside. Flesh-and-bloods deliberations concerning what pertains to Gods kingdom lead to indecision, doubt, timidity; taking counsel with God in direct access to His grace and truth makes the heart firm and the look clear, and gives true courage and victorious prowess, as is shown by the example of David, who repeatedly inquired of the Lord.
3. The teaching of the Ziphites forms the historical background of Psalms 54, the title of which refers its origin to Davids thence resulting sorrowful experiences, 1Sa 23:19 sq. In full accordance with his then dangerous situation and with a backward glance at Gods wonderful help, he first utters a prayer for deliverance from wicked and ungodly enemies, 1Sa 23:3-5 (13), and then expresses his assurance of divine help, together with the promise of thanksgiving for deliverance, 1Sa 23:6-9 (47).
4. Out of these great experiences, in Davids sorrowful life, of the grace and power, wisdom and justice, mercy and goodness of God, was developed in him and through him in his people that intelligence of faith and theological knowledge which we see in the Psalms and the prophetical writings.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1Sa 23:2. Starke: God forsakes not those who seek Him (Psa 9:11 [10]). When we wish to begin any thing, we should first ask counsel of God.
1Sa 23:3. Cramer: Flesh and blood trembles when at Gods command we have to encounter danger. Schmid: Corrupt human reason always has something which it opposes to the word of God.
1Sa 23:4. Starke: When we have Gods will on our side, we should not let ourselves be led astray by men (Act 21:13-14). The shield of the pious is with God, who helps pious hearts (Psa 7:11 [10]).
1Sa 23:5. Cramer: In trouble God yet sometimes gives a joyous day, and after the troublous storm He shows a glimpse of His grace (Ecc 7:14).
1Sa 23:7. Osiander: Hypocrites have Gods name in the mouth, but the devil always in the heart. And although they speak of God, yet they have always a bloody mind against Gods people (Psa 50:16-17).
1Sa 23:11-12. God foresees not only what will really happen, but also what would follow if this and that should happen. His omniscience and foreknowledge is a boundless and bottomless sea (Act 27:24-31).The greatest benefits are often requited with the greatest ingratitude, and this is a shameful evil among men, which then most betrays itself when they should be thankful.Schlier: True thankfulness which fears God knows well how to find out the right. Let us be thankful in all things! We need not for that reason do wrong when the point is to be thankful, but when true thankfulness fills the heart there open up ways enough to show it.
1Sa 23:16 sq. Osiander: It is a work acceptable to God to comfort the afflicted (Isa 40:1; 1Th 5:14).God is wont always to refresh again His people who are in danger, that they may not utterly sink under the cross (2Co 7:6).Starke: True friendship must be grounded in communion with God. Real love does not diminish, but increases.Schlier: God lets a David be persecutedlets him be driven about like a hunted animal; but at His own time He also sends him a Jonathan with friendly words. And so God the Lord still always does to all His servants.F. W. Krummacher: The picture of this pair of friendsa picture nobler and more exalting than that of the heathen Dioscuri, beams inextinguishably in the heaven of the church, as a kindling and inspiring ideal of unfeigned manly friendship, sanctified in God.
1Sa 23:25 sq. Starke: God never leaves one that loves Him without a cross, and when one cross has ceased, another is at once ready (Psa 73:14).Osiander: God often lets His people fall into extreme need, so that they can neither counsel nor help themselves, in order that the divine help may be so much the more recognized and honored (Mat 8:25).Cramer: God lets nothing so bad happen, but that He knows how to make out of it something good (Gen 50:20).Wuert. Bib.: Even enemies must serve our God in reserving His believing children from peril or need (2Pe 2:9).
1Sa 23:28. Osiander: The benefits of God we should with thankful mind keep in lively remembrance (Psa 103:2).Schlier: Why is it that the Lord very often helps only when the need has reached its height! It is in order that we may give the honor to the Lord alone.F. W. Krummacher: David was delivered at the last hour, it is true; but this never strikes too late for the Lord still to furnish in it the proof to those that trust in Him, that His word is Yea and Amen when it says, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
J. Disselhoff: How trying days should be borne after Gods heart: 1) By despairing of all self-help and believingly fleeing to Gods heart, there to learn supplication and thanksgiving. 2) By opening heart and hand amid our own need for others need. 3) By contending with the weapons of gentleness and humility against the supposed or real authors of the trials.
[1Sa 23:7-13. David at Keilah. 1) Saul eagerly arranges to seize him: a) Rejoicing beforehand in a success taken for granted. Counting the chickens, etc.; b) Inferring that God was on his side from the mere prospect of a single success; misinterpreting Providence, comp. 1Sa 24:4. 2) The citizens of Keilah ready to betray himdoubtless remembering Nob; Ingratitudewhich always finds itself some excuse. 3) David sees reason to fear them, and seeks divine direction: a) He speaks humbly as Gods servant; b) He earnestly implores direction. Prayer. In answer to humble and earnest prayer, God often delivers from ungrateful friends and scheming foes.
[1Sa 23:16-18. The last meeting of Jonathan and David: 1) David feeble and fearful (strengthened, fear not). Naturally discouraged by cowardly ingratitude, malignant hostility, weary wandering, uncertainty of life. 2) Jonathan encourages him: a) By the mere fact of coming to meet him through difficulties and dangers; b) By piously pointing him to God; c) By confident assurances of preservation and triumph; d) By declaring that his great enemy himself knows this, comp. 1Sa 24:20; e) By avowing his own willingness to be second to David. 3) They renew their league of friendship before the Lord (comp. 1Sa 18:3; 1Sa 20:16; 1Sa 20:42). They part to meet no more on earth. Jonathan is next mentioned in Davids pathetic lament (2Sa 1:17-27).
[1Sa 23:25-27. Davids narrow escape: 1) He is betrayed by men of his own tribe (1Sa 23:19), and skilful plans are laid to apprehend him (1Sa 23:22-23). 2) Hard pressed, fleeing in haste, surrounded (1Sa 23:26). 3) Prays to God for help and deliverance (Psalms 54). 4) Strangely delivered at the last moment by overruling Providence (1Sa 23:27).Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1]1Sa 23:3. Erdmann: and we are really to go, etc.? Syr.: how shall we go? Sept.: how will it be if we go? all of which give the general sense; Eng. A. V. has the more exact rendering, and so Chald. and Vulg.Then.: how much less shall we go?Tr.]
[2][1Sa 23:3. Sept. spoil, which Then. prefers, supposing it to represent booty, whence the Heb. text might easily come. Against this Wellhausen justly points out the unsuitableness of the resulting thought, and suggests that (variants , ) is another form of , and that the Greek omits the as to the improbability of battle-lines in Philistine raiding-parties, they might well exist, or Davids men may naturally exaggerate the danger.
[3][1Sa 23:4. Heb.: David and his men, but the following verbs are in the Singular, making David the subject.Tr.]
[4][1Sa 23:6. Erdmann: The ephod came down to him, which, however, the Heb. does not mean from the connection. Erdmann suggests the right sense in the Exposition.Tr.]
[5][1Sa 23:7. is rendered by the VSS. delivered, but Sept. sold , adopted by Then.; Wellh. says the text seems made up of and . The word is literally ignored, and so perhaps=abandoned.Tr.]
[6][1Sa 23:7. Literally. at entering (), not shut in (forced) to enter.Tr.]
[7][1Sa 23:8. Sept. in inverse order; to go down to war, perhaps a mere softening. The Heb. order is better; Saul summons the people generally to war, and then the special purpose is added of going down to Keilah.Instead of some MSS. have .
[8][1Sa 23:9. = cut, work on the forge = practice. Eng. A. V. gets its secretly from Vulg. clam, and this is perhaps from the meaning to be deaf, dumb, also found in this verb, but not applicable here; so Sept. rendered before which, however, it naturally found itself obliged to insert the negative.Tr.]
[9][1Sa 23:10. Thenius reads: Saul seeks to destroy the city in order that the citizens of Keilah may deliver me into his hand, on which see Erdmann. To this the objections are 1) that it supposes a construction (Inf. with suffix followed by Accus.-subject) doubtful in Heb. (Wellh.), and 2) Sauls purpose in destroying the city, namely, that the citizens may deliver David up, seems a strange one. On the other hand the omission of the first clause of 1Sa 23:11 (Wellh.) is a violent procedure, like that of Syr., which omits the whole of this verse. The procedure of the vers. shows the difficulty they had with the text, but also seems to vouch for its integrity. It is perhaps better to attribute the repetition to excitement, or to regard the first question as a general one, which is afterwards for the sake of clearness, divided into two.Tr.]
[10][1Sa 23:13. Sept. four hundred by error from 1Sa 22:2.Tr.]
[11][1Sa 23:15. Ewald and Wellhausen emend to feared on the ground that this is required in order to connect with the preceding context and to explain the words of Jonathan in 1Sa 23:17. Yet the connection is so general a one that such a change seems unnecessary.Tr.]
[12][1Sa 23:18. Some MSS. have his way, but the text is best supported.Tr.]
[13][1Sa 23:19. The Heb. has not the Art., but the connection seems to involve it.Wellhausen thinks the minute description of place here interpolated from 1Sa 26:1, because otherwise Sauls minute directions in 1Sa 23:22-23, would be out of place; but the statement of the Ziphites is not so minute as to supersede the necessity of search for the fugitive, who might be in any one of a hundred places in the wood on the hill.Tr.]
[14][1Sa 23:19. Some MSS. have (probably wrongly) Habilah and Havilah.Tr.]
[15][1Sa 23:21. Instead of set your mind), some MSS. have understand, learn.Tr.]
[16][1Sa 23:22. Thenius reads where his quick or fleet foot is, Sept. , an ingenious and smooth reading; yet the rugged Heb. text suits the hurry of the command better.Tr.]
[17][1Sa 23:25. The suffix, omitted in the Heb., is added in the Sept.Erdmann renders went down the cliff.Tr.]
[18][1Sa 23:26. Sept. Saul and his men. a natural (and therefore suspicious) supplement.Tr.]
[19][1Sa 23:28. On the meaning of this name see Erdmann in Exposition.Tr.]
[20][Mr. Grove (in Smiths Bib. Dict., Art. Keilah) referring to Toblers identification of Keilah with Kila says thus another is added to the list of places which, though specified as in the lowland are yet actually found in the mountains: a puzzling fact. In connection with the signification fortress given to Keilah by Gesenius and others, Mr. Grove also points to the expression marvellous kindness in a strong city in Psa 31:21 and to 1Sa 23:8 and the general tenor of the Psalm.Tr.]
[21][See on 1Sa 23:6.Tr.]
[22][Bib. Com.: Implying that Keilah was not in Judah. Yet it may mean simply that the Philistines now had control of the region of Keilah.Tr.]
[23][Read: When Abiathar, etc. fled to David, the ephod was in his hand, and he came down to Keilah.Tr.]
[24] eundocomp. dicendo, saying. The Inf. with is often used to introduce a subordinate circumstance. Ew. 280d. Comp. 1Ki 16:7; Psa 78:18; Psa 63:3; 1Ch 12:8; Pro 26:2; Joe 2:26.
[25][They act, perhaps, partly from attachment to Saul, partly from policy.Tr.]
[26][It is suggested in Bib.-Com. that Jonathan had informed David of his fathers designs (1Sa 23:15), but this is nowhere intimated.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This is an interesting Chapter, and it contains some sweet practical instructions to the exercised believer, in his views of what is here recorded in the life of David. Saul is still pursuing him for slaughter; the Lord works deliverance by David for the men of Keilah; notwithstanding which the men of Keilah intended to deliver David into Saul’s hand. David retreats to the wilderness of Ziph, and there has an interview with Jonathan; but upon the Ziphites treachery, in inviting Saul to come and take him, David escapes from thence, and retreats to the strong holds of En-gedi.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(1) Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors. (2) Therefore David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the LORD said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah. (3) And David’s men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? (4) Then David enquired of the LORD yet again. And the LORD answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand.
If the Reader will consult the preceding chapter, at the fifth verse, where Gad the prophet bids David go into the land of Judah, he will then discover both the cause in this rescue the Lord intended him for Keilah, and that he might have a servant of the Lord in the person of Gad for his instructor in all doubtful cases. It is sweet in providences to trace the Lord’s hand, and to connect one event with another, in order to observe the Lord’s dealings with his people. But it is sweeter still to behold, in the outlines of the Lord’s people’s exercises, some resemblance, however faint they are, to Jesus. Amidst all David’s own private distresses, the love of Israel was uppermost in his heart. But oh! how shrunk to nothing is this view of David compared to David’s Lord, who, in all his agonies in the garden, and the path to the cross, would have restrained the tears of the daughters of Jerusalem, which they were shedding for him, to shed them over the beloved Jerusalem. Luk 23:28 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Still Protected
1Sa 23
GAD is still accompanying the fugitive David and assisting him in the interpretation of the divine will. When David is said, in the second verse, to have inquired of the Lord whether he should go and smite the Philistines, the inquiry was made through the prophet. That such inquiries were made through prophets is proved by the narrative given in 1 Kings xxii. When the Urim and Thummim were not available it was lawful to consult the prophet instead of the priest. The lesson to ourselves is that religious instrumentalities are to be adopted according to our opportunities. Men cannot always go up into the public sanctuary to offer worship to God; but for that reason they need not be silent or irreverent. On many occasions usual opportunities are foreclosed, as when men are travelling, or in sickness, or in circumstances of distress, but under such conditions access to the divine throne is as open and free as ever. Herein is the glorious liberty of the Gospel of Christ; wherever we are, we can address the divine majesty and come boldly to the throne of mercy to obtain grace to help in time of need. On the second occasion David had an opportunity of consulting God through the medium of the ephod. Abiathar the priest, with the ephod, had arrived. In the ephod were set twelve precious stones, one for each of the twelve tribes. The names of the tribes were engraved on these gems, together with other sacred words. According to high authority, the common belief was that the ephod stones gave their answer to the royal and high-priestly questions by some peculiar shining. Upon these matters we can, of course, have no certain information, but there remains the moral and permanent lesson that David never took any important step in life without endeavouring to discover the divine will. That is the point upon which our attention has to be fixed. Whilst we are wasting our time in propounding unanswerable questions, we may be depriving the soul of vivid personal communion with God. If there is one Christian doctrine clearer than another, it is that every man may by prayer and supplication make known his requests unto God and receive from Heaven the light which he needs to guide him all the days of his life.
In the fourteenth verse we have a picture of a divinely protected man:
“And David abode in the wilderness in strong holds, and remained in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his hand.” ( 1Sa 23:14 ).
In the sixteenth verse we have a beautiful exemplification of social ministry:
“And Jonathan, Saul’s son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.” ( 1Sa 23:16 ).
Jonathan took the larger view of life; that is to say, when he looked out upon things he took in more field and more horizon than is generally included within the scope of inferior men. He said: “Fear not: for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth” ( 1Sa 23:17 ). Jonathan thus fixed his vision upon destiny, and accepting that stern fact, he ordered his conduct accordingly. Here we have two different ways of acting in the matter of destiny: we have Saul’s way, and we have Jonathan’s. What was Saul’s? It was a way of peevishness, opposition, and bitter hostility; it was a strenuous and even desperate attempt to turn back the purposes of Providence and reverse the decrees of Heaven. Saul kicked against the pricks; Saul seemed to apply his poor hands to smite the forces of Omnipotence, and he only suffered in the unequal contest. What was Jonathan’s method of looking upon this solemn question of destiny or predestination? His way was to adopt it, to act in harmony with it, to believe that in the outworking of it the most gracious results would accrue. This was profound philosophy. When we see any man evidently called to a great leadership or to supreme influence, however much our personal dignity may be supposed temporarily to be injured, depend upon it, we are only wise in proportion as we accept the new primacy and bid it good-speed, in the name of the Lord. The process indeed is not always easy; sometimes it amounts to little less than a living sacrifice, a burning out of the soul of the most inveterate elements of evil, the destruction as by fire of the spirit of envy, jealousy, and malice. If, however, we do not submit to undergo this process of purification, we shall become the victims of our own insanity, and be ground to powder by the calm but irresistible march of events. These reflections have their great spiritual application, as we have already seen. The coming King is the Son of God, and it is hard for any man to oppose his enthronement. In such a contest it is man who must go down, yea, even go down to the point of destruction. “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” It is in vain for any infuriated Saul to oppose the coronation of Christ in the world. “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.” He shall “break them with a rod of iron,” and “dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” It is remarkable that not only are the most gracious promises written in connection with the name of Christ, but also in association with that name are the most tremendous threatenings that ever appalled the human imagination. “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” Blessed are they who accept the kingship of Christ and prostrate themselves before his throne in reverent loyalty and loving homage. “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Here is the great Gospel which Christian apostles have never failed to preach, saying, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
When the case went hard with David a providential surprise came to his deliverance. When “Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain,” there was but an inch of space between David and destruction. But at that very moment there came a messenger to Saul, saying, “Haste thee, and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land.” Saul then turned back from following David, and the place was called “Sela-hammahlekoth” namely, the rock of divisions. So again we come upon the doctrine, so often enforced, that “man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” Steadfastly abide in this doctrine, for it is no heathen proverb, but a part of the very philosophy of the divine government. Only when we are at the very edge of things, and are even looking over into the precipice below, can we know how near is the arm and how tender is the grace of God. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” Even death shall not separate us from the arms of God. Upon all these matters the Church should utter no uncertain tone. Find a Church dejected, despairing, moaning about its difficulties and its sorrows, and lamenting its exposure to imminent danger, and you find a Church which has not entered into the spirit of a triumphant Christ. Rather should we say, “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” That is the tone of triumph which alone becomes true faith; any other tone should be described not so much as a spiritual infirmity, as involving spiritual treachery. What did the heroic apostle say? “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Nor did Paul exceed the saints of the Old Testament in the completeness and emphasis of his triumph. Did not the Psalmist say, “The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid”? And again, “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?” And did not the holy prophet say, “There be more with us than with him: with him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles “? History is wasted upon us if we are still wondering how the battle will go. To Christian faith the battle can only go in one way, and that is the way of triumph for the Son of God. We must prove our faith by our steadfastness and willingness to suffer. We have not attained the manhood to which we are called in Christ Jesus until we can say, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?… Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” When we can say these words, and exemplify them in actual life, we need have no fear of Saul, though we can feel his hot breath upon us; and no fear of the evil spirit, though all his legions be embattled against our life. “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” “Lord, increase our faith.”
Selected Note
” And Jonathan, Saul’s son arose, and went to David into the wood ” ( 1Sa 23:16 ). Jealousy and every mean or low feeling were strangers to the generous heart of Jonathan. Valiant and accomplished himself, none knew better how to acknowledge valour and accomplishment in others. The act of David in meeting the challenge of Goliath, and in overcoming that huge barbarian, entirely won his heart; and from that day forward the son of Jesse found no one who loved him so tenderly, who admired his high gifts with so much enthusiasm, or who risked so much to preserve him from harm, as the very prince whom he was destined to exclude from a throne. Jonathan knew well what was to happen, and he submitted cheerfully to the appointment which gave the throne of his father to the young shepherd of Bethlehem. In the intensity of his love and confidence he shrank not to think of David as his destined king and master; and his dreams of the future pictured nothing brighter than the day in which David should reign over Israel, and he be one with him in friendship, and next to him in place and council not because he was covetous even of this degree of honour, but because “next to David” was the place where he wished always to be, and where he desired to rest.
When Saul began to hate David as his intended successor, he was highly displeased at the friendship which had arisen between him and his son. This exposed Jonathan to much contumely, and even to danger of life; for, once at least, the king’s passion against him on this account rose so high that he cast a javelin at him “to smite him to the wall.”
This unequivocal act taught Jonathan that the court of Saul was no safe place for David. He told him so, and they parted with many tears. David then set forth upon those wanderings, among strangers and in solitary places, which lasted all the time of Saul. The friends met only once more. Saul was in pursuit of David when he was in the wilderness of Ziph; and Jonathan could not forbear coming to him secretly in the wood to give him comfort and encouragement ( 1Sa 23:16-18 ). Nothing more is related of Jonathan till both he and his father lost their lives in the fatal battle of Gilboa, combating against the enemies of their country. When informed of this catastrophe David uttered a lamentation ( 2Sa 1:17-27 ) over his lost friend, than which there is, perhaps, nothing in Hebrew poetry more beautiful and touching, or more full of fine images and tender thoughts.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XIII
DAVID AND HIS INDEPENDENT ARMY; THE END
1Sa 23:1-26:25
This section is very thrilling, containing many stirring adventures and hairbreadth escapes, showing the play of the mighty passions of love and hate, and treachery and loyalty. It contains the farewell between David and Jonathan in their last interview; the farewell between David and Saul: the death of Samuel and the engaging story of David and Abigail. No novel that I have ever read has incidents so romantic in nature as this section.
The turn in the fortunes of David comes at the Cave of Adullam. He is no longer a solitary fugitive. His helpers were:
1. An armed corps, small indeed in number, but unequaled in history as a mobile fighting force, who had gathered around him. Never before nor since have more heroes and champions been found in a band of 400, rapidly recruited to 600. As is quite natural, some of them are both desperate and evil characters. They harbor in caves or sleep under rocks, and from the mountaintops, like eagles in their eyries, survey all the mountain passes, ready to swoop down on their Philistine prey or to make timely escape from Saul’s forces, which they will not fight through David’s loyalty.
2. The son of the high priest with Ephod, fleeing from Saul’s murderous slaughter of his brethren at Nob, has turned to David, supplying his greatest need, that is, a means of communication with Jehovah, now forever denied to Saul. Through this means he easily learns what no earthly wisdom or system of espionage could discover the very hearts and secret purposes of his enemies.
3. The school of the prophets, Jehovah’s mouthpieces, are for him, and Gad, their great representative, acts as his daily counselor Gad who shall become one of the historians of his life.
David at this time evinced the most exalted patriotism. Though pursued by Saul’s relentless hate, he never at any time, employs his fighting force against Israel, nor ever harms Saul’s person, though it is twice within his power, but ever watching, he protects defenseless cities of his people by smiting their Philistine invaders, preserves the exposed farms and folds of the villages from their marauding bands. Not all Saul’s army is such a defense of Israel as David’s immortal 600. And this he did continuously, though every blow he struck for his people only advertised his whereabouts to Saul, and brought on immediately a man-hunt by Saul and his army. There is no parallel to these facts in history. If, when the “swamp-fox,” Francis Marion, by creeping out of his secret places of retirement advertised his whereabouts by smiting a British or Tory force, Washington, Gates, Greene, or Morgan had detached a flying column to cut off Marion, then that would have been a parallel.
An example of this patriotism of David, and the ungrateful return to him is found in this section. From it we learn that when David, at a hazard so great that his own dauntless champions advised against it, under the guidance of Jehovah left the safer territory of Judah and braved with his 600 the whole Philistine army to rescue Keilah, Saul, informed of his presence there, summoned his whole army to besiege David in that city, and only through timely knowledge, communicated through the high priest’s Ephod, did David escape the enmity of Saul and the purposed treachery of the men of Keilah whom he had Just preserved.
A parallel in later days shows that information from Jehovah concerning the secret purposes of men eclipsed all knowledge to be derived from spies, and so saved the king of Israel. This parallel we find in 2Ki 6:8-12 . The king of Syria, at war with the king of Israel (by Israel in that place is meant the ten tribes that went off from Rehoboam), in private counsel with his officers, would designate a place where be would’ establish his camps in order to entrap the king of Israel. As soon as he had designated where these trap-camps would be placed, Elisha, God’s prophet, sent information to the king of Israel to beware of these places, and thus more than twice the king of Israel was saved. The king of Syria supposed that there was a traitor in his own camp, and wanted to know who it was that betrayed every movement that he made. One of his counselors replied that there was no traitor in his camp, but that Elisha, God’s prophet, knew every secret thought of the king’s bed-chamber.
I now call attention to the text difficulty in 1Sa 23:6 . The text here says that Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, had joined David at Keilah, but 1Sa 22:20-23 shows that Abiathar had previously joined David at the Cave of Adullam. The context just above 1Sa 23:6 shows that David had inquired of the high priest as to whether he should go to the rescue of Keilah. The word, “Keilah,” in 1Sa 23:6 ought therefore to be struck out, or else ought to follow the text of the Septuagint, which reads this way: “And it came to pass when Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, fled to David, that he went down with David to Keilah with the Ephod in his hand.” That makes complete sense and retains the word “Keilah.” David’s next refuge from Saul, the description of Saul’s pursuit, and Jehovah’s deliverance, are described in just two verses of the text, 1Sa 23:14-15 : “And David abode in the wilderness in strongholds and remained in the wilderness of Ziph, and Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into Saul’s hands. And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life, and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood.” That does not mean any big trees. It means thick brush scrubby brush as may be seen on West Texas mountains shin-oak thickets. I have seen them so thick it looked like one couldn’t stick a butcher knife in them, and woe to the man who tried to ride through them!
Just here comes Jonathan’s last interview with David, which is given in three verses, 1Sa 23:16-18 . While Saul is every day beating that brush to find David and can’t find him, Jonathan finds him and comes to show him that he has no part in this murderous pursuit of his friend; comes to tell him that both he and his father know that David will triumph and become king, and to make a covenant with him again that when he is king he will remember Jonathan’s house.
Let us now take up David’s first escape from the treachery of the Ziphites, and how that escape was commemorated. Saul couldn’t find David in the wood, but the Ziphites (for it was in the wood of Ziph) knew where be was, and they told Saul where he was, and so Saul, guided by these treacherous Ziphites, summoned an army, completely surrounded the whole country, and at last got David, as it were, in a cul-de-sac. That French phrase means) to follow a road where all egress is blocked, forward or sideways. So there was just a mountain between Saul and David, and Saul’s army was all around and closing in. The deliverance comes providentially. Word is brought to Saul that the Philistines are striking at some place in his territory, and he has to call his army off just before he closes up the trap around David and go and fight the Philistines; and your record says that place is renamed in commemoration this simple word, “Selahammahlekoth,” which means the rock of escape. If you were to visit the place the guide will show you today “Selahammahlekoth ” the rock of escape.
David’s next refuge from Saul was at the town of Engedi. The name is today preserved in the Aramaic form, “Ain Jidy.” It is thought to be the oldest town in the world. The Genesis record of the days of Abraham says that Chedorlaorner led his army by Engedi. It was a town whose inhabitants saw the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, lying right below in the valley. It has been passed by a thousand armies. It means the fountain of goats. Bursting out of the mountainside is a spring of considerable volume, and from that flows the stream, Engedi, which, with two others, makes a little oasis there just above the Dead Sea one of the most beautiful in the world; the finest vines, the most beautiful palm trees, and right up above the mountainside, are hundreds of caves, some of them so deep that they are as dark as the pit right at the mouth. A man standing in the light at the entrance cannot see anything within, but one hidden back a little distance can see distinctly anybody coming in. Nearly everybody that visits the Holy Land makes a pilgrimage to these famous caves, and if you are disposed to read the results of modern research with reference to the place you will find some very fine references in the following books: Thompson’s Land and the Book, from which we have had quotations; Robinson’s Researches in Bible Lands; Tristram’s Land of Israel; and one of the best is McGarvey’s Lands of the Bible. McGarvey is a Disciples theologian in Kentucky, and his is about the best book on the Holy Land extant. You will also find a very graphic account of these caves in Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine. The record tells us that Saul, in pursuit of David, while his army is scattered about searching for him, comes to one of these caves, and enters in, and David is in there at the time with some of his bravest men, and he, being in the dark, can see Saul plainly, and slips up and cuts off a piece of Saul’s cloak. One of his men wants him to kill Saul: “Now is your chance; this is the chance God has promised you; your enemy is in your power; smite him.” But David would not do so. When Saul goes out of the cave David slips to the front, and from a high rock holds up that piece of skirt and calls to Saul, your text telling better than I can the thrilling way he reproached Saul for his pursuit of him, that he has never done him any harm, and that Saul was pursuing him to death without any cause.
We now come to a strange but certainly true thing. I will read what David said and Saul’s reply. It is Saul’s reply that I want you particularly to notice. David said, “Wherefore hearest thou men’s words saying, Behold David seeketh thy hurt,” then closes up by saying, “The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord avenge me of thee, but my hand shall not be upon thee.” Listen at Saul’s reply: “Thou art more righteous than I” standing there weeping now and saying this “for that thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil; and thou hast showed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me, forasmuch as when the Lord had delivered me into thy hand thou killedst me not; for if a man findest his enemy, will he let him go well away; wherefore the Lord reward thee good for what thou hast done unto me this day. And now, behold I know well that thou shalt surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand; swear thou therefore, unto me by the Lord that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father’s house.” That sounded like penitence, but it was not. If it was, you would not see Saul pursuing him again, but it was temporary remorse, such as wicked men often evince. It is an Oriental custom that when a new king comes in he kills all the family of the one he succeeds, and that is what Saul fears, and David never did kill any of them after he became king.
It is evident from 1Sa 24:9-26:19 that some persistent, insidious slander, ever at Saul’s side, kept his wrath stirred up against David, and like a sinister Iago played upon Saul’s weakness, ever fanning by whisperings the flame of his jealousy. You would never know the name of this secret assassin of character from the history. But his name and character are pilloried in the immortal song of his would-be victim, and all the vileness of his demoniacal nature memorialized to the end of time. What is his name, and in what song commemorated? Just at this juncture Samuel, the great prophet the greatest man next to Moses since Abraham’s day, dies. Later we will have an analysis of his character.
An example of David’s protection of the villages and farms is seen in the case of the rich man named Nabal (“Nabal” means “fool”), about whom his wife says later, “His name is Nabal and he is Nabal.” There wouldn’t have been a sheep left in his flock nor a cow left to give him milk but for the protection extended by David’s band. The herdsmen say, “David’s band has been a wall about us.” David’s men never took any of his property. Hungry though they were, they never killed one of his sheep nor one of his cattle. Passing bands of marauders would have swept away every vestige of his property, but David’s men beat them off.
Now, on a festival, sheep-shearing day, David’s men, being weary and hungry, David sends ten men to Nabal, giving him an opportunity at least to feed one time the men that had protected him for the year, and Nabal’s reply is: “What is the son of Jesse to me that I should take my property and feed his straggling crowd?” There are such rich men now, and no wonder they are hated. There was a time in the early history of Texas when volunteer rangers protected all the exposed settlements with their flocks and herds. A man whose home and stock had been so preserved, who would deny hospitality to the unpaid rangers would have been held as infamous. Indeed, in all our West Texas history there never was one Nabal. These ten men went back and reported to David, and this time he didn’t consult either priest or prophet, but, boiling over in wrath, announced his purpose of not leaving a man alive in Nabal’s entire household, and goes to smite him with 400 of his picked men. One of the servants of Nabal had apprehended Just such a state of affairs and had told Abigail, the wife of Nabal, whereupon she, recognizing David as God’s anointed, as the champion of Israel, as the one about whom all true souls should be thinking, having faith in the promises of God concerning him, took a magnificent donation and hurried with it and met David coming blazing in wrath. The woman leaped down from the beast she was riding and made a speech that has never yet had an equal.
You remember how I called your attention to the famous speech in Scott’s Heart of Midlothian by Jeanie Deans, but this beats that. I haven’t time to analyze the speech; you have the record of it before you, but there never was more wisdom put into a few words. She shows David that the wrong done is inexcusable, but tells him to charge it to her, although she had nothing to do with it; tells him that so great a man as he is, God’s vicegerent) should not take vengeance in his own hands; that the day will come in his later life when he will look back with regret at the blood on his hands if he takes such a vengeance, and asks him to leave Nabal’s punishment to God. David was charmed with her and did everything she said. She went back home sad at heart, as many a good woman married to a bad man has to do. Nabal was on a spree. She didn’t tell him anything until the next morning, and as she told him what had transpired God smote him with apoplexy and a few days later about ten days smote him again so that he died, whereupon David sends for Abigail and marries her and at the same time marries another woman, plurality of wives prevailing in that day. Many preachers have preached sermons, some of them foolish and some of them really great, on “Nabal, the churl.”
The incidents of the last meeting of Saul and David are pathetic. The Ziphites conspire again against David, and tell Saul where to find him. David sends out his spies and learns of Saul’s approach and easily evades him; then, taking just one man with him, Abishai, the fiery son of his sister Zeruiah, his nephew (you will hear about him oftentimes later), goes into the camp of Saul with his 3,000 picked veterans. Saul is sleeping, and Abner, his great general, sleeping by him, and Abishai following his nature, says, “Now let me kill him.” David says, “No, you shall not strike him; he is the anointed king; leave him to God,” and simply took Saul’s spear and cruse his water vessel and when he had got out of the camp he cried out to Abner and mocked him: “What a guardian of your king, that you let somebody come right into your camp and come right up to the person of your king! Behold the spear and cruse of Saul! You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” Saul hears David, and now comes that strange language again. I want you to notice it again: “And Saul knew David’s voice, and said, ‘is this thy voice, my son David?’ (as you know, David was his son-in-law). And David said, ‘it is my voice, my lord, O king.’ And he said, ‘Wherefore doth my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand? Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If Jehovah hath stirred thee up against me let him accept an offering: but if it be the children of men, cursed be they before Jehovah.’ “
Now comes a passage that we will have to explain in the next chapter: “For they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of Jehovah, saying, Go, serve other gods. Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of Jehovah, for the king of Israel is come to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains.” This is a very undignified thing for a king to do to go out flea hunting; go to chasing a partridge. “Partridge” there is what we call a “blue quail.” They seldom fly, but they can run, and anyone who hunts them has to be very fast; hence the beauty of the illustration. Saul says, “I have sinned.” (You remember he said that to Samuel.) “Return, my son David, for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day, and behold I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.” David didn’t trust him. Saul concludes, “Blessed be thou, my son, David; for thou shall both do great things and also shalt prevail.” So David went his own way, and Saul returned to his place. They never meet again. The pursuit is ended. We end this chapter with the end of the duel between Saul and David.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the interest of this section?
2. From what point and place comes the turn in the fortunes of David, and who were his helpers?
3. How does David at this time evince the most exalted patriotism?
4. What parallel in history of these facts?
5. Cite an example of this patriotism of David, and show the ungrateful return to him?
6. Cite a parallel in later days to show that information from Jehovah concerning the secret purposes of men eclipsed all knowledge to be derived from spies, and so saved the king of Israel.
7. Explain the text difficulty in 1Sa 23:6 .
8. Where was David’s next refuge from Saul, what the description of Saul’s pursuit, and what Jehovah’s deliverance?
9. Describe Jonathan’s last interview with David.
10. Describe David’s first escape from the treachery of the Ziphites, and how that escape was commemorated.
11. What was David’s next refuge from Saul, what the history of the place, and what has modern research to say about it?
12. What the events there, and what illustrations therefrom?
13. What man, greatest next to Moses since Abraham’s day, dies at this juncture?
14. Cite an example of David’s protection of the villages and farms, giving the main incidents in the thrilling story of David and Abigail, and illustrate by Texas free rangers.
16. Describe the incidents of the last meeting of Saul and David.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1Sa 23:1 Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors.
Ver. 1. Then they told David. ] The men of Keilah in the land of Judah seek help of David their countryman; but having served themselves of him, they soon proved false hearted to him, and would have made him an ill requital. 1Sa 23:12 In trust I have found treason, said Queen Elizabeth. a
And they rob the threshingfloors.
a Camden.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 23
Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and they’re robbing their threshingfloors. So David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah. And David’s men said unto him, Behold, we’re afraid here in Judah: how much worse if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines ( 1Sa 23:1-3 )?
Now David didn’t have a very brave army at this point, these guys said, “Hey, man we’re afraid here. It’s even worse if we go to the Philistines.”
So David inquired of the Lord again. And the Lord answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah: for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand. So David and his men went to Keilah, and they fought with the Philistines, and they brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. Now it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David that he came down with a ephod in his hand. [Now it was through the ephod that they inquired of the Lord.] And so it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said, God has delivered him into my hand; because he is gone into a walled city, now we can surround him, and capture him. So Saul called all of the people together to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. And David knew that Saul was on his way down. So David inquired of the Lord, and he said, Lord will the men of Keilah deliver me into the hands of Saul ( 1Sa 23:4-11 )?
Now David had delivered the city from the Philistines. But yet the men weren’t really faithful to David.
and the Lord answered and said, Yes the men of Keilah will deliver you into the hands of Saul. So David and now his band had grown to about six hundred men, they fled from Keilah, and they fled to the area of the wilderness in the strong holds, that were in the mountains, the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into Saul’s hand. And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life: and David was in the wilderness in a wood. And Jonathan Saul’s son arose, and went to David in the wood, and he strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, Fear not: for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knows ( 1Sa 23:12-17 ).
Now Saul was becoming aware of the fact that God’s anointing was off of his life, and Saul knew that David was going to be the king. What he’s trying to do is hold onto the kingdom that he knows is not his.
Now Jonathan his son recognized that David was gonna be king also. Jonathan said, “I’ll be your right hand man.” Jonathan is actually taking a very beautiful attitude towards David. His love was so great that he was willing to let David be exalted. He was willing to just be a helper, a right hand man to David. He was willing to abdicate the throne for David’s sake, to step down to let David rule. “I know you’re gonna be king. I’ll be your right hand man, don’t be afraid. My dad won’t catch you. He won’t find you because this is what God has in mind.” Jonathan was expressing these things to David.
So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord: and David stayed in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house. Then the Ziphites came to Saul in Gibeah, saying, David’s hiding with us in the strong holds in the wood, in the hill of Hichilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon? Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of your soul; come down to our part and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hands. So Saul said, Blessed be ye of the Lord; for ye have compassion on me ( 1Sa 23:18-21 ).
What a phony character, using spiritual language in such evil things. You know it’s possible to just get sort of a spiritual jargon going and you don’t have enough discernment to know when to use it. You use it even for corrupt things.
“Praise the Lord. I really ripped him off.” It’s horrible the way people can use spiritual language for such corrupt things.
“Oh blessed be ye of the Lord. You’ve shown compassion on me.” Oh. Not all who say, “Lord, Lord” are gonna enter into the kingdom of heaven. Lot of people use the right jargon, spiritual jargon but they’re just not gonna make it. It’s not what you say, it’s not what comes out of a man’s mouth that defiles him-or it’s actually it is which comes out of the mouth, but this dullness out of the mouth with blessings out of the same fountain proceeds bitter and sweet water, blessings and curses. Such things should not be.
So here’s the blessing, but soon curses.
Go, I pray you, and prepare, and know and find out the place where he’s hiding, and who has seen him: and be careful because this guy is very subtle. Take all knowledge of all of the lurking places where he hides himself, and come and tell me of certainty, and I’ll go with you: and it will come to pass, if he’s in the land, I’ll search him out throughout all the thousands of Judah. And they arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon. And so Saul also with all of his men went to seek him. And it was told David: wherefore he came down into a rock, and abode in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. And Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men were on the other mountain: and David made haste for fear of Saul; and Saul and his men had circled David and his men had encompassed him to take them ( 1Sa 23:22-26 ).
So Saul, I mean David had been surrounded by Saul’s men. Looks like he’s had it.
But there came a messenger unto Saul, saying, Haste, and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land. Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing David, went after the Philistines: wherefore they called the place Selahammahlekoth. [Which is the crag of divisions.] And David went up from there, and he dwelt in the strongholds of Engedi ( 1Sa 23:27-29 ).
David now headed again down towards the wilderness area of the Dead Sea. Engedi is about twenty miles probably from where the Jordan comes into the Dead Sea on the West Bank of the Dead Sea. Engedi is a beautiful spot. The word Engedi means, “wild goats.” It is a place where there are still a lot of the ibex, the wild goats of Israel. But the neat thing about Engedi, the Dead Sea there is about twelve hundred and eighty-two feet below sea level. Because you are so low, there are springs, because you’re at a thousand feet below sea level. Actually, the spring of Engedi is at about, oh eight hundred feet, seven hundred feet below sea level. It just springs out there from the pressure of the underground water and all. There’s a beautiful spring and there’s the neatest waterfalls, and fern canyons, and wild fig trees growing up the sides of the canyons, and all kinds of caves around there. Just a beautiful place to hide out as far as just, you know, you’ve got your water, you’ve got your wild goat to eat, and it’s just an excellent place to hide out. A very beautiful little valley in the midst of a vast wilderness. That whole Dead Sea area is just a vast wilderness. But Engedi is a beautiful oasis, and of course because of the heat, it stays warm down there year round. It’s very fertile around Engedi, a lot of date palms. They grow excellent watermelons in wintertime and it’s just a neat place. That’s where David was now hiding out from Saul, there in the strong holds at Engedi. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
The series of happenings recorded in this chapter reveals most vividly the appalling condition of affairs in the kingdom.
Saul, still nominally king, filled with hatred for David, was devoting all his strength to persecuting David; while the affairs of the nation were becoming more and more involved in hopeless confusion.
While David in exile was almost certainly the popular idol of the people, their fickleness was manifested in the mean treachery of both the Keilites and the Ziphites, who were prepared to maintain favor with Saul by delivering up David to him.
David, with the spirit of true patriotism burning in his heart, waged war successfully against the Philistines, the enemies of the nation. It is evident, however, that his exile and persecution were telling on him, and nervous fear was growing in his heart. Nevertheless, his trust in God remained unshaken, and he appealed to God in his hour of trouble.
The most beautiful incident of this period is the meeting of David and Jonathan in the wood. It was their last meeting, and it manifested that Jonathan’s love for David was as strong as ever. Jonathan was firmly convinced that David must eventually become king; and, looking forward to when this should be, he attested his willingness to take second place in the kingdom.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Success and Safety under Gods Guidance
1Sa 23:1-14
We learn here that those who are called to walk in the maze of human life need to look constantly upward for direction. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Our eyes need to be fixed constantly on the Lord. Lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. We have no priestly ephod to direct us. But if we roll the responsibility of our way on God and wait for Him, the conviction of His plan will steal into our hearts, and this will be corroborated by the advice of experienced friends and the trend of circumstances.
The recompense of the people of Keilah for Davids noble interposition on their behalf was very base, and warns us not to trust in human safeguards, which are so liable to be broken down. The only place of absolute security is in God. Blessed are they whose life is hid with Christ in God! David knew that, and in these sad and difficult days, when he was hunted as a partridge on the mountains, he was composing some of his most helpful psalms. See Psa 11:1-7; Psa 54:1-7; Psa 57:1-11. In our own troubled times, how good it is that we should listen to the sweet music of the eternal world which surrounds this one and in which the harried soul may have its abiding-place.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 23
1. The victory over the Philistines at Keilah (1Sa 23:1-13)
2. In the wilderness of Ziph (1Sa 23:14-26)
3. Sauls return (1Sa 23:27-29)
Keilah was about six miles southeast of Adullam. David heard of the invasion of the Philistines that they were fighting against this walled city. And he inquired of the Lord, through Abiathar, who had an ephod (verse 6). Davids inquiry of the Lord shows the man of faith in his submission to the Lord. He had his lapses, but at heart he owned the Lord and wanted to glorify Him. Twice he asked the Lord; the second time evidently to quiet the fears of the six hundred men who were now with him. The Lord gave him the victory. Then poor, blinded Saul thought David was now shut up in Keilah and could not escape. He knew not the Lord and His power to protect His own. While Saul plotted, David prayed and depended on the Lord, who told him that Saul would come to Keilah and that the men of Keilah would deal treacherously with him and his men. In the wilderness of Ziph Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hands. And David learned by experience what the name of Ziph means; it means refining. In the refining process of suffering and endurance the shepherd-king was fitted for his coming exaltation. In this he is not a type of our Lord, but we can read our own experience here. For the last time Jonathan and David met. He came to strengthen Davids hand in God. This is the true purpose of the fellowship of the Saints. What a noble character was Jonathan!
It is difficult to form an adequate conception of the courage, the spiritual faith, and the moral grandeur of this act. Never did man more completely clear himself from all complicity in guilt than Jonathan from that of his father. And yet not an undutiful word escaped the lips of this brave man. And how truly human is his fond hope that in the days to come, when David would be king, he should stand next to his throne, his trusted adviser, as in the days of sorrow he had been the true and steadfast friend of the outlaw! As we think of what it must have cost Jonathan to speak thus, or again of the sad fate which was so soon to overtake him, there is a deep pathos about this brief interview, almost unequalled in Holy Scripture, to which the ambitious hopes of the sons of Zebedee form not a parallel but a contrast (A. Edersheim).
The Ziphites after Jonathans visit discovered Davids hiding place to Saul but Saul could not reach him nor touch the Lords anointed. But David at that time cried mightily to God, Save me, O God–Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth; these were some of his utterances recorded in Psalm 54, which was written at that time.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Keilah: Keilah was a city of Judah, situated, according to Eusebius, eight miles from Eleutheropolis, towards Hebron. Sozomen says that the prophet Habakkuk’s tomb was shewn there. Jos 15:44, Neh 3:17, Neh 3:18
rob the: Lev 26:16, Deu 28:33, Deu 28:51, Jdg 6:4, Jdg 6:11, Mic 6:15
Reciprocal: 1Sa 22:4 – in the hold 1Sa 23:2 – inquired 1Ch 4:19 – Keilah
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 23:1. Then they told Or rather, Now they had told David. For it is evident from 1Sa 23:6, that David had received the information here referred to, and had even delivered the inhabitants of Keilah before Abiathar came to tell him of the slaughter of the priests. The Philistines fight against Keilah Probably the Philistines were encouraged to make this inroad into the land of Israel by hearing that David was forced to flee his country, and that God had departed from Saul. When princes begin to persecute Gods people and ministers, let them expect nothing but vexation on all sides. Keilah was a city in the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:44. They rob the thrashing-floors Which were commonly without their cities, for the convenience of wind, to separate the chaff from the corn. See Rth 3:2.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 23:1. Keilah, a walled town in the south of Judah, near the sources of the brook Besor.
1Sa 23:4. David enquired of the Lord yet again. Gideon also asked a double sign in time of fear and doubt, by the falling of dew on the fleece.
1Sa 23:7. Saul said, God hath delivered him into my hand. Saul here consulted with his own heart, while David enquired of the Lord.
1Sa 23:18. They two made a covenant. This was the third, or the renewal of the covenants. The first was after the victory over Goliath and the Philistines. The second when they met at the rock Ezel. The third here, in the wilderness of Ziph, when it was renewed with some enlargements.
REFLECTIONS.
Having kept our eye on David from Nob to Gath, and from Gath to the cave, where he was joined by the best and worst of his country; and having seen him safely repose his parents in Moab, providence next employed him for the salvation of Keilah. But on an enterprize so arduous, most of his guards, who were not yet soldiers, durst not go. Behold, said they, we be afraid here in Judah; how much more when we come to the armies of the Philistines? But on enquiring of God by the ephod, he received a positive promise of victory, though, according to the Seventy, his men did not exceed four hundred. This was an action grateful to his country; it saved the harvest of Judah, and reproached the negligence of Saul.
Honour is dangerous. Davids new laurels stirred up more inveterately the enmity of his enemy. Saul already viewed him as shut up in Keilah, hated of the Philistines, and now sure to fall. But while Saul counselled for Davids ruin, God counselled for Davids safety. He was directed to flee to the romantic woods and deserts of Ziph, which separates Idumea from Judah. Here he sung salvation to the Lord. Here the inspiration of his soul was aided by the scenery of nature, and his devotion elevated by the severity of affliction. Oh how much is the christian church, as well as the kingdom of Israel, indebted to providence for Davids exile: during that period he composed many of his best and most instructive psalms. In these retreats, while David thought himself an object of misery, and the scorn of the drunkards song, behold Jonathan came to renew his covenant with him. David all doubt, Jonathan all faith, met together once more. The anointing of David by Samuel, it would now seem, had transpired; and Jonathan, full of goodness, seeing the deliverances providence had wrought for his brother and his friend, came at the risk of his fathers anger and his life, to do the exile homage as the king of Israel. We may say of this act, as Jesus said of the centurion, I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel. Jonathan surrenders his birthright back to God, and prefers being second under David, to the being first in the kingdom out of the order of God. This covenant is ratified by many witnesses, and confirmed by an oath of the Lord. Just so, poor dejected believer, when thou thinkest thy hope lost, and all things making against thee, the Lord Jesus comes from heaven to renew his covenant with thy fainting soul. He comes when thou art most surrounded with poverty, afflictions and tears, to say that the crown and the kingdom are thine. Never were friendship and love like that of Jonathan to David; and truly never was love like that of Jesus to thee.
The loving son had not long retired, and David had not long reached the wilderness of Maon, before the cruel father came to take the life of the Lords anointed. Informed by the treacherous Ziphites of all the retreats and habits of David, Saul in a manner surprised and surrounded him ere he was aware. Already did the bloody Benjamites, ravening as wolves, exult in their success: already did they say, There is no help for him in God. And now what should David do? The select band were coming round the little hill or rock; and he could not fight against a father; a crown obtained by crime is to the victor an awful boon. To David there was no hope of victory by arms; and a flight in the desert would have been attended by pursuit, by carnage, and by disasters the most afflictive. Now Satan would say, where is the hope of thy anointing? This day thou shalt fall by the hand of Saul, and thy life shall be as water spilt on the ground. Thou hast caused thy lustre to be involved in eternal night, and brought the utmost calamity on all thy faithful friends. So, for a moment, God seemed to sport with Davids fears. So for a moment, he suffered him to cry, what profit is there in my blood. Then when he had no friend to save him, behold, his enemies diverted the stroke. A swift-footed messenger cried with vehemence to Saul; the Philistines have invaded the land. Thus David was saved in the crisis of danger, and altogether by the watchful care of heaven. Surely David would now doubt no more, no more expressions of weakness would escape his lips. And surely the christian, contemplating all these works of the Lord, will learn to trust him in all straits, difficulties and afflictions; for his mercy endureth for ever.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1 Samuel 23. David Escapes from Saul (J).
1Sa 23:1-13. David hears that the Philistines are raiding the territory of Keilah (p. 31), a little S. of Adullam. He ascertains by oracles, probably using the ephod and the Urim and Thummim (pp. 100f.), that Yahweh approves of his going to the rescue; he thus overcomes the reluctance of his men. The expedition is entirely successful, but the ungrateful citizens of Keilah offered to surrender David and his men to Saul. It is quite possible that this troop of bandits, now grown to 600, had quartered themselves on Keilah, and were treating it as a conquered city. It would be interesting to hear the story from the point of view of Keilah; they may have felt that this act of treachery was the only way of getting rid of an intolerable burden. David, however, heard rumours, which were confirmed by the oracle, and left the place; so the scheme was frustrated. It is possible that the whole affair, oracle and all, was a device to induce David to leave the city, and that there was no real intention of delivering him up to Saul.
1Sa 23:6. Perhaps a later insertion, to explain the presence of the ephod in 1Sa 23:9.
1Sa 23:14-18. Continually hunted by Saul, David comes to Choresh, in the wilderness of Ziph, S. of Hebron, in fear of his life. Jonathan visits him and strengthens his hand in God, i.e. encourages him by assurances of Divine favour.
1Sa 23:15. saw that: rather feared because.
1Sa 23:15 f. wood: better, as a proper name, Choresh.
1Sa 23:19-29. Under the guidance of the Ziphites, Saul pursues David, and is on the point of capturing him, when he is recalled by the news of a Philistine invasion. David goes to Engedi, the fountain of the kid, about half-way along the W. coast of the Dead Sea.
1Sa 23:19. Jeshimon: mg.) Num 21:20, p. 31.
1Sa 23:23. thousands: families.
1Sa 23:24. wilderness of Maon: part of the wilderness of Judah.Araban: the valley extending along the Jordan, the Dead Sea, and southward.
1Sa 23:28. Selahammahlekoth: the better rendering is Rock of Divisions, perhaps in reference to Saul having been divided, or separated, from David.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
David remains devoted to his people Israel. It is disturbing to him to hear that the Philistines were fighting against Keilah and robbing grain from the threshing floors. Saul shows no concern for the welfare of these persecuted Israelites, but David enquires of the Lord as to whether he should attack the Philistines and save Keilah. The Lord’s answer is definite and clear: they spoke of being afraid even where they were in hiding: how much more if they came into open warfare with the Philistines? Saul would certainly then know of his whereabouts.
David then goes back to enquire of God a second time (v.4). Evidently it was simply confirmation he desired in order to convince his men. The Lord’s answer is positive: He would deliver the Philistines into David’s hand. Therefore David and his men act on this word, attacking the Philistines at Keilah, winning a complete victory, gaining the spoil of their cattle and saving the inhabitants of the city from their oppressors.
Verse 6 intervenes here to tell us that Abiathar had brought an ephod with him when he had come to David. In this ephod (or tunic) was set the urim and thummim, the breastplate with its twelve precious stones. This had special significance in inquiring of God because in this ALL the tribes of Israel were represented. If any wanted God to show favoritism, the ephod was a rebuke to this, for God would do only what was right for the sake of ALL of the tribes, and would not take sides with one against another. We too today must remember never to ask God for something that is inconsistent with the unity of the entire body of Christ, the Church. This would be sectarianism of which God can never approve.
The report came to Saul that David was at Keilah, and Saul thinks that God was favoring him by putting David in that critical position where Saul could apprehend and kill him (v.7). This glib talk about God shows how seared his conscience was. He would not go to Keilah to save the people there from the Philistines, but he would take his army there to fight against David, who had been willing to fight for Keilah!
David however had well learned to be on guard. He called for Abiathar to bring the ephod in order to enquire of God. His prayer to the Lord tells us that Saul was willing to go so far as to destroy Keilah in order to kill David. David understood this, but wanted confirmation from God as to what might transpire. His first question is, would Saul come? God answers, Yes, he would come (v.11). Of course it is understood that his coming would be only because David was there. He questions then, would the men of Keilah give David and his men up to Saul’? The Lord answered, Yes, they would do so (v.12). Of course we see in this that their attitude to David was not as strong as their fear of Saul. Yet we can understand their very natural thoughts: It was either this or their city would be destroyed. Terrible alternative!
David realized that his only course therefore was to leave the inhabited area and find a dwelling for himself and his 600 men elsewhere. They would not be safe in any city: they must accept the status of fugitives. When Saul heard they had left Keilah, he did not go there (v.13), but tried every day to find where David was (v.14). David and his men found strongholds in the mountainous area of the wilderness of Ziph. It was no small thing for 600 men to remain hidden: they would have to be ceaselessly on guard.
Yet Jonathan knew where David was, possibly through a messenger sent to him by David. He went, evidently alone, and found David in the woods, where he “strengthened his hand in God” (v.10). David would certainly be grateful for this true hearted encouragement. Jonathan confidently assures him that Saul will not find him. He had no doubt that God’s having had David anointed was an absolute promise that David would yet be king. He added however, “I shall be next unto thee.” This was a sad mistake, for though Jonathan was devoted to David, he did not take the path of suffering with him, and later died with Saul. He said too, “that my father knoweth,” indicating that Saul knew David was God’s choice for king, though he was determined to prevent it if he could.
When Jonathan had come to encourage David in the woods, we are told they made a covenant before the Lord. This was likely a confirmation of a previous covenant of which David speaks in chapter 20:8. David remained a fugitive, however, but Jonathan went to his house, and there is no record that they ever had the joy of seeing one another again.
The Ziphites were not honorable men, and were willing to betray David in order to be in Saul’s favor. They informed Saul of David’s hiding in strongholds in their area (vs.19-20). David did not confine himself to one location, however, but they thought that if Saul came to seek him, they would be able to pinpoint his location for Saul. Saul’s answer to them is despicable. He tells them they are blessed of the Lord because they were showing compassion to Saul (v.21). He was determined to show the opposite of compassion to David by murdering him. David was no threat to him whatever, but Saul considered them compassionate because they were willing to implicate themselves in the murder of David!
Saul however wanted more certainty of finding David, and urged them to obtain all the information they possibly could as to all the places David might be likely to hide (vs.22-23). He uses words in speaking to them that were only the figment of his imagination: “It is told me that he dealeth very subtly.” Saul had himself dealt this way with David, but David’s dealings with Saul had been frank and open until he had to flee for his life.
Saul did take advantage of the information he had received, however, to take his men with him to Ziph. When David heard this he changed his location to a rocky area of Maon. Saul gets information of this move, and pursues David at close proximity, evidently only a small mountain separating them. It seemed imminent that Saul and his men would surround David and his small company.
But God intervened. A messenger came to Saul to tell him that the Philistines had invaded the land (v.27). This was a jolting reminder to Saul that he ought to recognize who his actual enemies were. He had to leave in order to defend his own land. All this history had pertinent lessons for David. He had been on the verge of discovery and death. But God had decreed he would be king. There was no possibility that Saul would kill him. Did the Lord not put him directly in the face of danger in order to show him that the Lord is greater than all the circumstances, and therefore that David had no reason for fear, but every reason for unfaltering confidence in God? Should not we today — every believer – have such living, practical faith in the living God?
The place was called Sela-hammalekoth, meaning “the rock of divisions.” Divisions in Israel are not pleasant to contemplate, no more than they are in the Church of God, but when division was forced upon David, God could yet sustain him in maintaining a right attitude toward all Israel, just as He can do for believers who by necessity are separated from others whom they love. David then finds another place of dwelling at En-gedi (“fountain of the kid”), a place of refreshment, even though he was as a helpless, sensitive kid surrounded by beasts of prey
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
23:1 Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against {a} Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors.
(a) Which was a city in the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:44.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. Saul’s pursuit of David ch. 23
The literary spotlight now moves back from Saul to David and his activities.
"We have just witnessed how Saul, in an outburst of rage, became responsible for the destruction of the priestly city of Nob. In ch. 23, David, even while on the run from Saul, is shown saving a city from Philistine attack." [Note: Gordon, I & II Samuel . . ., p. 175.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
David at Keilah 23:1-14
David went to rescue the people of Keilah from the Philistines, but then he had to flee from that town because the citizens were going to hand him over to Saul.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
David’s rescue of Keilah 23:1-5
Keilah was about three miles southeast of Adullam in the Shephelah, the foothills between the coastal plain on the west and the hill country of Judah on the east. The Philistines were plundering the threshing floors there. The threshing floors were places where the Israelites stored their threshed grain after threshing it (cf. 2Ki 6:27; Joe 2:24). David sought to defend his countrymen and fellow Judahites from their hostile foreign enemy, even though he was also watching out for Saul. Saul should have come to their rescue since he was the king, but there is no mention of him doing so.
The writer recorded in this passage that David inquired of the Lord four times (1Sa 23:2; 1Sa 23:4; 1Sa 23:10-11). He placed himself under God’s authority, though Saul did not. For this reason God could and did work through David as His vice-regent. God manifested His will through the Urim and Thummim in the priestly ephod (1Sa 23:6; 1Sa 23:9; cf. Exo 28:30). The Urim (lit. lights) and Thummim (lit. perfections) were evidently two stones or similar objects, one light and the other dark in color. The high priest carried them in the pocket on the front of his ephod (apron). He ascertained God’s will by drawing one out after mentally assigning a meaning to each. Evidently Abiathar interpreted the will of God for David.
David was not just defending himself during this period of his life. He was aggressively carrying out the will of God by defeating Israel’s enemies as the Lord’s anointed servant. God told David to go against the Philistines first. Then, in response to David’s second prayer, He promised that He (emphatic in the Hebrew text) would give the Philistines into David’s hand. David’s men were understandably afraid to attack the Philistines who had greater numbers and stronger forces. Nevertheless David attacked and soundly defeated the Philistines because of God’s promise and power. The writer gave credit to David for the victory (1Sa 23:5), but clearly it was God who enabled him to win against such a daunting foe (1Sa 23:4).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XXX.
DAVID AT KEILAH, ZIPH, AND MAON.
1Sa 23:1-29.
THE period of David’s life shortly sketched in this chapter, must have been full of trying and exciting events. If we knew all the details, they would probably be full of romantic interest; many a tale of privation, disease, discomfort, on the one hand, and of active conflicts and hair-breadth escapes on the other. The district which he frequented was a mountainous tract, bordering on the west coast of the Dead Sea, and lying exposed more or less to the invasions of the neighbouring nations. In the immediate neighbourhood of Ziph, Maon, and Carmel, the country – a fine upland plain – is remarkably rich and fertile; but between these places and the Dead Sea it changes to a barren wilderness; the rocky valleys that run down to the margin of the sea, parched by the heat and drought, produce only a dry stunted grass. Innumerable caves are everywhere to be seen, still affording shelter to outlaws and robbers. But at Engedi (now Ain-Jidy, “the fountain of the goat”), the last place mentioned in this chapter, the traveler finds a little plain on the shore of the Dead Sea, where the soil is remarkably rich; a delicious fountain fertilizes it; shut in between walls of rock, both its climate and its products are like those of the tropics; it only wants cultivation to render it a most prolific spot.
By what means did David obtain sustenance for himself and his large troop in these sequestered regions? Bayle, in the article in his famous Dictionary on “David,” – an article which gave the cue to much that has been said and written against him since, – speaks of them as a troop of robbers, and compares them to the associates of Catiline, and even Dean Stanley calls them “freebooters.” Both expressions are obviously unwarranted. The only class of persons whom David and his troop regarded as enemies were the open enemies of his country, – that is, either persons who lived by plunder, or the tribes on whom Saul, equally with himself, would have made war. That David regarded himself as entitled to attack and pillage the Hebrew settlers in his own tribe of Judah is utterly inconsistent with all that we know both of his character and of his history. If David had a weakness, it lay in his extraordinary partiality for his own people, contrasted with his hard and even harsh feelings towards the nations that so often annoyed them. Nothing was too good for a Hebrew, nothing too severe for an alien. In after life, we see how his heart was torn to its very centre by the judgment that fell upon his people after his offence in numbering the people (2Sa 24:17); while the record of his severity to the Ammonites cannot be read without a shudder (2Sa 12:31). Besides, in this very narrative, in the account of his collision with Nabal (1Sa 25:7), we find David putting in the very forefront of his message to the churl the fact that all the time he and his troop were in Carmel the shepherds of Nabal sustained no hurt, and his flocks no diminution. Instead of fleecing his own countrymen, he sent them presents when he was more successful than usual against their common foes (1Sa 30:26). Unquestionably therefore such terms as “robbers” and “freebooters” are quite undeserved.
One chief source of support would obviously be the chase – the wild animals that roamed among these mountains, the wild goat and the coney, the pigeon and the partridge, and other creatures whose flesh was clean. Possibly, patches of soil, like the oasis at Engedi, would be cultivated, and a scanty return obtained from the labour. A third employment would be that of guarding the flocks of the neighbouring shepherds both from bears, wolves, and lions, and from the attacks of plundering bands, for which service some acknowledgment was certainly due. At the best, it was obviously a most uncomfortable mode of life, making not a little rough work very necessary; an utter contrast to the peaceful early days of Bethlehem, and rendering it infinitely more difficult to sing, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
Acting as guardian to the shepherds in the neighbourhood, and being the avowed foe of all the Arab tribes who were continually making forays from their desert haunts on the land of Judah, David was in the very midst of enemies. Hence probably the allusions in some of the psalms. “Consider mine enemies, for they are many, and they hate me with cruel hatred.” “Mine enemies would daily swallow me up, for there be many that fight against me, O Thou Most High.” “My soul is among lions, and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.” Could we know all his trials and difficulties, we should be amazed at his tranquility. One morning, an outpost brings him word that Saul is marching against him. He hastily arranges a retreat, and he and his men clamber over the mountains, perhaps under a burning sun, and reach their halting-place at night, exhausted with thirst, hunger, and fatigue. Scarcely have they lain down, when an alarm is given that a body of Bedouins are plundering the neighbouring sheepfolds. Forgetful of their fatigues, they rush to their arms, pursue the invaders, and rescue the prey. Next morning, perhaps, the very men whose flock he had saved, refuse to make him any acknowledgment. Murmurs rise from his hungry followers, and a sort of mutiny is threatened if he will not allow them to help themselves. To crown all, he learns by-and-bye, that the people whom he has delivered have turned traitors and are about to give him up to Saul. Wonderful was the faith that could rise above such troubles, and say, ”Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.”
In illustration of these remarks let us note first what took place in connection with Keilah. This was a place of strength and importance not far from the land of the Philistines. A rumour reaches him that the Philistines are fighting against it and robbing the threshing-floors. The first thing he does, on hearing this rumour, is to inquire of God whether he should go and attack the Philistines. It is not a common case. The Philistines were a powerful enemy; probably their numbers were large, and it was a serious thing for David to provoke them when he had so many enemies besides. This was evidently the feeling of his followers. “Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” But David is in an admirable frame of mind, and his only anxiety is about knowing precisely the will of God. He inquires again, and when he gets his answer he does not hesitate an instant. It was about this time that Abiathar the son of Ahimelech came to him, bringing an ephod from Nob, perhaps the only sacred thing that in the hurry and horror of his flight he was able to carry away. And now, in his time of need, David finds the value of these things; he knows the privilege of fearing God, and of having God at his right hand. The fears of his men appear now to be overcome; he goes to Keilah, attacks the Philistines, smites them with a very great slaughter, brings away their cattle and rescues the people. It is a great deliverance, and David, with peace and plenty around him, and the benedictions of the men of Keilah, breathes freely and praises God.
But his sense of ease and tranquility was of short duration. Saul hears of what has taken place, and hears that David has taken up his quarters within the town of Keilah. He chuckles over the news with fiendish satisfaction, for Keilah is a fortified town; he will be able to shut up David within its walls and lay siege to the place, and when he has taken it, David will be at his mercy. But Saul, as usual, reckons without his host. David has received information that leads him to suspect that Saul is meditating mischief against him, and it looks as if he had come to Keilah only to fall into a trap, – to fall into the hands of Saul. But though a new danger has arisen, the old refuge still remains. “Bring hither the ephod,” he says to Abiathar. And communication being again established with Heaven, two questions are asked: Will Saul come down to Keilah, to destroy the city for David’s sake? Yes, he will. Will the men of Keilah whom David has saved from the Philistines distinguish themselves for their gratitude or for their treachery? They will become traitors; they will deliver David up to Saul. So there is nothing for it but tor David to escape from Keilah. The worst of it is, he has no other place to go to. He goes forth from Keilah, as his father Abraham went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, not knowing whither. He and his followers went “whithersoever they could go.” Treachery was a new foe, and when the treachery was on the part of those on whom he had just conferred a signal benefit, it was most discouraging; it seemed to indicate that he could never be safe.
Flying from Keilah, he takes refuge in a part of the wilderness near Ziph. Being very rocky and mountainous, it affords good opportunities for hiding; but in proportion as it is advantageous for that purpose, it is unfavourable for getting sufficient means of subsistence. A wood in the neighbourhood of Ziph afforded the chance of both. In this wood David enjoys the extra- ordinary privilege of a meeting with Jonathan. What a contrast to his treatment from the men of Keilah! If, on turning his back on them, he was disposed to say, “All men are liars,” the blessed generosity of Jonathan modifies the sentiment. In such circumstances, the cheering words of his friend and the warmth of his embrace must have come on David with infinite satisfaction. They were to him what the loving words of the dying thief were to the Saviour, amid the babel and blasphemy of Calvary. Who, indeed, does not see in the David of this time, persevering in his work under such fearful discouragements, under the treachery of men with hearts like Judas Iscariot, experiencing the worst treatment from some whom he had benefited already, and from others whom he was to benefit still more – who can fail to see the type of Christ, patiently enduring the cross at the hands and in the stead of the very men whom by His sufferings He was to save and bless? For David, like our blessed Lord, though not with equal steadfastness, drinks the cup which the Father has given him; he holds to the work which has been given him to do.
The brief note of Jonathan’s words to David in the wood is singularly beautiful and suggestive. ”Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said unto him. Fear not; for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee, and that also Saul my father knoweth.” To begin with the last of Jonathan’s words, what a lurid light they throw on the conduct of Saul! He was under no misapprehension as to the Divine destiny of David. He must have known therefore that in fighting against David, he was fighting against God. It looks unaccountable madness; yet what worse is it than a thousand other schemes in which, to carry out their ends, men have trampled on every moral precept, as if there were no God, no lawgiver, ruler, or judge above, no power in hell or heaven witnessing their actions to bring them all into judgment?
In his words to David the faith and piety of Jonathan were as apparent as his friendship. He strengthened his hand in God. Simple but beautiful words! He put David’s hand as it were into God’s hand, in token that they were one, in token that the Almighty was pledged to keep and bless him, and that when he and his God were together, no weapon formed against him would ever prosper. Surely no act of friendship is so true friendship as this. To remind our Christian friends in their day of trouble of their relation to God, to encourage them to think of His interest in them and His promises to them; to drop in their ear some of His assurances – “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” – is surely the best of all ways to encourage the downcast, and send them on their way rejoicing.
And what a hallowed word that was with which Jonathan began his exhortation – ”Fear not.” The ”fear not’s” of Scripture are a remarkable garland. All of them have their root in grace, not in nature. They all imply a firm exercise of faith. And Jonathan’s “fear not” was no exception. If David had not been a man of faith, it would have sounded like hollow mockery. “The hand of Saul my father shall not find thee.” Was not Saul with his well-equipped force, at that very moment, within a few miles of him, while he, with his half-starved followers was at his very wits’ end, not knowing where to turn to next? “Thou shalt be king over Israel.” Nay, friend, I should be well pleased, David might have said, if I were again feeding my father’s flocks in Bethlehem, with all that has happened since then obliterated, reckoned as if it had never been. “And I shall be next unto thee.” O Jonathan, how canst thou say that? Thou art the king’s eldest son, the throne ought to be thine, there is none worthier of it; the very fact that thou canst say that to me shows what a kingly generosity is in thy bosom, and how well entitled thou art to reign over Israel! Yes, David, but does not the very fact of Jonathan using such words show that he is in closest fellowship with God? Only a man pervaded through and through by the Spirit of God could speak thus to the person who stands between him and what the world would call his reasonable ambition. In that spirit of Jonathan there is a goodness altogether Divine. Oh what a contrast to his father, to Saul! What a contrast to the ordinary spirit of jealousy, when someone is like to cut us out of a coveted prize! Someone at school is going to beat you at the competition. Someone in business is going to get the situation for which you are so eager. Someone is going to carry off the fair hand to which you so ardently aspire. Where, oh where, in such cases, is the spirit of Jonathan? Look at it, study it, admire it; and in its clear and serene light, see what a black and odious spirit jealousy is; and oh, seek that you, by the grace of God, may be, not a Saul, but a Jonathan!
It would appear that Saul had left the neighbourhood of Ziph in despair of finding David, and had returned to Gibeah. But the distance was small – probably not more than a long day’s journey. And after a time. Saul is recalled to Ziph by a message from the Ziphites “Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in strong holds in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon? Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hand.” The men of Keilah had not gone the length of treachery, for when they were thinking of it, David escaped; but even if they had, they would have had some- thing to say for themselves. Was it not better to give up David and let him suffer, than to keep him in their city, and let both him and them and their city share the fate, as they would have been sure to do, of Ahimelech and the city of Nob, – that is, be utterly destroyed? But the men of Ziph were in no such dilemma. Their treachery was simple meanness. They no doubt wished to ingratiate themselves with Saul. They had no faith either in David, or in God’s promises regarding him. Disbelieving God, they acted inhumanly to man. They let Saul know his best opportunity, and when he came on the spot, apparently of a sudden, David and his troop were surrounded, and their escape seemed to be cut off. Here was a strange commentary on the strong assurance of Jonathan, “Saul my father shall not find thee.” Has he not found me, only to too good purpose? But man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. When Saul seems ready to pounce on David, a messenger arrives, “Haste thee, and come, for the Philistines have invaded the land.” The danger was imminent, and Saul could not afford to lose an hour. And thus, on the very eve of seizing the prey he had been hunting for years, he is compelled to let it go.
It is edifying to observe all the different ways in which the Divine protection toward David had been shown, all the time that he had been exposed to the hostility of Saul. First of all, when Saul spoke to his servants and to Jonathan that they should kill David, Jonathan was raised up to take his side, and by his friendly counsels, arrested for the time the murderous purpose of Saul. Next, when Saul hurled a javelin at David, a rapid movement saved his life. The third time, he was let down through a window by his wife, in time to escape. The fourth time, the messengers that were sent to apprehend him were filled with the Spirit of God, and even Saul, determined to make up for their lack of service, underwent the same transformation. The fifth time, when he was in Keilah, he was supernaturally warned of the unkind treachery of the men of Keilah; and thus escaped the snare. And now, a sixth escape is effected, in the very article of death, so to speak, by a Philistine invasion. Thus was illustrated that wonderful diversity of plan that characterizes the ways of God, that “variety in unity” which we may trace alike in the kingdom of nature, of providence, and of grace. A similar variety is seen in His deliverances of Israel. At one time the sea is divided, at another the sun stands still; Gideon delivers by lamps and pitchers, Shamgar by his ox-goad, Samson by the jawbone of an ass, Jephthah by his military talents, David by his sling and stone, Daniel by his skill in dreams, Esther by her beauty and power of fascination. To remember such things ought to give you confidence in times of perplexity and danger. If it be God’s purpose to deliver you, He has thousands of unseen methods, to any one of which He may resort, when, to the eye of sense, there seems not the shadow of a hope. And one reason why He seems at times to doom His children to inevitable ruin, is that He may call their faith and their patience into higher exercise, and teach them more impressively the sublime lesson – “Stand still, and see the salvation of God.”
The fifty-fourth Psalm bears an inscription that would refer it to this occasion. There are some expressions in the psalm that hardly agree with this reference; but the general situation is quite in keeping with it. “Save me, O God,” the Psalmist cries, “by Thy name, and judge me by Thy strength.” The danger from which he needs to be saved comes from strangers that are risen up against him, and opposers that seek after his soul; persons “that have not set God before them.” To be saved by God’s name is to be saved through attributes which are manifestly Divine; to be judged by God’s strength, is to be vindicated, to be shown to be under God’s favour and protection, by the manifest exercise of His power. The petitions are such as David might well have made after his conversation with Jonathan. The psalm is evidently the song of one whose hand had been “strengthened in God.” Its great central truth is, “God is mine helper; the Lord is with them who (like Jonathan) uphold my soul.” And there comes after that a happy exercise of the spirit of trust, enabling the Psalmist to say, “He hath delivered me out of all trouble.” This result is wonderful and beautiful. How remarkable that m that wilderness of Judah, amid a life of hardship, exposure, and peril, with a powerful king thirsting for his blood, and using his every device to get hold of him, he should be able to say of God, ”He hath delivered me out of all trouble.” It is the faith that removes mountains: it is the faith that worked so wonderfully when the lad with the sling and stones went out so bravely against the giant. What wonders cannot faith perform when it gets clear of all the entanglements of carnal feeling, and stands, firm and erect, on the promise of God! How infinitely would such a faith relieve and sustain us in the common troubles and anxieties of life, and in deeper perplexities connected with the cause of God! Take this short clause as marking out the true quality and highest attainment of simple faith, and resolve that you will not rest in your own endeavours till your mind reaches the state of tranquility which it describes so simply, – “He hath delivered me out of all trouble.”