Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 23:12
Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the LORD said, They will deliver [thee] up.
12. They will deliver thee up ] With the cowardice and ingratitude of thorough selfishness. Cp. Jdg 15:10-13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The conduct of the men of Keilah would be like that of the men of Judah to Samson their deliverer Jdg 15:10-13.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Sa 23:12
They will deliver thee up.
The men of Keilah
When first; introduced to us here, David is represented as being reduced to great straits by the malignant hostility of Saul. But although Davids condition seems so desperate, and Sauls power so great–when an emergency arises, and the men of Keilah find themselves in sore straits, it is not from Saul, the king after mans own heart, but from the despised David, that assistance comes. Let us try and picture to ourselves the scene. The country folk are crowding into the little town by hundredth. Their homesteads have been pillaged and burned, and they themselves have only escaped with their lives. The ruthless Philistines have already stripped some of them of everything they possess, and unless unlooked for help arrive there seems no escape from the superior forces of the foe. They have taken refuge for the moment in Keilah, but this temporary shelter affords them no real security. The town is quite unprepared to stand a siege, or even to resist a vigorous assault. On every face you can see sorrow and anxiety only too plainly printed. Suddenly breathless messengers appear approaching the walls of the little city, and it is easy to see that they are the bearers of good tidings. From lip to lip the good news spreads, and all is summed up in a single word, and that word is David. Yes, it is actually true; the conqueror of Goliath of Gath has once again put his life in his hands, and wrought a great deliverance. The Philistines are utterly routed, and Keilah is saved. Imagine if you can the feelings of the eager multitude at that moment, as him good news spreads like wildfire amongst them. See yonder the old men, the fathers of the city, are lifting up their hands to God, and pouring forth praise; mothers are weeping for joy, and strong men have tears in their eyes as they grasp each others hands in heartfelt gratulation. And have not some of us known something of a similar feeling in the course of our own inner life? Was there not a time when we woke up to find ourselves in terrible danger, and indeed were driven to despair of helping ourselves, or escaping by our own futile strugglings out of the hand of the destroyer. Robbed and injured, and threatened with still graver evils, we found ourselves reduced to the sorest straits, and nothing that the world spirit could do for us could relieve us from our misery or our peril. Some of you have known something of all this in your own personal experience. And then there came the moment of deliverance, when you were able to say, I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. Not by a Miltonic conflict between winged combatants, not by any display of divine omnipotence crushing down all opposition, but none the less by the most sublime deed of heroism that ever was performed, deliverance came. Our wistful gaze turned at last towards the cross of Calvary, and there we saw our battle fought and won by Him whom man despised, whom the world crucified as a felon outside the gate. A new and not less alarming peril arose, and one they had neither foreseen nor even thought of in their first moments of joyous enthusiasm. It is heard with feelings of consternation that the infuriated king is preparing to march upon the ill-fated town, thus exposed to a new and not less terrible alarm. What was to be done? Their manner towards David becomes cold and restrained, and soon, no doubt, the rulers and elders of the town gather together in secret conclave to discuss bow they were to deal with their former benefactor and friend. Meanwhile David also is making the discovery of his new danger. He has received the information from the Urim and Thummim, Saul will certainly come down. And the sacred historian lets us into the secret cause of this hostile movement. On hearing of Davids entry into Keilah, Saul had exclaimed, God hath delivered him into my hand, etc. There is something very suggestive and instructive in all this. The entrance of Christ into our nature offers Satan his opportunity, and you may depend upon it he will use it. So soon as Jesus Christ is received into our hearts, and when we have admitted His royal claim, or even begun to recognize Him as the anointed Heir of all, the world will begin to marshal its forces against us; and the great object of the prince of the world is to induce us to commit just such an act of perfidy as Saul expected or desired from the men of Keilah. This much is sure, Saul will certainly come down. This spirit of rancorous hatred which animated Saul against David has been reproduced over and over again in the history of the Christian Church. This moved the heathen of old in their persecution of the primitive Christians; and those who confessed Christ in those days, and were true to Him, knew well that in every city bonds and imprisonments, and perhaps even torture and death, awaited them. And when persecution is not thus public and open, it is often none the less cruel. I have known of fathers in affluent circumstances who have threatened to cut their sons off with a shilling if they did not give up their religion, and who have proved as good as their word. Amongst our friends in our home circle, in society, in the workshop, in the regiment, on sea or land, they who are true to their divine Master are exposed to the bitter animosity and relentless persecution of the world. And let us remember that the persecution that takes the form of ribald scorn or refined contempt is less easily tolerated by many natures than more violent measures of persecution. To return to the men of Keilah, whom we left in solemn conclave assembled to consider this new danger, and how it was to be met. I fancy I can see one shrewd and keen-looking old man rising up amongst his neighbours go give his view of the matter–a sort of moral anticipation of the counsel of Caiaphas. It is a very simple and a very practical question that we are about to decide, my friends, and I will put it thus in a single sentence: Is one man to perish, or the city? That is the question in its naked simplicity. Some will, I dare say, talk very sentimentally of the brave thing David has done, and of the debt of gratitude we owe him. Well, that may be all very fine as a matter of sentiment; but this is a business meeting, and our wisdom will lie in taking a calm, dispassionate, business-like view of the matter. We have, of course, to consider our own interests. We are in a work-a-day sort of world, and we must regard everything from a business point of view. Three courses are open to tin. Either to fight Davids battle, and share Davids fate, sacrificing our lives, or flying with him to the mountains of the wild goats, leaving our city to be spared by the conqueror. Our next course is to give David a word of warning, and tell him at our dilemma. That may seem a right thing to do; but if Saul known that we have done it we shall bring down his indignation on our heads, and the probability is that he will vent his fury on the men of Keilah; so that our case will be just as bad as it would be if David were within our walls. The third course, and to my mind it is the only sensible one, is to make up our mind that when the time comes we will deliver David up to his master, and to intimate this our intention at once to Saul. Whatever may come of this, the responsibility will be with Saul, and not with us; we shall only have acted as our circumstances compelled us to do. Of course we are very sorry for David, and of course we all feel profound regret at having to treat a man so, who has been very useful to us. But then, you know, as I have said, we must consider ourselves. This is our only chance of safety, and we must make the most of it. We may not like doing it, but we all have to do a great many things that we dont like. And while they are thus deliberating, there is David alone with God and his priest. The ephod is brought out, and the enquiry is made, Will Saul come down? and the answer is, He will come down. Davids heart sinks within him. O Lord! he asks a second time, will the men of Keilah deliver me up and my men into the hands of Saul? And from the mystic breastplate the inexorable answer is returned, They will deliver thee up. I wonder if that was the moment when David said in his haste, All men are liars. At any rate, I do not suppose he ever entertained a lower estimate of humanity than at that moment. These fervent thanks, expressed with so much emotion, were only empty breath after all. What a miserable world it is! Honour and manliness seem vanished from it, and truth has sped her flight. It must have been a sad moment; and which of us would not have felt for him? But stay. Have we no similar feelings for another Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief; another, to whom we ourselves owe far more than the men of Keilah ever owed to David? It comes to pass that not a few Christians who have once known something of the great deliverance, and rejoiced in Gods salvation, prove false to their Master in the hour of trial, that they may escape the worlds hostility. They throw open the gates of Mansoul to the world, and so betray their Master into the hands of His foe by betraying His cause. You may be sure that the first care of the world spirit when thus invited to enter and take possession of our nature will be, so to speak, to assassinate his rival, and Christ will desert the desecrated fane, and leave the soul to its new false friends. (W. Aitken, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. 1Sa 23:11.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To wit, if thou abidest there; for God saw their hearts, their purposes and passions, their aversion from David, and their affections to Saul, and knew better than themselves what they would do in that case.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Then said David, will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?…. That is, the lords and great men of the place, the governor of the city, and the heads of it, the chief magistrates in it:
and the Lord said, they will deliver [thee] up: that is, provided he stayed there; for the Lord knew the dispositions and affections of their minds, that they were inclined to do it, and would do it, if he continues among them till Saul came down; which showed the great ingratitude of this people to their deliverer.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1Sa 23:12. And the Lord said, They will deliver thee up One would imagine, that this extraordinary success, in the deliverance of so great a city, might have secured David a safe retreat among the men of Keilah; but it was not so: such is the nature of man; present dangers quickly obliterate past obligations. Gratitude is without question a most lovely virtue, but too seldom lives in the extremes either of adversity or success. It is like those fine colours which storms and sun-shine equally deface. This is an event which, methinks, will easily solve that hard question about the consistency of the divine prescience with human free-will. A good politician, who was let into the course of Saul’s secret practices with the men of Keilah, and had fair opportunities of sifting their dispositions upon the point, might fairly pronounce upon the event: how much more then that all-seeing GOD, who searcheth the secrets of the heart, and seeth the thoughts afar off; seeth them in all their secret workings, tendencies, and temptations, and through all their mazes and masks. The treachery of the men of Keilah to David has given frequent occasion to observe how much more honourable was the conduct of the Athenians to their guardians, their orators, whom no threats could oblige them to give up to the resentment of Alexander.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Sa 23:12 Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the LORD said, They will deliver [thee] up.
Ver. 12. Will the men of Keilah. ] Here is a second inquiry. God loveth to be often sought unto by his praying people, Luk 18:1 and therefore answereth them by degrees, that he may frequently hear from them. Thus the cloud emptieth not itself at a sudden burst, but dissolveth upon the earth drop after drop.
They will deliver thee up.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
deliver: Heb. shut up, Psa 31:8
They will: 1Sa 23:7, Psa 62:1, Psa 118:8, Ecc 9:14, Ecc 9:15, Isa 29:15, Heb 4:13
Reciprocal: 1Sa 10:22 – inquired 1Sa 22:10 – he inquired 1Sa 24:18 – delivered me Psa 38:20 – render Psa 62:9 – Surely Jer 11:18 – the Lord
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
IN PERILS AMONG FALSE BRETHREN
They will deliver thee up. God delivered him not into Sauls hand.
1Sa 23:12; 1Sa 23:14
I. Base ingratitude.The treachery of the people of Keilah was like that of Judas. David had risked his life to save the town from the Philistines. Notwithstanding the danger he was already in from Saul, and against the earnest protest of his men not to endanger himself further with warring with the Philistines, he generously went to the rescue of the helpless inhabitants of Keilah. One would naturally suppose that their gratitude would be such that they would, in turn, have defended him against Saul. But evidently they had no sense of honour. They would do the thing they thought best for their own self-interest.
Saul was coming with a great army. It seemed likely that David and his few men would be taken, anyway; and the people of Keilah probably expected to gain favour, and possibly a reward from the king. Had they had faith to believe that only a few more months would pass, and then David would have all power in the land, they would most likely have acted differently. Keilah and Judas are not the only ones who, for the hope of worldly favour or gain, have betrayed the rightful King. In business and social life there come, almost every day, opportunities to stand for Christ against His enemies; but how often, from fear of man, or in the hope of gaining favour or making money, a child of God will, like a coward, betray his Lord by an act, or by a laugh, or by silence when he should speak, notwithstanding the fact that Christ has given His life to save us from our great enemy.
II. David and Saul: a contrast.Davids reliance upon Gods guidance, and his confidence in Gods help, are in sharp contrast to the empty profession of religiousness which Saul constantly assumed. David would not smite the Philistines without ascertaining whether it was Gods will (1Sa 23:2). He would not leave Keilah on his own judgment, but inquired what was the Lords mind about it (vv. 911). When the Ziphites were about to disclose his lurking place, he sings: Save me, O God! by Thy Name. Behold! God is my helper. For He hath delivered me out of all trouble (Psalms 54).
But observe, in contrast, Sauls words to the Ziphites: Blessed be ye of the Lord, for ye have had compassion upon me (v. 21). Where God is unable to help us is in paths of our own choosing. But it is impossible to walk with Him and fall into the hands of Saul. Saul may seek us every day, and false friends, as the Ziphites, play into his hands, but we may say, as David did at this time (Psalms 54), that God is with them that uphold our souls, and that His Name is good.
III. But amid all the outward strife God provides for us, as He did for David, some Jonathan, some rill of human love, some sweet friendship or brotherhood.Ah! this is the use of a friend, to strengthen our hands in God, to whisper words of hope, to enter into covenant with us. And this is what that Best of Friends does, Who discovers us in the deepest, thickest woods, and whispers His Fear not. There is no soul so lonely or desolate with whom Jesus will not enter into covenant and pour in the oil of His comfort and the wine of His love.
Illustrations
(1) A wanderers life was this in very deed! Yet here, amid the rocks and caves of Judah, David wrote many of his most helpful Psalms. The whole Church is richer for these days of trial; and here is the clue to much that we cannot understand of the meaning of pain. We have to learn in suffering what we teach in song. But amid his wanderings how closely David walked with God! Before starting on his expeditions he carefully, and more than once, inquired of God, through the mysterious Urim and Thummin which Abiathar had brought with him. And when once a man gets into this blessed habit he may rely on Gods deliverances.
(2) That the men of Keilah, suffering from plundering bands of Philistines, should have sought help from David rather than from Saul indicates his standing before the people and the service rendered to the country by his band of armed men. It astonishes us that Keilah, saved by David, is so ungrateful as to consent to surrender him to the power of Saul. The fact gives us a new sense of the trials incident to this period of Davids history. He owed his safety to the forewarnings of danger which he obtained from the Lord, at one time through the prophet Gad; at other times through the priests with the linen ephod.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Sa 23:12. The Lord said, They will deliver thee up God saw the base and cowardly disposition of the inhabitants of Keilah, who, though they had been so lately delivered by David, yet would have given him up, had he stayed among them, at the first appearance of Sauls army coming against them. And here, methinks, says Delaney, is an event that will easily solve that hard question, about the consistency of the divine prescience with human free-will. A good politician, who was let into the course of Sauls secret practices with the men of Keilah, and had fair opportunities of sifting their dispositions upon the point, might fairly pronounce upon the event; how much more, then, that all-seeing God, who searcheth the secrets of the heart, and seeth the thoughts afar off seeth them in all their secret workings, tendencies, and temptations, and through all their mazes and masks. To explain this a little further: the inhabitants of Keilah acted freely, just as their own hearts dictated to them; they were at liberty to behave faithfully to David, had he stayed among them, as well as to betray him. God did not, therefore, pronounce that they would deliver him up to Saul, because he had laid them under any absolute necessity of so doing; but because he saw Sauls secret designs, on the one hand, and the secret workings of their minds, and their tendency to fear and baseness, on the other. And, therefore, when David inquired of him, he pronounced, They will deliver thee up. If any person could have known as much of their hearts as God, he might have pronounced the same concerning them. It is, however, the property of God only to see the secrets of the heart. And as this power in him extends to every man that cometh into the world, as folly as it did to the people of Keilah, we may easily conceive how God foreknows all the changes of events in this world from the beginning to the end, though he leave the human mind to act of itself freely; and only by his superintending wisdom directs all, to bring about his gracious purposes, and to educe good from evil.