1 Samuel 23

1Sa 23:1-6.

DAVID

RESCUES

KEILAH.

1. Then they told David--rather, "now they had told"; for this

information had reached him previous to his hearing

(1Sa 23:6)

of the Nob tragedy.

Keilah--a city in the west of Judah

(Jos 15:44),

not far from the forest of Hareth.

and they rob the threshing-floors--These were commonly situated on

the fields and were open to the wind

(Jud 6:11;

Ru 3:2).

2-5. David inquired of the Lord--most probably through Gad

(2Sa 24:11;

1Ch 21:9),

who was present in David's camp

(1Sa 22:5),

probably by the recommendation of Samuel. To repel unprovoked assaults

on unoffending people who were engaged in their harvest operations, was

a humane and benevolent service. But it was doubtful how far it was

David's duty to go against a public enemy without the royal commission;

and on that account he asked, and obtained, the divine counsel. A demur

on the part of his men led David to renew the consultation for their

satisfaction; after which, being fully assured of his duty, he

encountered the aggressors and, by a signal victory, delivered the

people of Keilah from further molestation.

6. an ephod--in which was the Urim and Thummim

(Ex 28:30).

It had, probably, been committed to his care, while Ahimelech and the

other priests repaired to Gibeah, in obedience to the summons of

Saul.

1Sa 23:7-13.

SAUL'S

COMING, AND

TREACHERY OF THE

KEILITES.

7. it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah--Saul imagined

himself now certain of his victim, who would be hemmed within a

fortified town. The wish was father to the thought. How wonderfully

slow and unwilling to be convinced by all his experience, that the

special protection of Providence shielded David from all his snares!

8. Saul called all the people together to war--not the united tribes

of Israel, but the inhabitants of the adjoining districts. This force

was raised, probably, on the ostensible pretext of opposing the

Philistines, while, in reality, it was secretly to arouse mischief

against David.

9. he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod--The

consultation was made, and the prayer uttered, by means of the priest.

The alternative conditions here described have often been referred to

as illustrating the doctrine of God's foreknowledge and preordination

of events.

1Sa 23:14-18.

DAVID

ESCAPES TO

ZIPH.

14, 15. David abode in the wilderness . . . of Ziph--A mountainous and

sequestered region was generally called a wilderness, and took its name

from some large town in the district. Two miles southeast of Hebron,

and in the midst of a level plain, is Tell-ziph, an isolated and

conical hillock, about a hundred feet high, probably the acropolis

[VAN

DE

VELDE], or the ruins

[ROBINSON] of the ancient city of Ziph,

from which the surrounding wilderness was called. It seems, anciently,

to have been covered by an extensive woods. The country has for

centuries lost its woods and forests, owing to the devastations caused

16, 17. Jonathan went to David into the wood, and strengthened his

hand in God--by the recollection of their mutual covenant. What a

victory over natural feelings and lower considerations must the faith

of Jonathan have won, before he could seek such an interview and give

utterance to such sentiments! To talk with calm and assured confidence

of himself and family being superseded by the man who was his friend by

the bonds of a holy and solemn covenant, could only have been done by

one who, superior to all views of worldly policy, looked at the course

of things in the spirit and through the principles of that theocracy

which acknowledged God as the only and supreme Sovereign of Israel.

Neither history nor fiction depicts the movements of a friendship

purer, nobler, and more self-denying than Jonathan's!

1Sa 23:19-29.

SAUL

PURSUES

HIM.

19-23. Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not

David hide himself with us?--From the tell of Ziph a panorama of the

whole surrounding district is to be seen. No wonder, then, that the

Ziphites saw David and his men passing to and fro in the mountains of

the wilderness. Spying him at a distance when he ventured to show

himself on the hill of Hachilah, "on the right hand of the wilderness,"

that is, the south side of Ziph, they sent in haste to Saul, to tell

him of the lurking place of his enemy

[VAN

DE

VELDE].

25. David . . . came down into a rock, and abode in the wilderness of

Maon--Tell Main, the hillock on which was situated the ancient Maon

(Jos 15:55),

and from which the adjoining wilderness took its name, is one mile

north, ten east from Carmel. The mountain plateau seems here to end. It

is true the summit ridge of the southern hills runs out a long way

further towards the southwest; but towards the southeast the ground

sinks more and more down to a tableland of a lower level, which is

called "the plain to the right hand [that is, to the south] of the

wilderness" [VAN DE VELDE].

29. David went up from thence, and dwelt in strong holds at

En-gedi--that is, "the spring of the wild goats or gazelles"--a name

given to it from the vast number of ibexes or Syrian chamois which

inhabit these cliffs on the western shore of the Dead Sea

(Jos 15:62).

It is now called Ain Jiddy. On all sides the country is full of

caverns, which might then serve as lurking places for David and his

men, as they do for outlaws at the present day [ROBINSON].