|  Home  |  Old Testament Studies  |  1 Samuel Table of Contents  |  Previous Section  |  Next Section  |

1 SAMUEL 23

PARAGRAPH DIVISIONS OF MODERN TRANSLATIONS

 NASB  NKJV  NRSV  TEV   NJB
(MT versing)
David Delivers Keilah David Saves the City of Keilah David's Relief of Keilah David Saves the Town of Keilah David at Keilah
23:1-5 23:1-5 23:1-5 23:1-2a 23:1-6
23:2b
23:3-5
23:6-14 23:6-8 23:6-14 23:6
23:7-8 23:7-13
23:9-13 23:9-11
23:12
23:13
David in Wilderness Strongholds David in the Hill Country
23:14-18 23:14-15a 23:14
Saul Pursues David David Spares Saul's Life
(23:15-24:22)		 David at Horesh: Visit from Jonathan
(23:15-24:22)
23:15-18 23:15-18 23:15b-18 23:15-18
David Has a Narrow Escape from Saul
23:19-23 23:19-23 23:19-24a 23:19-20 23:19-23
23:21-23
23:24-29 23:24-26 23:24b-29 23:24-29 23:24-29
23:27-29

READING CYCLE THREE (see "Bible Interpretation Seminar")

FOLLOWING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S INTENT AT THE PARAGRAPH LEVEL

This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

Read the chapter in one sitting. Identify the subjects. Compare your subject divisions with the five translations above. Paragraphing is not inspired, but it is the key to following the original author's intent, which is the heart of interpretation. Every paragraph has one and only one subject.

  1. First paragraph
  2. Second paragraph
  3. Etc.

WORD AND PHRASE STUDY

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 23:1-5
  1Then they told David, saying, "Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are plundering the threshing floors." 2So David inquired of the Lord, saying, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?" And the Lord said to David, "Go and attack the Philistines and deliver Keilah." 3But David's men said to him, "Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the ranks of the Philistines?" 4Then David inquired of the Lord once more. And the Lord answered him and said, "Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand." 5So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines; and he led away their livestock and struck them with a great slaughter. Thus David delivered the inhabitants of Keilah.

23:1 "Keilah" This was a walled city on the coastal plain, northwest of Hebron, on a north-south road.

The people of this city were loyal to Saul (cf. v. 11).

▣ "threshing floors" These were places, usually on top of hills, where the wind blew freely. The grain was placed on the ground, then some type of heavy sled was dragged over it which loosened the grain from the husk. It was then tossed into the air with some type of fork so that the heavier grain fell straight back, but the husk blew away.

See NIDOTTE, vol. 1, pp. 893-894.

23:2,4 "David inquired of the Lord" David wanted his life to be in accordance to YHWH's will. Apparently this inquiry involved

  1. Gad the prophet (1 Sam. 22:5)
  2. Abiathar by the ephod in which the Urim and Thummim were kept (vv. 6,9)

Saul was cut off now from revelations from YHWH

  1. Samuel the prophet
  2. Abiathar the priest

He had no way to consult YHWH. This is probably why he later contacted the witch of Endor.

SPECIAL TOPIC: URIM AND THUMMIM

23:3-4 David's men were afraid but David consulted YHWH and acted on this revelation of victory (i.e., "into your hand").

SPECIAL TOPIC: HAND

23:7 Saul believed he was serving YHWH by pursuing David (cf. v. 21).

The Hebrew text of this verse is unusual (i.e., "God has alienated him" or "made him a stranger," BDB 649, KB 699, Piel PERFECT). Several suggested emendations have been made.

  1. has shut up (i.e., delivered, JPSOA, Peshitta)
  2. has sold (LXX)
  3. has put him in my power (TEV)
  4. has given him (NRSV)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 23:6-14
  6Now it came about, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand. 7When it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah, Saul said, "God has delivered him into my hand, for he shut himself in by entering a city with double gates and bars." 8So Saul summoned all the people for war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men. 9Now David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him; so he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod here." 10Then David said, "O Lord God of Israel, Your servant has heard for certain that Saul is seeking to come to Keilah to destroy the city on my account. 11Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down just as Your servant has heard? O Lord God of Israel, I pray, tell Your servant." And the Lord said, "He will come down." 12Then David said, "Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?" And the Lord said, "They will surrender you." 13Then David and his men, about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the pursuit. 14David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand.

23:10-12 This is another occurrence of David consulting YHWH (cf. vv. 2,4,6).

23:10 "has heard for certain" This is an intensified grammatical structure of an INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE and a PERFECT VERB of the same root (BDB 1033, KB 1570).

23:11 David saved this city from the Philistines. Why would they now surrender him to Saul?

Apparently David and his now 600 men (only 400 in 1 Sam. 22:2) began to live there and had to be supported by the community!

Josephus, Antiq. 6.13.1, still lists the number of David's men as 400 here.

23:13 "they went wherever they could go" This idiom also appears in 2 Sam. 15:20. It apparently means they moved from place to place hiding (cf. v. 23) from Saul and his spies.

23:14 "but God did not deliver him into his hand" This is the Israelites' worldview. They believed there was only one God and that He was the direct cause of all things (i.e., no secondary causes, cf. 2 Chr. 20:6; Eccl. 7:14; Isa. 14:24-27; 43:13; 45:7; 54:16; Jer. 18:11; Lam. 3:33-38; Amos 3:6).

YHWH is surely sovereign over His creation. He knows all things. Time is in His hands. However, the concept of covenant clearly addresses the issue of

  1. "the two ways" (Deut. 20:1,15,19; Psalm 1)
  2. covenant blessings and cursings (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28)
  3. the place of judgment in God's plans

SPECIAL TOPIC: PREDESTINATION (CALVINISM) VS. HUMAN FREE WILL (ARMINIANISM)

SPECIAL TOPIC: ELECTION/PREDESTINATION AND THE NEED FOR A THEOLOGICAL BALANCE

23:15-18 Jonathan is still David's friend and encourager. They reinforce their covenant of friendship (cf. 1 Sam. 18:3; 20:12-17).

Jonathan was expecting David to be king and him his second in command (v. 17).

SPECIAL TOPIC: COVENANT

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 23:15-18
  15Now David became aware that Saul had come out to seek his life while David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. 16And Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David at Horesh, and encouraged him in God. 17Thus he said to him, "Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father will not find you, and you will be king over Israel and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also." 18So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord; and David stayed at Horesh while Jonathan went to his house.

23:15
NASB, NJB  "became aware"
NKJV, NRSV margin, TEV, LXX, Peshitta  "saw"
NRSV, REB, JPSOA  "learned that"
RSV  "was afraid"

The MT has ירא, which can represent two different verbal roots.

  1. ראה ‒ BDB 906, KB 1157, Qal IMPERFECT waw (MT), "see"
  2. ירא ‒ BDB 431, KB 433, "fear" or "awe"

The UBS Text Project, p. 196, gives the MT ("saw") an "A" rating (high probability).

▣ "Horesh" This Hebrew word means "forest" (BDB 361). It can be a place name close to Ziph or "a wooded land."

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 23:19-23
  19Then Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, "Is David not hiding with us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon? 20Now then, O king, come down according to all the desire of your soul to do so; and our part shall be to surrender him into the king's hand." 21Saul said, "May you be blessed of the Lord, for you have had compassion on me. 22Go now, make more sure, and investigate and see his place where his haunt is, and who has seen him there; for I am told that he is very cunning. 23So look, and learn about all the hiding places where he hides himself and return to me with certainty, and I will go with you; and if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah."

23:19-23 Psalm 54's Introduction mentions this event. These introductions are in the MT and LXX but not in DSS.

23:22-23 Saul's message to the Ziphites has six imperatives.

  1. go ‒ BDB 229, KB 246, Qal, v. 22
  2. make more sure ‒ BDB 465, KB 464, Hiphil, v. 22
  3. investigate (lit. "know") ‒ BDB 393, KB 390, Qal, v. 22
  4. see ‒ BDB 906, KB 1157, Qal, v. 22
  5. look ‒ same as #4
  6. learn (lit. "know") ‒ same as #3

23:22 "he is very cunning" This is an intensified grammatical form, an INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE and an IMPERFECT VERB of the same root (BDB 791, KB 886).

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 23:24-29
  24Then they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon. 25When Saul and his men went to seek him, they told David, and he came down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard it, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon. 26Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain; and David was hurrying to get away from Saul, for Saul and his men were surrounding David and his men to seize them. 27But a messenger came to Saul, saying, "Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land." 28So Saul returned from pursuing David and went to meet the Philistines; therefore they called that place the Rock of Escape. 29David went up from there and stayed in the strongholds of Engedi.

23:24 "Arabah" This is the large land depression of the Rift Valley, below the Dead Sea.

23:26 "David was hurrying to get away" This VERB (BDB 342, KB 339, Niphal ACTIVE PARTICIPLE) denotes

  1. fear
  2. despair
  3. panic

YHWH delivered David again, as He had before. David's life was in YHWH's hands, not Saul's. But notice, David was still afraid! Faith does not always remove fear.

23:28 "they called that place the Rock of Escape" Often places were named by what occurred there.

There are several suggestions of the name because the root is uncertain (חלק, BDB 323-324, KB 322).

  1. the Rock of Escaping ‒ NKJV
  2. Rock of Division (NRSV margin)
  3. Separation Hill (TEV)
  4. Gorge of Separations (NJB)
  5. Rock of Separation (JPSOA)
  6. the land division of Sinar (Peshitta)
  7. the divided rock (LXX)
  8. Slippery Rock (NET footnote)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought-provoking, not definitive.

  1. Why did David feel an obligation to defend Keilah?
  2. Why was Keilah ready to surrender David to Saul?
  3. How did one "inquire of the Lord" in David's day?
  4. Did Saul have 600 men at this point or 400?
  5. Why did Jonathan make a second covenant with David?
  6. How did YHWH deliver David in this chapter?

|  Home  |  Old Testament Studies  |  1 Samuel Table of Contents  |  Previous Section  |  Next Section  |