Help QuickNav Adv. Options
ESV

ESV

Click to Change

Return to Top

Return to Top

Printer Icon

Print

Copy
Copy Options
Format by: Verse Paragraph
Strong's
Red Letter
Audio Bibles
The Blue Letter Bible

1 Samuel 23 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

toggle collapse
Choose a new font size and typeface
Audio Bibles

David Saves the City of Keilah

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:1

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:1 - Now they told David, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:2

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:2 - Therefore David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” And the LORD said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:3

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:3 - But David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:4

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:4 - Then David inquired of the LORD again. And the LORD answered him, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:5

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:5 - And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:6

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:6 - When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David to Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:7

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:7 - Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, “God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:8

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:8 - And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:9

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:9 - David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:10

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:10 - Then David said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:11

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:11 - Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.” And the LORD said, “He will come down.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:12

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:12 - Then 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.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:13

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:13 - Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:14

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:14 - And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.

Saul Pursues David

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:15

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:15 - David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:16

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:16 - And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:17

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:17 - And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:18

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:18 - And the two of them made a covenant before the LORD. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:19

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:19 - Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon?

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:20

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:20 - Now come down, O king, according to all your heart’s desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king’s hand.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:21

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:21 - And Saul said, “May you be blessed by the LORD, for you have had compassion on me.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:22

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:22 - Go, make yet more sure. Know and see the place where his foot is, and who has seen him there, for it is told me that he is very cunning.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:23

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:23 - See therefore and take note of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with sure information. Then I will go with you. And if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:24

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:24 - And they arose and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:25

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:25 - And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told, so he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon.

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:26

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:26 - Saul 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. As Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them,

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:27

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:27 - a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land.”

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:28

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:28 - So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape.[fn]

Tools

Unchecked Copy Box 1Sa 23:29

Unchecked Copy Box1Sa 23:29 - [fn] And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of Engedi.
See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
ESV Footnotes
Or Rock of Divisions
Ch 24:1 in Hebrew
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

BLB Searches
Search the Bible
ESV
  [?]

Advanced Options

Other Searches

Multi-Verse Retrieval
x
ESV
Daily Devotionals
x

Blue Letter Bible offers several daily devotional readings in order to help you refocus on Christ and the Gospel of His peace and righteousness.

Daily Bible Reading Plans
x

Recognizing the value of consistent reflection upon the Word of God in order to refocus one's mind and heart upon Christ and His Gospel of peace, we provide several reading plans designed to cover the entire Bible in a year.

One-Year Plans

Two-Year Plan

Translations available: King James Version, New King James Version, New Living Translation, New International Version, English Standard Version, Christian Standard Bible, New American Standard Bible 2020, New American Standard Bible 1995, Legacy Standard Bible 2021, New English Translation, Revised Standard Version, American Standard Version, Young's Literal Translation, Darby Translation, Webster's Bible, Hebrew Names Version, Reina-Valera 1960, Latin Vulgate, Westminster Leningrad Codex, Septuagint, Morphological Greek New Testament, and Textus Receptus.