“Now they told David. ‘The Philistines are fighting against Keilah. They are robbing the threshing floors.’ David inquired of Yahweh. ‘Shall I go and attack these Philistines?’ Yahweh said to David. ‘Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.’ But David’s men said to him. ‘Look, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more will it be if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?’ Then David inquired of Yahweh again. Yahweh answered him. ‘Yes, go down to Keilah because I will give the Philistines into your hand.’ David and his men went to Keilah. They fought against the Philistines. They brought away their livestock. They dealt them a heavy defeat. Thus David rescued the inhabitants of Keilah.”

Keilah, a city in the plains of Judah, was attacked by the Philistines. David wondered whether he should go to attack them. Yahweh spoke directly to David, something that he had never done to Saul. Yahweh said go and attack. However, David’s men were reluctant to go. Yahweh once again reassured David. They went down and wiped out the Philistines.

“When Abiathar son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, he came down with an ephod in his hand. Now it was told to Saul that David had come to Keilah. Saul said. ‘God has given him into my hand. He has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.’ Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. When David learned that Saul was plotting evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest. ‘Bring the ephod here.’ David said. ‘O Yahweh, the God of Israel, your servant has heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O Yahweh, the God of Israel, I beseech you to tell your servant.’ Yahweh said. ‘He will come down.’ Then David said. ‘Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?’ Yahweh said. ‘They will surrender you.’ Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, set out and left Keilah. They wandered wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition. David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but Yahweh did not give him into his hand.”

Then the priest Abiathar came down to Keilah also. Saul heard about the things at Keilah. He was happy that they were in a walled city. David asked Abiathar to bring the holy ephod. This was a priestly covering that was described in Exodus, chapter 28. Then David asked Yahweh directly, was Saul coming to Keilah and would the people of this town give him up. Yahweh’s answer to both was ‘yes.’ David and his men set out for the wilderness in Ziph in the south. Saul called off his expedition to Keilah, but he kept looking for David every day.