Reflections on 1 Samuel 23
“David inquired of the LORD…” (1 Samuel 23:2, New International Version) – a line that will repeat like a heartbeat through the chapter. Read all 29 verses as one unit; then linger over verses 1-6, 7-14, 15-18, and 19-29.
• Keilah – a fortified town on the edge of the low-country, only 3
miles from the Valley of Elah where David once faced Goliath.
Archaeologists locate it at modern Khirbet Qila.
• Ziph – the limestone hills southeast of Hebron. A Judahite watch-tower
still stands on Tel Zif, reminding visitors how easy it is to see—but
not catch—someone darting through ravines.
• Maon & the “Rock of Escape” (Hebrew: Sela Hammahlekoth,
lit. “rock of smooth divisions” or “slippery partings”) – a knife-edged
ridge where two valleys fork. God places a literal mountain between
hunter and hunted.
• En-Gedi – a freshwater spring whose caves perfume the air with balsam
trees. Refuge with a fragrance.
Knowing the terrain helps us feel the text: narrow wadis, sudden cliffs, threshing floors vulnerable to Philistine raiders, and walled towns whose iron-bolted gates can become prisons for the man who slips inside.
A Heart That Asks (vv. 1-6)
David hears of injustice at Keilah. He does not rush in; he prays in.
Hebrew uses the verb shaʾal (“to ask, consult”). Samuel used
the same verb when Israel asked for a king (8:10). Saul keeps “asking”
for David’s life; David keeps “asking” for God’s will. Two kingdoms
revealed by their questions.
Cross-references: James 1:5; Proverbs 3:5-6.
Courage Checked by Community (vv. 3-4)
David’s men are honest: “Here in Judah we are afraid.” He does not shame
them; he returns to prayer so they may move in faith, not bravado.
Leadership listens twice—once to God, once to the fears of the flock—and
then acts.
Deliverance Creates a New Danger (vv.
7-13)
Rescuing Keilah wins gratitude—and a death warrant. Walled safety
becomes a snare. David asks two yes-or-no questions through the priestly
ephod; God answers both times with the particle yēsur
(“he will come / they will surrender”), revealing the future yet
preserving free will. God discloses possibilities, not fatalism,
inviting David to respond, not resign.
Friendship in the Thickets (vv. 15-18)
Jonathan walks the fourteen-mile climb from Gibeah to Horesh to
“strengthen his hand in God.” The phrase ḥezēq yad pictures
gripping a sword more firmly. True friends do not merely empathize; they
fasten our fingers around divine promise.
Betrayed by Brothers (vv. 19-24)
Judahite townsfolk of Ziph offer Saul GPS-level intel. Psalm 54’s
superscription remembers the pain: “when the Ziphites went to Saul… ‘Is
not David hiding among us?’” The righteous may suffer treachery from
their own tribe—anticipating Jesus “who came to that which was His own,
but His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).
The Rock of Almost (vv. 25-29)
Two ridges, two companies. We feel the drumbeat of fear—“Saul and his
forces were closing in on David and his men to capture them” (v. 26).
Then a messenger, a Philistine raid, a providential diversion. History
calls it coincidence; the Bible calls it covenant care.
• Guidance – God speaks through priest, ephod, circumstance, and friend. Guidance is relational, not mechanical.
• Providence in Motion – The chapter is a braid of human choices and divine interventions. Augustine spoke of God as “the supreme conductor of history’s orchestra,” weaving free-will notes into His melody.
• Covenant Loyalty (Hebrew ḥesed) – Jonathan’s pledge echoes Ruth 1:16-17 and foreshadows Christ’s vow never to leave us (Hebrews 13:5).
• The Righteous Sufferer – David the anointed yet rejected king previews the path of Messiah: service repaid with suspicion, betrayal softened by prayer, and rescue that arrives in God’s timing.
• John Chrysostom admired David’s habit of asking: “To consult the Lord before lifting a finger is higher wisdom than to wield ten thousand spears without Him.”
• John Calvin noted how God’s answer about Keilah’s citizens (“they will surrender you”) never happened because David left: “Threatened judgments are calls to repentance or action; they are not iron chains of necessity.”
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer considered Jonathan’s visit “the ministry of holding one another up before God,” the essence of Christian fellowship.
• Repetition – “David inquired of the LORD” (vv. 2, 4, 10-12) frames the narrative. Hebrew storytelling uses refrain to highlight what real security looks like.
• Irony – Saul declares, “God has delivered him into my hands” (v. 7). The narrator invites us to smile sadly; the one who no longer hears God confuses opportunity with providence.
• Place-Naming – Ancient Israelites often marked salvation with new toponyms (see Genesis 22:14). “Rock of Escape” preaches every time a herdsman uses it as a landmark.
• Threshing floors were communal savings accounts. To raid them was to gut a village’s yearly food and seed. David’s rescue is economic justice as well as military valor.
• Hospitality codes obligated Keilah to shelter deliverers. Their anticipated betrayal underlines how fear can override cultural duty.
• Consulting the ephod was not magic but discerning the binary Urim-Thummim stones. Yes/No questions reflect trust that God can speak in simple clarity when lives depend on it.
Consider singing or listening to “Be Still, My Soul” (text: Katharina
von Schlegel, 1752; tune: FINLANDIA). Its second verse mirrors 1 Samuel
23’s cliff-edge suspense:
“Leave to thy God to order and provide;
in every change He faithful will remain.”
Sovereign Shepherd,
You see us when Philistines plunder,
hear us in threshing-floor prayers,
and guide us through wilderness clefts.
Teach us David’s reflex to ask,
Jonathan’s courage to encourage,
and the patience to wait at the Rock of Escape
until Your timing parts the mountains.
Strengthen our hands in You today,
for Jesus’ sake. Amen.