1 Samuel 23

CLV(i) 1 And they declare to David, saying, `Lo, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and they are spoiling the threshing-floors.. 2 And David asks at Yahweh, saying, `Do I go? --and have I smitten among these Philistines?' And Yahweh said unto David, `Go, and you have smitten among the Philistines, and saved Keilah.. 3 And David's men say unto him, `Lo, we here in Judah are afraid; and how much more when we go to Keilah, unto the ranks of the Philistines?. 4 And David adds again to ask at Yahweh, and Yahweh answers him, and said, `Rise, go down to Keilah, for I am giving the Philistines into your hand.. 5 And David goes, and his men, to Keilah, and fights with the Philistines, and leads away their cattle, and smites among them--a great smiting, and David saves the inhabitants of Keilah. 6 And it comes to pass, in the fleeing of Abiathar son of Ahimelech unto David, to Keilah, an ephod came down in his hand. 7 And it is declared to Saul that David has come in to Keilah, and Saul said, `Elohim has made him known for my hand, for he has been shut in, to enter into a city of doors and bar.. 8 And Saul summons the whole of the people to battle, to go down to Keilah, to lay siege unto David and unto his men. 9 And David knows that against him Saul is devising the evil, and said unto Abiathar the priest, `Bring nigh the ephod.. 10 And David said, `Yahweh, Elohim of Israel, Your servant has certainly heard that Saul is seeking to come in unto Keilah, to destroy the city on mine account. 11 Do the possessors of Keilah shut me up into his hand? does Saul come down as Your servant has heard? Yahweh, Elohim of Israel, declare, I pray You, to Your servant.' And Yahweh said, `He does come down.. 12 And David said, `Do the possessors of Keilah shut me up, and my men, into the hand of Saul?' And Yahweh said, `They shut [you] up.. 13 And David rises--and his men--about six hundred men, and they go out from Keilah, and go up and down where they go up and down; and to Saul it has been declared that David has escaped from Keilah, and he ceases to go out. 14 And David abides in the wilderness, in fortresses, and abides in the hill-country, in the wilderness of Ziph; and Saul seeks him all the days, and Elohim has not given him into his hand. 15 And David sees that Saul has come out to seek his life, and David [is] in the wilderness of Ziph, in a forest. 16 And Jonathan son of Saul rises, and goes unto David to the forest, and strengthens his hand in Elohim, 17 and said unto him, `Fear not, for the hand of Saul my father does not find you, and you do reign over Israel, and I am to you for second, and also so knows Saul my father.. 18 And they make a covenant both of them before Yahweh; and David abides in the forest, and Jonathan has gone to his house. 19 And the Ziphites go up unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, `Is not David hiding himself with us in fortresses, in the forest, in the height of Hachilah, which [is] on the south of the desolate place? 20 And, now, by all the desire of your soul, O king, to come down, come down, and ours [is] to shut him up into the hand of the king.. 21 And Saul said, `Blessed [are] you of Yahweh, for you have pity on me;" 22 go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place where his foot is; who has seen him there? for [one] has said unto me, He is very subtile. 23 And see and know of all the hiding-places where he hides himself, and you have turned back unto me prepared, and I have gone with you, and it has been, if he is in the land, that I have searched him out through all the thousands of Judah.. 24 And they rise and go to Ziph before Saul, and David and his men [are] in the wilderness of Maon, in the plain, at the south of the desolate place. 25 And Saul and his men go to seek, and they declare to David, and he goes down the rock, and abides in the wilderness of Maon; and Saul hears, and pursues after David [to] the wilderness of Maon. 26 And Saul goes on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain, and David is hastened to go from the face of Saul, and Saul and his men are compassing David and his men, to catch them. 27 And a messenger has come in unto Saul, saying, `Haste, and come, for the Philistines have pushed against the land.. 28 And Saul turns back from pursuing after David, and goes to meet the Philistines, therefore they have called that place `The Rock of Divisions.. 29 And David goes up thence, and abides in fortresses [at] En-gedi.