Keilah

AI summary: Keilah is significant because it captures the unstable loyalties of David's fugitive period. David acts as a deliverer for the town by rescuing it from Philistine attack, yet the same town cannot be relied upon when Saul threatens it. That tension gives Keilah a memorable place in the story of David's rise, highlighting both his emerging leadership and the precariousness of life before kingship. The cross references present Keilah as a Judahite town of rescue, betrayal risk, and divine guidance.¹

Citadel, a city in the lowlands of Judah (Josh. 15:44). David rescued it from the attack of the Philistines (1 Sam. 23:1-8); but the inhabitants proving unfaithful to him, in that they sought to deliver him up to Saul (13), he and his men “departed from Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go.” They fled to the hill Hareth, about 3 miles to the east, and thence through Hebron to Ziph (q.v.). “And David was in the wilderness of Ziph, in a wood” (1 Sam. 23:15). Here Jonathan sought him out, “and strengthened his hand in God.” This was the last interview between David and Jonathan (23:16-18). It is the modern Khurbet Kila. Others identify it with Khuweilfeh, between Beit Jibrin (Eleutheropolis) and Beersheba, mentioned in the Amarna tablets. ³