Keilah

Keilah is a town in the Judean lowland that the book of Joshua names among nine cities of the Shephelah given to the tribe of Judah. It is best known as the walled town that David rescued from a Philistine raid during his years as a fugitive from Saul, and it appears once more in the post-exilic record as a district whose rulers helped rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. The same name is also borne by a man in the Calebite genealogies of Chronicles.

A Town in the Inheritance of Judah

Keilah is listed in the territorial allotment of Judah, grouped with Achzib and Mareshah in a roster of nine towns and their villages: "and Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages" (Jos 15:44).

A Philistine Raid at Harvest

In the days when David was an outlaw, word reached him that Keilah was under attack while its harvest was being gathered: "And they told David, saying, Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing-floors" (1Sa 23:1). The threshing-floors were the obvious target — exposed grain at the moment of greatest economic vulnerability.

David Inquires and Rescues

David did not move on his own initiative. He inquired of Yahweh through the prophetic word, and a clear command came back: "Therefore David inquired of [the Speech of] Yahweh, saying, Shall I go and strike these Philistines? And Yahweh said to David, Go, and strike the Philistines, and save Keilah" (1Sa 23:2). His men were not eager — they were already nervous in Judah and reluctant to face Philistine armies in the open (1Sa 23:3) — so David inquired again, and the answer was the same with an added promise: "Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand" (1Sa 23:4). The campaign followed the word: "And David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and slew them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah" (1Sa 23:5). It was during this time that Abiathar, fleeing the slaughter of the priests at Nob, joined David at Keilah, "with an ephod in his hand" (1Sa 23:6).

Saul's Pursuit and the Oracle

Saul read the rescue as a trap David had walked into. Because Keilah was a fortified town "that has gates and bars," Saul concluded, "God has delivered him into my hand" (1Sa 23:7), and he summoned a national levy "to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men" (1Sa 23:8). David, learning of it, asked Abiathar to bring the ephod (1Sa 23:9) and put two questions to Yahweh: would Saul come down, and would the men of the very town he had just rescued hand him over? "O Yahweh, the God of Israel, I urge you, tell your slave. And Yahweh said, He will come down" (1Sa 23:11). To the second question the answer was equally direct: "Will the men of Keilah deliver up me and my men into the hand of Saul? And Yahweh said, They will deliver you up" (1Sa 23:12). Forewarned by the oracle, "Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went wherever they could go. And it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah; then he stopped to go forth" (1Sa 23:13). The episode shows both the gratitude David could expect from saved people and the protective specificity of the divine word that kept him out of Saul's hand.

Keilah After the Exile

Centuries later, when the wall of Jerusalem was being rebuilt under Nehemiah, the district of Keilah is named twice. Its two halves were each represented by a ruler who took up a section of the work. "After him repaired the Levites, Rehum the son of Bani. Next to him repaired Hashabiah, the ruler of half the district of Keilah, for his district" (Ne 3:17). Then: "After him repaired their brothers, Binnui the son of Henadad, the ruler of half the district of Keilah" (Ne 3:18). The town that David had once saved was still an organized administrative unit in the Persian period, and its leadership stood with the rest of Judah at the wall.

Keilah the Calebite

A second use of the name is personal rather than geographic. In the Calebite genealogies of Chronicles, Keilah is listed as a descendant: "And the sons of Hodiah's wife, the sister of Naham: Dalia the father of Keilah and Simeon the father of Joman. And the sons of Naham were the father of Keilah the Garmite, and Eshtemoa the Maacathite" (1Ch 4:19). The shared name between place and person fits the wider pattern in Judah's tribal records, in which Calebite clan names and Shephelah toponyms overlap.