Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 23

Then they told David... . —For this and similar duties the prophet Gad (1 Samuel 22:5) had summoned David to return with his armed band to Judah. There was a great work ready for him in his own country at that time. Saul was becoming more and more neglectful of his higher duty—that of protecting his people; as time went on and his illness increased, his whole thoughts were concentrated on David’s imaginary crimes, and the history of the latter part of his reign is little more than a recital of his sad, bewildered efforts to bring about the young hero’s destruction.

The task of protecting the people from the constant marauding expeditions of the Philistines, and probably of the neighbouring nations, was then entrusted to David. To point this out to the son of Jesse was evidently the first great mission of Gad the seer. Samuel’s mind was, no doubt, occupied with this matter. It is more than probable that Gad was first dispatched to join David at the instigation of the aged, but still mentally vigorous, prophet.

Keilah. —“This town lay in the lowlands of Judah, not far from the Philistine frontier, some miles south of Adullam, being perched on a steep hill overlooking the valley of Elah, not far from the thickets of Hareth” (Conder; Tent Life in Palestine).

David inquired of the Lord. —The inquiry was not made of the priest wearing the ephod, by means of the Urim and Thummim, for, according to 1 Samuel 23:6, Abiathar, the high priest who succeeded the murdered Ahimelech, only joined David at Keilah, the citizens of which place were then asking for his aid against their enemies. But Gad the prophet was with David, and the inquiry was made, no doubt, through him.

We know that such inquiries were made through prophets, for we possess a detailed account of such an inquiry being made by Jehoshaphat of the prophet Micaiah (1 Kings 22:5; 1 Kings 22:7–8), in which passage the same formula is used as in this case. The Talmud too, when discussing the inquiries made through the Urim and Thummim, while dwelling on the greater weight of the decision pronounced by the sacred stones, assumes that questions were also asked through the prophets. “The decree pronounced by a prophet is revocable, but the decision of the Urim and Thummim is irrevocable.”—Treatise Yoma, fol. 73 Colossians 1:0.

Here in Judah. —This does not imply that Keilah was outside the territory of Judah, but simply that the district in the neighborhood around Keilah was at that time under Philistine domination. The open country in times of Philistine supremacy first fell under their control; their strongholds, like Keilah, would resist for a much longer period.

David enquired ... yet again. —This second enquiry, made to inspire his little army with confidence before embarking on the seemingly desperate attempt, was, as in the previous case mentioned in 1 Samuel 23:2, no doubt through the prophet Gad. Abiathar had not yet arrived with the ephod.

With an ephod in his hand. The difficulty here with the version and commentators is that they failed to understand that inquiry of the Lord could be made in any other mode than through the Urim. (See Note above on 1 Samuel 23:2.) Saul in happier days, we know, inquired and received replies “through prophets,” for before he resorted to forbidden arts, we read how, in evident contrast to other and earlier times, the Lord did not answer him, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets (1 Samuel 28:6). The Septuagint here must have deliberately altered the Hebrew text, to escape what seemed to these translators a grave difficulty.

They render: “And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David, that he came down with David to Keilah, having an ephod in his hand,” thus implying that Abiathar had come down with David to Keilah, having joined him previously. The Hebrew text is, however, definite and clear, and tells us that Abiathar first joined David when he was at Keilah. But the difficulty which puzzled the Septuagint and so many others vanishes when we remember that the inquiry of the Lord was often made through the prophet; and this was evidently done by David through Gad, a famous representative of that order, in the case of the inquiry referred to in 1 Samuel 23:2, 4 of this chapter.