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1 Samuel 23:11

in 1 Samuel 23

Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O LORD, God of Israel, please tell Your servant.” “He will,” said the LORD.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O Jehovah, the God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And Jehovah said, He will come down.

KJV

Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And the Lord said, He will come down.

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This verse in 1 Samuel 23

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

In these verses we find the following questions and answers: - David said, Will Saul come down to Keilah? And the Lord said, He will come down. Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver thee up. In this short history we find an ample proof that there is such a thing as contingency in human affairs; that is, God has poised many things between a possibility of being and not being, leaving it to the will of the creature to turn the scale.

This site's exposition

Bring the ephod

on 1 Samuel 23:9-11

David's habit of inquiry now stands under mortal threat, and Abiathar's ephod becomes his warning while Saul musters against him. Clarke reads the answers as real contingency, God's foreknowledge poising outcomes on the choices of men. Wesley holds that the answer came as a voice to the high priest.

This site's exposition

Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me

David asks two things, and the LORD answers only the second. Henry sees God putting David's questions into order, since Keilah's choice depended on Saul coming first. Gill and Wesley add that both answers assumed David stayed in Keilah.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

The Lord said - From this place it may appear that God's answer by Urim and Thummim, was not by any change in the colour or situation of the precious stones in the breast-plate of the Ephod, but by a voice or suggestion from God to the high-priest. He will - He purposeth to come, if thou continuest here. For still as David's question, so God's answer, is upon supposition.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Those that address God must know their distance, and who they are speaking to. (2.) Very particular and express. His representation of the case is so (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hands? will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard?.... That is, if David continued there, which is the supposition all proceeds upon.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

Will Keilah's residents hand me over… This teaches us that one who consults regarding two matters, receives a reply concerning only one, and that reply concerns the first one.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on I Samuel 23:11:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

18 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • הֲיַסְגִּרֻ֣נִי¿ will they deliver up me

    hayasgiruniH5462 →91 times

  • בַעֲלֵי֩[the] citizens of

    vaaleiH1167 →

  • קְעִילָ֨הKeilah

    keilahH7084 →18 times

  • בְיָד֜וֹin hand his

    veyadoH3027 →1618 times

  • הֲיֵרֵ֣ד¿ will he come down

    hayeredH3381 →381 times

  • שָׁא֗וּלSaul

    shaulH7586 →402 times

  • כַּֽאֲשֶׁר֙just as

    kaasherH834 →5497 times

  • שָׁמַ֣עhe has heard

    shama'H8085 →1159 times

  • עַבְדֶּ֔ךָservant your

    ʾavdekhaH5650 →799 times

  • יְהוָה֙O Yahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • אֱלֹהֵ֣י[the] God of

    ʾeloheiH430 →2601 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • הַגֶּד־tell

    haged-H5046 →370 times

  • נָ֖אplease

    na'H4994 →404 times

  • לְעַבְדֶּ֑ךָ סto servant your

    leavdekhaH5650 →799 times

  • וַיֹּ֥אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • יְהוָ֖הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • יֵרֵֽד׃he will come down

    yeredH3381 →381 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

4 in all, six open

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 33:3

    Call to Me, and I will answer and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

    it leads to

    • Psalms 91:15

      When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Jeremiah 29:12

      Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

    • Isaiah 65:24

      Even before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear.

    • Ephesians 3:20

      Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,

    • Isaiah 48:6

      You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not acknowledge them? From now on I will tell you of new things, hidden things unknown to you.

  • Through

    Psalms 50:15

    Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

    it leads to

    • Psalms 107:28

      Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress.

    • Psalms 34:3–4

      Magnify the LORD with me; let us exalt His name together.

    • Zechariah 13:9

      This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They…

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Samuel

Anointing of David by Samuel, Félix-Joseph Barrias, 1842, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris. Public domain.
Anointing of David by Samuel, Félix-Joseph Barrias, 1842, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris. Public domain.
1 Samuel: the study guide →Read 1 Samuel 23 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in 1 Samuel 23 →