¹And they told to David, saying, Look, the Philistines fought in Keilah, and they are plundering the threshing-floors.

²And David inquired in Yahweh, saying, Will I go, and I strike in these Philistines? And Yahweh said to David, Go, and you strike in the Philistines, and you save Keilah.

³And the men of David said to him, Look, we here in Judah are fearing, and how will we go to Keilah, to the rows of the Philistines?

⁴And David repeated again to inquire in Yahweh, and Yahweh answered it, and he said, Rise, come down to Keilah; for I will set the Philistines in your hand.

⁵And David and his men went to Keilah, and he fought in the Philistines, and he drove away their livestock, and struck in them a great blow; and David saved those dwelling in Keilah.

⁶And it happened, in the fleeing of Abiathar the son of Ahimelech to David at Keilah, an ephod came down in his hand.

⁷And it was told to Saul that David had come to Keilah; and Saul said, God has recognized him in my hand, for he is closed up, to come in a city of doors and bar.

⁸And Saul heard all the people to the war, to come down to Keilah, to be foe to David and to his men.

⁹And David knew that Saul was plotting the evil over it, and said to Abiathar the priest, Be the ephod here.

¹⁰And David said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, your slave has surely heard that Saul is searching to come to Keilah, to corrupt the city in my account.

¹¹Will the lord of Keilah close me up in his hand? Will Saul come down, as your slave has heard? Yahweh, the God of Israel, tell now to your slave. And Yahweh said, He will come down.

¹²And David said, Will the lord of Keilah close me up and my men in the hand of Saul? And Yahweh said, They will close up.

¹³And David and his men rose, about six hundred men, and went forth from Keilah, and they went in which they will go; and to Saul it was told that David had escaped away from Keilah, and he ceased to go forth.

¹⁴And David dwelled in the wilderness, in strongholds, and dwelled in the mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul searched it all the days, and God set it not in his hand.

¹⁵And David saw that Saul had gone forth to search his living being; and David was in the wilderness of Ziph, in Horesh.

¹⁶And Jonathan the son of Saul rose, and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God.

¹⁷And he said to him, Fear not; for the hand of Saul my father will not find you, and you will reign over Israel, and I will be to you to the second; and also Saul my father knew so.

¹⁸And the two of them cut a covenant to the face of Yahweh; and David dwelled in Horesh, and Jonathan went to his house.

¹⁹And the Ziphites came up to Saul, to the Gibeah, saying, Is not David hidden with us in strongholds in Horesh, in the hill of the Hakilah, which is from the right of the Wasteland?

²⁰And now, to all the desire of your living being, the king, to come down, come down; and to us is closing him up in the hand of the king.

²¹And Saul said, Blessed are you to Yahweh, for you spared over me.

²²Go, establish again, and know, and see his place which will be his foot, who saw it there; for it is said to me, He will surely be shrewd.

²³And see, and know, from all the hiding places where he will hide, and you return to me to certain; and I will go in you; and it was, if his is in the land, I will ransack him in all the thousands of Judah.

²⁴And they rose and went to Ziph before Saul; and David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah, to the right of the Wasteland.

²⁵And Saul and his men went to seek him; and they told David, and he went down to the crag and dwelled in the wilderness of Maon. And Saul heard, and pursued after David into the wilderness of Maon.

²⁶Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain; and David was hurrying away to go from the face of Saul, while Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men, to seize them.

²⁷A messenger came to Saul, saying, "Hurry and come, for the Philistines have deployed against the land."

²⁸Saul turned back from pursuing after David and went to meet the Philistines; therefore people called that place Sela-hammahlekoth.

²⁹David went up from there and dwelled in the strongholds of En-gedi.