5. So David and his fellow men went to Keilah and fought against the Philistines, drove off their livestock and inflicted a great slaughter on them. Thus David rescued the inhabitants of Keilah.
6. It came about, when Abiathar son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, he came down with an ephod in his hand.
7. Now when Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, Saul said, “God has delivered him into my hand! For he shut himself in by entering a town with barred gates.”
8. So Saul summoned all the troops for battle, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his fellow men.
9. Now David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him, so he said to Abiathar the kohen, “Bring the ephod.”
10. Then David said, “Adonai, God of Israel, Your servant has heard for certain that Saul intends to come to Keilah to destroy the town because of me.
11. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? Adonai God of Israel, I pray, tell Your servant.” “He will come down,” Adonai said.
12. Then David asked, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my fellow men into the hand of Saul?” “They will surrender,” Adonai said.
13. Then David and his fellow men, about 600, got up and left Keilah, and went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he stopped the pursuit.
14. So David stayed in the strongholds of the wilderness, remaining in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul searched for him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.
15. By now David was aware that Saul would come out to seek his life while David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Choresh.
16. Then Saul’s son Jonathan arose and went to David at Choresh and strengthened him in God.
17. “Don’t be afraid,” he said to him, “because my father Saul will never find you. You will be king over Israel and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul recognizes that.”
18. Again they cut a covenant before Adonai. David remained at Choresh, but Jonathan went home.
19. Then some of the Ziphites went up to Saul in Gibeah, saying, “Isn’t David hiding with us in the strongholds at Choresh, in the hill of Hachilah which is south of Jeshimon?