1 Samuel 23:5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

So David and his men went to Keilah, &c. “His success on this occasion was very extraordinary; he saved the city and the inhabitants; he delivered the country all around from the ravages of the enemy; he smote the Philistines with great slaughter, and brought away their cattle, by which means he was enabled to subsist himself and his forces, without being a burden to his country. One would have imagined that this extraordinary success and deliverance of so great a city might have secured David a safe retreat among the men of Keilah; but it was not so; such is the nature of man, present dangers quickly obliterate past obligations! Gratitude is, without question, a most lovely virtue, but seldom lives in the extremes either of adversity or success! It is like those fine colours which storms and sunshine equally deface.” Delaney.

1 Samuel 23:5

5 So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.