(1) В¶ Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors. (2) Therefore David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the LORD said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah. (3) And David's men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? (4) Then David enquired of the LORD yet again. And the LORD answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand.
If the Reader will consult the preceding chapter, at the fifth verse, where Gad the prophet bids David go into the land of Judah, he will then discover both the cause in this rescue the Lord intended him for Keilah, and that he might have a servant of the Lord in the person of Gad for his instructor in all doubtful cases. It is sweet in providences to trace the Lord's hand, and to connect one event with another, in order to observe the Lord's dealings with his people. But it is sweeter still to behold, in the outlines of the Lord's people's exercises, some resemblance, however faint they are, to Jesus. Amidst all David's own private distresses, the love of Israel was uppermost in his heart. But oh! how shrunk to nothing is this view of David compared to David's Lord, who, in all his agonies in the garden, and the path to the cross, would have restrained the tears of the daughters of Jerusalem, which they were shedding for him, to shed them over the beloved Jerusalem. Luke 23:28.