Category:Keilah

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Keilah - Citadel, a city in the lowlands of Judah (Joshua 15:44). David rescued it from the attack of the Philistines (1 Samuel 23:1); but the inhabitants proving unfaithful to him, in that they sought to deliver him up to Saul (1 Samuel 23:13), he and his men "departed from Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go." They fled to the hill Hareth, about 3 miles to the east, and thence through Hebron to Ziph (q.v.). "And David was in the wilderness of Ziph, in a wood" (1 Samuel 23:15). Here Jonathan sought him out, "and strengthened his hand in God." This was the last interview between David and Jonathan (1 Samuel 23:16). It is the modern Khurbet Kila. Others identify it with Khuweilfeh, between Beit Jibrin (Eleutheropolis) and Beersheba, mentioned in the Amarna tablets.