Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Samuel 23:2 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 2. 2Therefore 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.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Records David inquiring and receiving direction to rescue Keilah.
Read It With
- 1 Samuel 23:1–23:6
Follow the scene from 1 Samuel 23:1–23:6, not verse 23:2 alone. This line records David inquiring and receiving direction to rescue Keilah, and the surrounding movement is David hears of Philistine raids, asks the LORD, addresses his followers' fear through renewed inquiry, rescues Keilah, and gains Abiathar with the ephod.
Why This Verse Appears Here
At verse 23:2, the scene records David inquiring and receiving direction to rescue Keilah. That movement matters to “David inquires twice before rescuing Keilah” while the unit's uncertainty and ethical boundary continue to govern application.
What Remains True
David inquires twice before rescuing Keilah is the governing scene for verse 23:2. The verse records David inquiring and receiving direction to rescue Keilah, while the scene as a whole shows that David hears of Philistine raids, asks the LORD, addresses his followers' fear through renewed inquiry, rescues Keilah, and gains Abiathar with the ephod.
How It Can Shape Life
- A responsible use of 1 Samuel 23:2 begins by explaining how it records David inquiring and receiving direction to rescue Keilah within the whole scene. The rescue does not make every leader's claimed revelation authoritative, shame followers for naming danger, or turn armed intervention into a default answer.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Samuel 23:1–23:6 — David inquires twice before rescuing KeilahSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: 1 Samuel 23:1–23:6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 23:1–23:6; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: 1 Samuel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 23:1–23:6
Open source ↗