Verse Lens · Concise explanation
1 Samuel 23:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4Then 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.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Shows David inquiring again and receiving renewed assurance of victory.
Read It With
- 1 Samuel 23:1–23:6
1 Samuel 23:1–23:6 supplies the necessary frame for verse 23:4. Here the narrator shows David inquiring again and receiving renewed assurance of victory, within this larger movement: 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
1 Samuel 23:4 belongs here because it shows David inquiring again and receiving renewed assurance of victory. Without that detail, the transition traced in 1 Samuel 23:1–23:6 would lose a stated action, speech, or consequence.
What Remains True
Shows David inquiring again and receiving renewed assurance of victory. Within 1 Samuel 23:1–23:6, this contribution supports the unit's enduring claim: A responsible reader preserves both the unit's stated movement and its ethical limit. The rescue does not make every leader's claimed revelation authoritative, shame followers for naming danger, or turn armed intervention into a default answer.
How It Can Shape Life
- Shows David inquiring again and receiving renewed assurance of victory. The proportionate response is therefore the one traced from the complete unit: Test spiritual and providential claims patiently through the available evidence, trusted accountability, and their effects on people; do not turn impressions, signs, or religious language into unquestionable authority. 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 ↗