Keilah
Encyclopedia
Keilah was a city in the lowlands of Judah
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....

 . In 1 Samuel
Books of Samuel
The Books of Samuel in the Jewish bible are part of the Former Prophets, , a theological history of the Israelites affirming and explaining the Torah under the guidance of the prophets.Samuel begins by telling how the prophet Samuel is chosen by...

, David rescued it from the attack of the Philistines
Philistines
Philistines , Pleshet or Peleset, were a people who occupied the southern coast of Canaan at the beginning of the Iron Age . According to the Bible, they ruled the five city-states of Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath, from the Wadi Gaza in the south to the Yarqon River in the north, but with...

  but the inhabitants proved unfaithful to him, in that they sought to deliver him up to Saul (23:12). He and his men "departed from Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go.” They fled to the hill Hareth
Hareth
Hareth may refer to:* Hareth , a character of J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium* Hareth , a hill east of Keilah, from the Bible* A character in A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin...

, about 3 miles to the east, and thence through Hebron
Hebron
Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...

 to Ziph
Ziph (Judean Mountains)
Ziph was a city in the Judean Mountains , south-east of Hebron. Here David hid himself from Saul . The name of Zif is found about four miles south of Hebron, attached to a rounded hill of some 100 feet in height, which is called Tell Zif.-From archaeology:Scholars debate the interpretation of the...

. "And David was in the wilderness of Ziph, in a wood" . Here Jonathan sought him out, "and strengthened his hand in God." This was the last interview between David and Jonathan
David and Jonathan
David and Jonathan were heroic figures of the Kingdom of Israel, whose covenant was recorded favourably in the books of Samuel. Jonathan was the son of Saul, king of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and David was the son of Jesse of Bethlehem and Jonathan's presumed rival for the crown...

 .

Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years...

 identified Kâkôn (Qaqun
Qaqun
Qaqun was a Palestinian Arab village located northwest of the city of Tulkarm at the only entrance to Mount Nablus from the coastal Sharon plain....

) as ancient Keilah in 1160. Others believe it to be modern Qila
Qila, Hebron
Qila is a Palestinian village located eleven kilometers north-west of Hebron. The village is in the Hebron Governorate Southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 918 in mid-year 2006...

, 11 km (7 mi) northwest of Hebron. Still others identify it with Khuweilfeh, between Beit Jibrin (Eleutheropolis
Eleutheropolis
Eleutheropolis was the Greek name of a Roman city in Israel, some 53 km southwest of Jerusalem. Its remains still straddle the ancient road to Gaza. The site— already rendered as Baitogabra in Ptolemy's Geography— was called Beit Guvrin and Bet Gubrin in the Talmud...

) and Beersheba
Beersheba
Beersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....

, mentioned in the Amarna tablets.
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