Bible Locations

Keilah was a town in the Shephelah of Judah (Joshua 15:44), identified with Khirbet Qila, about eight miles northwest of Hebron, on a hill above the Elah Valley. In 1 Samuel 23, the Philistines attacked Keilah and were looting its threshing floors. David asked the Lord and then attacked, saving the town. But Saul heard David was there and planned to trap him inside the walled town. David asked God, through the ephod brought by the priest Abiathar, whether the citizens would surrender him to Saul, and God said yes. So David and his men, about six hundred, left and wandered from place to place. After the exile, rulers of the "half-district of Keilah" helped repair Jerusalem's walls (Nehemiah 3:17-18). Keilah appears in the Amarna letters as Qiltu, disputed between the kings of Jerusalem and Gath around 1350 BC.