During his flight from King Saul, David valiantly rescues the town of Keilah from the Philistines. As he is residing there, he learns that Saul had discovered his whereabouts and would soon lay siege to the fortified place with the aim of capturing him. Unsure whether he should take flight or remain within the shelter of the town’s walls, David inquires of the deity with the help of a priestly oracle: “Will the citizens of Keilah deliver [hayasgirû – “shut me up”] me and my men into Saul’s hands?” The deity responds with an unequivocal affirmative: yasgîrû.

For the inhabitants of Keilah, which was still occupied in Persian and Hellenistic times, this account of David’s early days would have undoubtedly provoked vexation. As an analogy to American history, it would be similar to someone accusing a New England village of having planned to betray George Washington to the British during the Revolutionary War. The mere allegation of such treachery would plague the place for centuries thereafter.

The case of Keilah is what I call “negative war commemoration.” Instead of showing how the inhabitants of a town risked their skin for Judah’s beloved king and thus deserve an honored place in Judahite memory and society, the authors assert that they were prepared to deliver David to his enemy.