K EI LA H (r6+pi,, perhaps 3.,L, 'fortress ;' KeadA and RaXci, ; Alex. Keead ; Cella), a citY of Judah, situated in the Shephelah or plain of Philistia, near Mareshah and Nezib (Josh. xv. 33, 44). When David was a refugee from the Israel itish court, Keilah was attacked, and its threshing floors plundered by the Philistines. The inhabi tants appear to have taken refuge within their walls. News was brought to David ; he 'went down' from the mountains of Judah, defeated the Philistines, took away their cattle, and relieved Keilah (t Sam. xxiii. 1-5). David and his 600 followers settled for a time in the town ; but when an attack was threatened by Saul Ile discovered that the ungrateful inhabitants were resolved to be tray him; and so David and his men . . . aros.! and departed out of K.eilah, and went whitherso• ever they could go' (vers. 6-13). Keilah was one of the places reoccupied after the captivity (Neh.
17, r8). Josephus calls the city KiXXa ; and Elise bius describes it as still a village called KnXci seven teen iniles east of Eleutheropolis toward hiebron ; but Jerome makes it only eight miles (Onomast., s.v. Cella). They both state that it contained the tomb of the prophet Habakkuk (see also s.v. Echela). The city and tomb are mentioned by Sozomen (Hist. vii. 29 ; Reland, Pal., p. 698). Eight Roman miles from Beit Jibrim, the ancient Eleu theropolis, on the way to Hebron, is a large ruined tower or castle called Kela. It stands on a pro jectino- cliff on the right bank of Wady el-Feranj (Van 'de Velde, Memoir, p. 328 ; cf. Robinson, B. R., 71). There can be little doubt that this is the long-lost Keilah. The situation corresponds exactly to the incidental notices in the Bible, and the statements of Jerome.—J. L. P.