1 Samuel 27

David thought to himself, "One of these days Saul is going to kill me. The best thing I can do is get away quickly to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up looking for me anywhere in Israel, and I will escape from him."

1And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.

NoteThe Philistines controlled the coastal plain southwest of Israel and were Israel's main enemy throughout Saul's reign, the people David had fought since killing Goliath. Taking refuge among them was a desperate move: the one place inside Israel's world where Saul's authority did not reach.

2So David set out and crossed over with the six hundred men who were with him to Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath.

2And David arose, and he passed over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.

NoteGath was one of five independent Philistine city-states (with Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron and Gaza), each with its own ruler. It lay closest to Judah's territory. The six hundred men are the band of debtors, outlaws and discontented men who had gathered around David earlier; they travel as a community, with wives and children.

3David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his family. David had his two wives with him: Ahinoam from Jezreel, and Abigail from Carmel, who had been Nabal's wife.

3And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife.

NoteAbigail had been the wife of Nabal, a wealthy Carmel landowner who insulted David and died soon after; David then married his widow. The Jezreel and Carmel meant here are small towns in the hill country south of Hebron, not the northern Jezreel valley or Mount Carmel on the coast.

4Saul was told that David had run away to Gath, so he stopped searching for him.

4And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him.

5David said to Achish, "If you are pleased with me, let me be given a place in one of the outlying towns, so I can live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?"

5And David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee?

Note"Your servant" is the ordinary polite way of referring to oneself when addressing a superior, like "your humble servant" in old English letters. David is speaking as a subordinate asking a favor of a king. Living in an outlying town rather than the capital would put his activities out of Achish's sight, which is the point of the request.

6That same day Achish gave him the town of Ziklag. That is why Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since.

6Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day.

NoteZiklag was a town in the dry country on the southern edge of Judah. "Ever since" is the narrator speaking from a much later time, explaining to his own readers how a town in Philistine territory came to be crown property of the kings of Judah.

7David lived in Philistine territory for a full year and four months.

7And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.

NoteThe Hebrew reads literally "days and four months." "Days" is often used for a year, which is how most translations take it, but some understand it as an unspecified period plus four months.

8David and his men went out and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. These peoples had lived in that land from long ago, in the stretch that runs toward Shur and on to the land of Egypt.

8And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.

NoteThe Amalekites were a nomadic desert people, long-standing enemies of Israel; Saul had been ordered to destroy them and had not finished the job. The Geshurites and Girzites are otherwise almost unknown, and the spelling of the second name varies in the Hebrew manuscripts. Shur was the desert region on the approach to Egypt, at the far southern limit of the land.

9Whenever David attacked a region, he left no man or woman alive, and he took the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing. Then he would go back to Achish.

9And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish.

NoteRaids of this kind were fought for movable wealth: livestock, which was the main form of capital, and clothing, which was hand-made, durable and valuable enough to count as plunder. Killing everyone was not the usual practice in a raid for booty; here it serves a specific purpose, explained in verse 11.

10Achish would ask, "Where did you raid today?" And David would say, "Against the southern desert of Judah," or "the southern desert of the Jerahmeelites," or "the southern desert of the Kenites."

10And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road to day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites.

Note"Southern desert" translates the Negev, the arid region south of Judah. The Jerahmeelites and the Kenites were clans living on Judah's southern fringe and allied with Judah, the Kenites had been friendly to Israel since the exodus and were spared by Saul in his own Amalekite campaign. So David is claiming to have been attacking his own people and their allies, which is exactly what Achish wants to hear.

11David left no man or woman alive to be brought back to Gath, because he said, "They might tell on us and say, 'This is what David did.'" This was how David acted the whole time he lived in Philistine territory.

11And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines.

12Achish trusted David. He thought, "He has made his own people Israel hate him completely, so he will be my servant for good."

12And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever.