1 Samuel 27: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Afraid that Saul will eventually kill him, David leaves Israel and takes his six hundred men and their families to live under Achish, the Philistine king of Gath. Achish gives him the town of Ziklag, where David stays for a year and four months. From there David raids the Geshurites, Girzites, and Amalekites, killing everyone so no one can report what he did, and tells Achish he has been raiding parts of Judah instead. Achish believes him and concludes that David has made himself hated by his own people and will serve him permanently.

Claim by Claim

1. 27:1
   • David said in his heart.
   • David said he would one day perish by Saul's hand.
   • David said there was nothing better for him than to escape to the land of the Philistines.
   • David said that then Saul would give up seeking him any further within the territory of Israel.
   • David said he would thus escape out of Saul's hand.
2. 27:2
   • David arose and crossed over.
   • Six hundred men were with David and went with him.
   • David went to Achish, king of Gath.
   • Achish was the son of Maoch.
3. 27:3
   • David dwelt with Achish at Gath.
   • David's men dwelt there with him.
   • Each man had his household with him.
   • David had two wives with him.
   • One wife was Ahinoam the Jezreelitess.
   • The other wife was Abigail the Carmelitess.
   • Abigail had been the wife of Nabal.
4. 27:4
   • Saul was told that David had fled to Gath.
   • Saul sought David no more.
5. 27:5
   • David spoke to Achish.
   • David said, if he had found favor in Achish's eyes, let a place be given him in one of the country towns.
   • David said he wished to dwell in that town.
   • David asked why his servant should dwell in the royal city with Achish.
6. 27:6
   • Achish gave David Ziklag that day.
   • For that reason Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until the present day.
7. 27:7
   • The time David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was four months plus a period stated as 'days', which may mean a year or simply some days.
8. 27:8
   • David and his men went up and raided.
   • They raided the Geshurites.
   • They raided the Gezrites.
   • They raided the Amalekites.
   • Those peoples were the inhabitants of the land from of old.
   • The land in question extended toward Shur and as far as the land of Egypt.
9. 27:9
   • David struck the land.
   • David left no man alive.
   • David left no woman alive.
   • David took the sheep.
   • David took the oxen.
   • David took the donkeys.
   • David took the camels.
   • David took the clothing.
   • David returned and came to Achish.
10. 27:10
    • Achish asked where they had raided that day.
    • David answered, against the south of Judah.
    • David answered, against the south of the Jerahmeelites.
    • David answered, against the south of the Kenites.
11. 27:11
    • David left no man or woman alive to be brought to Gath.
    • David's reason was that they might otherwise report against him and his men, saying this is what David did.
    • This was David's practice the whole time he dwelt in the country of the Philistines.
12. 27:12
    • Achish believed David.
    • Achish said David had made himself utterly abhorrent to his own people Israel.
    • Achish said David would therefore be his servant forever.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

27:1

The 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.

27:2

Gath 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.

27:3

Abigail 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.

27:5

"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.

27:6

Ziklag 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.

27:7

The 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.

27:8

The 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.

27:9

Raids 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.

27:10

"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.

27:11

The reasoning is coldly practical and the text states it without comment: survivors could travel to Gath and tell Achish which villages had actually been hit. Killing everyone kept the deception airtight for the sixteen months David spent as a Philistine vassal.

27:12

The Hebrew behind "utterly to abhor him" is the image of making yourself a stench to someone. Achish assumed David had made himself so hated in Israel that he could never go home, which would leave him permanently dependent on Philistine protection. "My servant for ever" is political language: a vassal bound for life, not a household slave.