1 Samuel 29

The Philistines brought all their armies together at Aphek. The Israelites set up camp by the spring in Jezreel.

1Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek: and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel.

NoteThe Philistines were a people settled on the coastal plain southwest of Israel, in five cities with their own rulers; they had been Israel's chief military rival for generations. Aphek lay on the coastal plain; Jezreel names both a town and the broad valley cutting across northern Israel, good open ground for chariots and a natural battlefield. The two armies are gathering at opposite ends of the country's main north–south road.

2The Philistine rulers marched past with their troops in groups of a hundred and groups of a thousand. David and his men marched at the back with Achish.

2And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands: but David and his men passed on in the rereward with Achish.

Note"Rulers" translates a special Philistine title (Hebrew *seranim*) used only of the five lords who governed the five Philistine cities together. Achish, king of Gath, was one of them, but the others outranked his decision here. David had earlier fled from Saul and taken service under Achish as a mercenary, with the town of Ziklag as his base, which is why an Israelite band is marching in a Philistine army at all.

3Then the Philistine commanders said, "What are these Hebrews doing here?" Achish answered them, "This is David, who used to serve Saul the king of Israel. He has been with me for days now, even years, and I have found nothing wrong with him from the day he came over to my side until today."

3Then said the princes of the Philistines, What do these Hebrews here? And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, which hath been with me these days, or these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell unto me unto this day?

Note"Hebrews" is the word outsiders use for Israelites in these books, and Israelites use of themselves when speaking to outsiders. In Philistine mouths it often carries contempt, and it was also used for landless men who hired out their swords.

4But the Philistine commanders were angry with Achish. They said to him, "Send this man back. Let him return to the place you gave him. He must not go down into battle with us, or he may turn against us during the fighting. What better way could he win back his master's favor than by taking the heads of our own men?

4And the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him; and the princes of the Philistines said unto him, Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us: for wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master? should it not be with the heads of these men?

NoteCutting off the heads of enemy dead served as proof of the kill, to be produced before a king. The commanders are imagining David buying his way back into Saul's favor with Philistine heads, much as he had once brought Saul the head of Goliath, the Philistine champion.

5Isn't this the same David they sang about as they danced? They sang, 'Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands.'"

5Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?

NoteThe women of Israel had sung this after David killed Goliath. In Hebrew poetry the second line raises the number of the first, so the song was a way of saying "David greater than Saul", the very comparison that first turned Saul against him.

6So Achish called David and said to him, "As surely as the LORD lives, you have been honest with me, and I am glad to have you march out and back with me in the army. I have found nothing wrong with you from the day you came to me until today. But the rulers do not approve of you.

6Then Achish called David, and said unto him, Surely, as the LORD liveth, thou hast been upright, and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the host is good in my sight: for I have not found evil in thee since the day of thy coming unto me unto this day: nevertheless the lords favour thee not.

NoteAchish, a Philistine, swears by the LORD, the personal name of Israel's God, written in small capitals wherever the Hebrew uses it. Swearing by another people's god when addressing that people's man was normal diplomatic courtesy, not a change of religion.

7So turn back now and go in peace. Do nothing that would upset the rulers of the Philistines."

7Wherefore now return, and go in peace, that thou displease not the lords of the Philistines.

8David said to Achish, "But what have I done? What have you found against me, your servant, from the day I came to you until now, that should keep me from going to fight the enemies of my lord the king?"

8And David said unto Achish, But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee unto this day, that I may not go fight against the enemies of my lord the king?

Note"My lord the king" is deliberately slippery. Achish would hear it as himself; the reader can hear Saul, David's other lord, whose enemies are the Philistines. The Hebrew leaves it open, and does not tell us which David meant.

9Achish answered David, "I know that you please me as much as an angel of God. But the Philistine commanders have said, 'He must not go up to the battle with us.'

9And Achish answered and said to David, I know that thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God: notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to the battle.

Note"An angel of God" was a stock courtly compliment in this period, roughly "faultless, beyond reproach", the same phrase is used to flatter kings elsewhere in Samuel. It is praise for David's conduct, not a claim about his nature.

10So get up early in the morning, along with your master's servants who came with you. Get up early, and leave as soon as it is light."

10Wherefore now rise up early in the morning with thy master’s servants that are come with thee: and as soon as ye be up early in the morning, and have light, depart.

Note"Your master's servants" is oddly worded, and the master is not named: it may mean the men who followed David from Saul's territory, or simply David's own troops, with Achish counting himself the master. The Greek version of this verse adds a line, and some translators think a phrase has dropped out of the Hebrew.

11So David and his men got up early in the morning to go back to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

11So David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.