^27:1David thought to himself,¹ “One of these days I’m going to be swept away by the hand of Saul! There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of searching for me through all the territory of Israel and I will escape from his hand.”

^27:2So David left and crossed over to King Achish son of Maoch of Gath accompanied by his six hundred men. ^27:3David settled with Achish in Gath, along with his men and their families.² David had with him his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the Carmelite, Nabal’s widow. ^27:4When Saul learned that David had fled to Gath, he did not mount a new search for him.

^27:5David said to Achish, “If I have found favor with you, let me be given a place in one of the country towns so that I can live there. Why should your servant settle in the royal city with you?” ^27:6So Achish gave him Ziklag on that day. (For that reason Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until this very day.) ^27:7The length of time³ that David lived in the Philistine countryside was a year⁴ and four months.

^27:8Then David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. (They had been living in that land for a long time, from the approach⁵ to Shur as far as the land of Egypt.) ^27:9When David would attack a district,⁶ he would leave neither man nor woman alive. He would take sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing and would then go back to Achish. ^27:10When Achish would ask, “Where⁷ did you raid today?” David would say, “The Negev of Judah” or “The Negev of Jeharmeel” or “The Negev of the Kenites.” ^27:11Neither man nor woman would David leave alive so as to bring them back to Gath. He was thinking, “This way they can’t tell on us, saying, ‘This is what David did.’ ” Such was his practice the entire time⁸ that he lived in the country of the Philistines. ^27:12So Achish trusted David, thinking to himself,⁹ “He is really hated¹⁰ among his own people in¹¹ Israel! From now on¹² he will be my servant.”

Read in Logos

Footnotes

1 Heb “said to his heart.”
2 Heb “a man and his house.”
3 Heb “the number of the days.”
4 Heb “days.” The plural of the word “day” is sometimes used idiomatically to refer specifically to a year. In addition to this occurrence in v. 7 see also 1 Sam 1:3, 21; 2:19; 20:6; Lev 25:29; Judg 17:10.
5 Heb “from where you come.”
6 Heb “the land.”
7 The translation follows the (ἐπι τίνα, epi tina) and (in quem) which assume אֶל מִי (’el mi, “to whom”) rather than the אַל (’al, “not”). The makes no sense here. Another possibility is that the text originally had אַן (’an, “where”), which has been distorted in the to אַל. Cf. the and the , which have “where.”
8 Heb “all the days.”
9 Heb “saying.”
10 Heb “he really stinks.” The expression is used figuratively here to describe the rejection and ostracism that David had experienced as a result of Saul’s hatred of him.
11 Many medieval Hebrew lack the preposition “in.”
12 Heb “permanently.”