27:4Saul finaily stopped pursuing David. His army was not strong enough to invade Philistine territory just to seek one man. Besides, the immediate threat to Saul’s throne was gone while David was out of the country.
Life Application Study Bible1 SamuelChapter 27
1 Samuel 27
New Living Translation · Life Application Study Bible · Original page: 454
A few verse numbers on this page were hard to read in the scan and are marked with a dotted underline — compare with the original page image if in doubt.
271 Samuel 27
1But David kept thinking to himself, “Someday Saul is going to get me. The best thing I can do is escape to the Philistines. Then Saul will stop hunting for me in Israelite territory, and I will finally be safe.” 2So David took his 600 men and went over and joined Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath. 2David and his men and their families settled there with Achish at Gath. David brought his two wives along with him—Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, Nabal’s widow from Carmel. 4Word soon reached Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he stopped hunting for him. 5One day David said to Achish, “If itis all right with you, we would rather live in one of the country towns instead of here in the royal city.” 6So Achish gave him the town of Ziklag (which still belongs to the kings of Judah to this day), 7and they lived there among the Philistines for a year and four months. 8David and his men spent their time raiding the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites—people who had lived near Shur, toward the land of Egypt, since ancient times. 9David did not leave one person alive in the villages he attacked. He took the sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing before returning home to see King Achish. 10Where did you make your raid today?” Achish would ask. And David would reply, 11Against the south of Judah, the Jerahmeelites, and the Kenites.” +1No one was left alive to come to Gath and tell where he had really been. This happened again and again while he was living among the Philistines. 12Achish believed David and thought to himself, “By now the people of Israel must hate him bitterly. Now he will have to stay here and serve me forever!”
Life Application Notes 4 notes
27:5-7Gath was one of five principal cities in Philistia, and Achish was one of five co-rulers. David may have wanted to move out of this important city to avoid potential skirmishes or attacks upon his family. He may also have wanted to escape the close scrutiny of the Philistine officials. Achish let David move to Ziklag, where he lived until Saul’s death (2 Samuel 2:1).
27:8,9David probably conducted these guerrilla-style raids because these three tribes were known for their surprise attacks and cruel treatment of innocent people. These desert tribes were a danger, not just to the Philistines, but especially to the Israelites, the people David would one day lead.
27:10-12Was David wrong in falsely reporting his activities to Achish? No doubt David was lying, but he may have felt his strategy was justified in a time of war against a pagan enemy. David knew he would one day be Israel’s king. The Philistines were still his enemies, but this was an excellent place to hide from Saul. When Achish asked David to go into battle against Israel, David agreed, once again pretending loyalty to the Philistines (28:1 ff). Whether he would have actually fought Saul’s army we can't know, but we can be sure that his ultimate loyalty was to God and not to Achish or Saul.