1 Samuel 27 explained: David Hides Among the Philistines

David gives up hope (vv. 1-4)

After years on the run, David decides Saul will kill him sooner or later, so he takes his six hundred men and their families to Achish, the Philistine king of Gath. Saul stops chasing him, and the text gives no sign that David asked God first, unlike earlier in his story.

A town of his own (vv. 5-7)

By asking for a country town, David moves out from under the king's eye, away from suspicion and court politics, and Achish gives him Ziklag, a town near the southern border. The note that Ziklag has belonged to Judah's kings ever since is the writer looking back from a later time.

Raids in the south (vv. 8-9)

From Ziklag, David attacks desert peoples to the south, including the Amalekites, longtime enemies of Israel, and kills every man and woman while taking their animals and clothing. Some later readers tied this to old commands against the Amalekites, but the chapter gives a different reason (v. 11): he wanted no witnesses.

The cover story (vv. 10-12)

David tells Achish he has been raiding the south of Judah, including the lands of the Jerahmeelites, a clan within Judah, and the Kenites, a people allied with Israel, when he was really attacking other peoples. Achish believes David has made his own people hate him for good, and this trust sets up a dangerous situation when war comes in the next chapters.

Key verse: 1 Samuel 27:1

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the writer quietly approves of David's raids as war against Israel's enemies, or presents his despair, slaughter and deceit as a low point in his life told without comment.

Something to think about

What do you think a long stretch of fear and pressure does to a person's sense of what is right?