1 Samuel 27
New English Translation
David Aligns Himself with the Philistines
27 David thought to himself,[a] “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.”
2 So David left and crossed over to King Achish son of Maoch of Gath accompanied by his 600 men. 3 David settled with Achish in Gath, along with his men and their families.[b] David had with him his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the Carmelite, Nabal’s widow. 4 When Saul learned that David had fled to Gath, he did not mount a new search for him.
5 David 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?” 6 So Achish gave him Ziklag on that day. (For that reason Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until this very day.) 7 The length of time[c] that David lived in the Philistine countryside was a year[d] and four months.
8 Then 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 approach[e] to Shur as far as the land of Egypt.) 9 When David would attack a district,[f] he would leave neither man nor woman alive. He would take sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing and would then go back to Achish. 10 When Achish would ask, “Where[g] did you raid today?” David would say, “The Negev of Judah” or “The Negev of Jerahmeel” or “The Negev of the Kenites.” 11 Neither 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 time[h] that he lived in the country of the Philistines. 12 So Achish trusted David, thinking to himself,[i] “He is really hated[j] among his own people in[k] Israel! From now on[l] he will be my servant.”
Footnotes
- 1 Samuel 27:1 tn Heb “said to his heart.”
- 1 Samuel 27:3 tn Heb “a man and his house.”
- 1 Samuel 27:7 tn Heb “the number of the days.”
- 1 Samuel 27:7 tn 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.
- 1 Samuel 27:8 tn Heb “from where you come.”
- 1 Samuel 27:9 tn Heb “the land.”
- 1 Samuel 27:10 tc The translation follows the LXX (ἐπι τίνα, epi tina) and Vulgate (in quem) which assume אֶל מִי (ʾel mi, “to whom”) rather than the MT אַל (ʾal, “not”). The MT makes no sense here. Another possibility is that the text originally had אַן (ʾan, “where”), which has been distorted in the MT to אַל. Cf. the Syriac Peshitta and the Targum, which have “where.”
- 1 Samuel 27:11 tn Heb “all the days.”
- 1 Samuel 27:12 tn Heb “saying.”
- 1 Samuel 27:12 tn 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.
- 1 Samuel 27:12 tc Many medieval Hebrew mss lack the preposition “in.”
- 1 Samuel 27:12 tn Heb “permanently.”
1 Samuel 27
Lexham English Bible
David Returns to Achish
27 Then David thought to himself,[a] “Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul! There is nothing better for me but that I must certainly escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will desist from searching for me further in all of the territories of Israel, and so I will escape from his hand.” 2 So David got up and crossed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, the king of Gath. 3 David settled with Achish in Gath, he and his men, each with his household.[b] David took along his two wives Ahinoam from Jezreel[c] and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 4 And it was reported to Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he no longer searched for him.[d]
5 Then David said to Achish, “Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, then let them give me a place in one of the country towns[e] that I can live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city[f] with you?” 6 So Achish gave him Ziklag on that day. (Therefore, Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until this day.) 7 The number of days that David lived in the countryside of the Philistines was one year and four months.
8 Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites, for they had been living in the land for a long time in the direction of[g] Shur and as far as[h] the land of Egypt. 9 So David struck the land and did not leave a man or a woman alive; he took the sheep,[i] the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing. Then he returned and came to Achish. 10 And Achish said, “Against whom have you raided today?” David said, “Against the Negev of Judah and against the Negev of the Jerahmeelites and against the Negev of the Kenites.” 11 And David did not leave alive a man or a woman to bring them back to Gath, thinking,[j] “So that they will not report about us, saying, ‘David did thus and so.’” Thus was his practice all the days that he lived in the countryside of the Philistines. 12 And Achish trusted David, saying, “He has made himself utterly hated[k] among his people in Israel, and he will be my servant forever.”
Footnotes
- 1 Samuel 27:1 Literally “said to his heart”
- 1 Samuel 27:3 Or “family”
- 1 Samuel 27:3 Literally “the Jezreelitess”
- 1 Samuel 27:4 Literally “he does Qere did not again to seek him longer”
- 1 Samuel 27:5 Literally “towns of the open field”
- 1 Samuel 27:5 Literally “the city of the king”
- 1 Samuel 27:8 Literally “as you come”
- 1 Samuel 27:8 Literally “up to”
- 1 Samuel 27:9 Hebrew “flock,” referring to either sheep or goats or both
- 1 Samuel 27:11 Hebrew “saying”
- 1 Samuel 27:12 Literally “Stinking he stink” = “he really stinks”
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