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.”
撒母耳記上 27
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Traditional)
大衛投奔非利士人
27 大衛心裡想：「終有一天，我會死在掃羅手裡，我最好逃到非利士人那裡。這樣，掃羅就不會在以色列到處追捕我了，我便可以逃離他的手。」 2 於是，大衛率領他的六百個隨從去投靠瑪俄的兒子迦特王亞吉。 3 他部下的家眷和他的兩位妻子——耶斯列人亞希暖和拿八的遺孀迦密人亞比該也跟他一同住在迦特王亞吉那裡。 4 掃羅聽到這個消息，就不再追捕他了。 5 大衛對亞吉說：「如果你開恩，就讓我到郊野的一個城邑去住吧，何必讓僕人與王一同住在都城呢？」 6 亞吉當天把洗革拉賜給他，因此那地方至今仍屬猶大王。 7 大衛在非利士人的地方共住了一年零四個月。 8 他率領部下襲擊基述人、基色人和亞瑪力人，這些人自古以來就住在遠至書珥和埃及一帶的地方。 9 大衛攻打那一帶，殺死所有的人，搶走牛、羊、驢、駱駝和衣物，回去見亞吉。 10 亞吉問：「你們今天攻打了哪裡？」大衛會說：「攻打了猶大南部」，或說：「攻打了耶拉篾南部」，或說：「攻打了基尼南部。」 11 大衛把那地方的人都殺掉，一個也不帶到迦特，因為他害怕他們會洩露真相。大衛在非利士人那裡居住的時候，常常這樣做。 12 亞吉相信了大衛的話，心裡想：「以色列人恨透了大衛，他必永遠留在迦特做我的僕人。」
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