1 Samuel 27:7

7 Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months.

1 Samuel 27:7 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 27:7

And the time that David dwelt in the country of the
Philistines
At Gath and Ziklag:

was a full year and four months;
or "days and four months"; days being sometimes put for a year, ( Judges 17:10 ) ; though some interpret it not of a year, but of some few days out of the fifth month, besides the four months; so Jarchi and Kimchi; and Josephus ^F8 makes his abode to be four months and twenty days; but, according to the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, it was only four months; and so it may be rendered, "days, that is, four months"; for according to the Jewish chronology ^F9 Samuel died four months before Saul, and this flight of David was after the death of Samuel, and when Saul died he left the land of the Philistines, and took the throne of Judah; (See Gill on 1 Samuel 25:1).

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 Antiqu. l. 6. c. 13. sect. 10.
F9 Sepher Olam Rabba c. 13. p. 37.

1 Samuel 27:7 In-Context

5 Then David said to Achish, "If I have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?"

6 So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.

7 Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months.

8 And David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. For those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as you go to Shur, even as far as the land of Egypt.

9 Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish.