1 Samuel 27:12

12 Therefore Achish believed to David (And so Achish trusted David), and said, Certainly he hath wrought many evils against his people Israel, therefore he shall be a servant to me for evermore.

1 Samuel 27:12 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 27:12

And Achish believed David
As he would have him understand his story; imposing upon him by ambiguous terms, insinuating he had been against the southern parts of Judah, when he had been against foreign nations that lay to the south of Judah:

saying, he hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him;
they shall never forgive him the destruction of their cities, and the inhabitants of them, and the plunder of their goods and cattle; his name will be had in the utmost detestation and abhorrence, and he must never return thither any more:

therefore he shall be my servant for ever:
would be glad to continue with him as a servant, and be obliged to serve him faithfully and truly, since his own people, and even those of his own tribe, would never more receive him; it being, as he understood it, the south of Judah that he had been plundering.

1 Samuel 27:12 In-Context

10 And Achish said to him, Into whom hurled ye today?/Against whom have ye hurled today? And David answered, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of Jerahmeel, and against the south of Kenites. (And Achish would say to him, Where did ye attack today? And David would answer, In the south of Judah, or, In the south of Jerahmeel, or, To the south of the Kenites.)

11 David left not quick man and woman (David left no man or woman alive), neither brought (them back) into Gath, and said, Lest peradventure they speak against us. David did these things, and this was his doom, in all [the] days in which he dwelled in the country of (the) Philistines.

12 Therefore Achish believed to David (And so Achish trusted David), and said, Certainly he hath wrought many evils against his people Israel, therefore he shall be a servant to me for evermore.