1 Samuel 29:3

3 "Who are these Hebrews?" the Philistine commanders asked. "That's David," Achish told them, "the servant of Israel's King Saul. He's been with me a year or so now. I haven't found anything wrong with him from the day he defected until now."

1 Samuel 29:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 29:3

Then said the princes of the Philistines
To Achish; not those of the court of Achish, who were his subjects, but the confederate princes with him in this war, the lords of the other principalities, as appears by the freedom they took with him, ( 1 Samuel 29:4 ) ;

what [do] these Hebrews [here]?
or Jews, as the Targum; what hast thou to do with them, or they to be with thee? men of another nation and religion, and known enemies to the Philistines:

and Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines;
in order to soften them, and reconcile them to these men, and their being with him:

[is] not this David the servant of Saul the king of Israel;
between whom there had been a quarrel, and the former had fled from the latter to him:

which hath been with me these days, or these years;
had been with him many days, and he might say years, as he had been with him one whole year, and part of another, see ( 1 Samuel 27:7 ) ; and he might have known him longer, if he was the same Achish David first fled to; Kimchi interprets it, that he knew him as well as if he had been with him as many years as days:

and I have found no fault in him since he fell [unto me] unto this day?
the affair of David's going against the Geshurites not being yet known by him, or, if it was, he approved of it, they being enemies of his; this shows that David behaved with a great deal of prudence to have such a character as this from a king of the Philistines.

1 Samuel 29:3 In-Context

1 The Philistines assembled all their forces at Aphek, and the Israelites camped by the spring in Jezreel.

2 As the Philistine rulers went out marching in units of hundreds and thousands, David and his soldiers were in the rear with Achish.

3 "Who are these Hebrews?" the Philistine commanders asked. "That's David," Achish told them, "the servant of Israel's King Saul. He's been with me a year or so now. I haven't found anything wrong with him from the day he defected until now."

4 But the Philistine commanders were angry with Achish. "Send the man home!" they told Achish. "He can go back to the place you gave him, but he won't go with us into battle. Couldn't he turn against us in the middle of the fight? How better to please his former master than by taking the heads of our soldiers?

5 After all, this is the same David people sing about in their dances, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands!'"