1 Samuel 27:5-12

5 David said to Akhish, If now I have found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?

6 Then Akhish gave him Tziklag that day: why Tziklag pertains to the kings of Yehudah to this day.

7 The number of the days that David lived in the country of the Pelishtim was a full year and four months.

8 David and his men went up, and made a raid on the Geshuri, and the Gizri, and the `Amaleki; for those [nations] were the inhabitants of the land, who were of old, as you go to Shur, even to the land of Mitzrayim.

9 David struck the land, and saved neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the donkeys, and the camels, and the clothing; and he returned, and came to Akhish.

10 Akhish said, Against whom have you made a raid today? David said, Against the South of Yehudah, and against the South of the Yerachme'eli, and against the South of the Kinim.

11 David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring them to Gat, saying, Lest they should tell of us, saying, So did David, and so has been his manner all the while he has lived in the country of the Pelishtim.

12 Akhish believed David, saying, He has made his people Yisra'el utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant forever.

1 Samuel 27:5-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 27

David, fearing he should perish by the hand of Saul at one time or another, went into the land of the Philistines, which Saul hearing of, sought no more after him, 1Sa 27:1-4; and finding favour in the eyes of the king of Gath, desired a place in his country might be given him to reside in; and accordingly Ziklag was given him, 1Sa 27:5-7; from whence he made excursions into the land of the Amalekites, and others, and utterly destroyed them; but imposed on the king of Gath, pretending he had made his road into the southern parts of Judah, 1Sa 27:8-12.