1 Samuel 27:10-12

27:10 When Achish would ask, “Where ¹  did you raid today?” David would say, “The Negev of Judah” or “The Negev of Jeharmeel” or “The Negev of the Kenites.” 27:11 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 ²  that he lived in the country of the Philistines. 27:12 So Achish trusted David, thinking to himself, ³  “He is really hated ⁴  among his own people in ⁵  Israel! From now on ⁶  he will be my servant.”

[27:10]  ¹ tc The translation follows the LXX (ἐπι τίνα, epi tina) and Vulgate (in quem) which assume אֶל מִי (’el mi, “to whom”) rather than the MT אַל (’al, “not”). The MT makes no sense here. Another possibility is that the text originally had אַן (’an, “where”), which has been distorted in the MT to אַל. Cf. the Syriac Peshitta and the Targum, which have “where.”

[27:11]  ² tn Heb “all the days.”

[27:12]  ³ tn Heb “saying.”

[27:12]  ⁴ 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.

[27:12]  ⁵ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss lack the preposition “in.”

[27:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “permanently.”