1 Samuel 27:12

27:12 So Achish trusted David, thinking to himself, ¹  “He is really hated ²  among his own people in ³  Israel! From now on ⁴  he will be my servant.”

1 Samuel 29:2

29:2 When the leaders of the Philistines were passing in review at the head of their units of hundreds and thousands, ⁵  David and his men were passing in review in the rear with Achish.

1 Samuel 28:2

28:2 David replied to Achish, “That being the case, you will come to know what your servant can do!” Achish said to David, “Then I will make you my bodyguard ⁶  from now on.” ⁷ 

1 Samuel 21:10

21:10 So on that day David arose and fled from Saul. He went to King Achish of Gath.

1 Samuel 21:12

21:12 David thought about what they said ⁸  and was very afraid of King Achish of Gath.

1 Samuel 21:14

21:14 Achish said to his servants, “Look at this madman! Why did you bring him to me?

1 Samuel 27:2-3

27:2 So David left and crossed over to King Achish son of Maoch of Gath accompanied by his six hundred men. 27:3 David settled with Achish in Gath, along with his men and their families. ⁹  David had with him his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the Carmelite, Nabal’s widow.

1 Samuel 27:6

27:6 So Achish gave him Ziklag on that day. (For that reason Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until this very day.)

1 Samuel 27:9-10

27:9 When David would attack a district, ¹⁰  he would leave neither man nor woman alive. He would take sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing and would then go back to Achish. 27:10 When Achish would ask, “Where ¹¹  did you raid today?” David would say, “The Negev of Judah” or “The Negev of Jeharmeel” or “The Negev of the Kenites.”

1 Samuel 21:11

21:11 The servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one that they sing about when they dance, saying,

‘Saul struck down his thousands,

But David his tens of thousands’?”

1 Samuel 27:5

27:5 David said to Achish, “If I have found favor with you, let me be given a place in one of the country towns so that I can live there. Why should your servant settle in the royal city with you?”

1 Samuel 28:1

The Witch of Endor

28:1 In those days the Philistines gathered their troops ¹²  for war in order to fight Israel. Achish said to David, “You should fully understand that you and your men must go with me into the battle.” ¹³ 

1 Samuel 29:8-9

29:8 But David said to Achish, “What have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day that I first came into your presence until the present time, that I shouldn’t go and fight the enemies of my lord the king?” 29:9 Achish replied to David, “I am convinced that you are as reliable ¹⁴  as the angel of God! However, the leaders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go up with us in the battle.’

1 Samuel 29:3

29:3 The leaders of the Philistines asked, “What about these Hebrews?” Achish said to the leaders of the Philistines, “Isn’t this David, the servant of King Saul of Israel, who has been with me for quite some time? ¹⁵  I have found no fault with him from the day of his defection until the present time!” ¹⁶ 

1 Samuel 29:6

29:6 So Achish summoned David and said to him, “As surely as the Lord lives, you are an honest man, and I am glad to have you ¹⁷  serving ¹⁸  with me in the army. ¹⁹  I have found no fault with you from the day that you first came to me until the present time. But in the opinion ²⁰  of the leaders, you are not reliable. ²¹ 

[27:12]  ¹ tn Heb “saying.”

[27:12]  ² 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]  ³ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss lack the preposition “in.”

[27:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “permanently.”

[29:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “passing by with respect to hundreds and thousands.” This apparently describes a mustering of troops for the purpose of inspection and readiness.

[28:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “the guardian for my head.”

[28:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all the days.”

[21:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “placed these matters in his heart.”

[27:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a man and his house.”

[27:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “the land.”

[27:10]  ²⁵ 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.”

[28:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “their camps.”

[28:1]  ³⁰ tc The translation follows the LXX (εἰς πόλεμον, eis polemon) and a Qumran ms מלחמה במלחמה ([m]lkhmh) bammilkhamah (“in the battle”) rather than the MT’s בַמַּחֲנֶה (bammakhaneh, “in the camp”; cf. NASB). While the MT reading is not impossible here, and although admittedly it is the harder reading, the variant fits the context better. The MT can be explained as a scribal error caused in part by the earlier occurrence of “camp” in this verse.

[29:9]  ³³ tn Heb “I know that you are good in my eyes.”

[29:3]  ³⁷ tn Heb “these days or these years.”

[29:3]  ³⁸ tn Heb “from the day of his falling [away] until this day.”

[29:6]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “it is good in my eyes.” Cf. v. 7.

[29:6]  ⁴² tn Heb “your going forth and your coming in.” The expression is a merism.

[29:6]  ⁴³ tn Heb “camp.”

[29:6]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “eyes.”

[29:6]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “good.”