1 Samuel 29:6-11

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 ¹  serving ²  with me in the army. ³  I have found no fault with you from the day that you first came to me until the present time. But in the opinion ⁴  of the leaders, you are not reliable. ⁵  29:7 So turn and leave ⁶  in peace. You must not do anything that the leaders of the Philistines consider improper!” ⁷ 

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 ⁸  as the angel of God! However, the leaders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go up with us in the battle.’ 29:10 So get up early in the morning along with the servants of your lord who have come with you. ⁹  When you get up early in the morning, as soon as it is light enough to see, leave.” ¹⁰ 

29:11 So David and his men got up early in the morning to return ¹¹  to the land of the Philistines, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

[29:6]  ¹ tn Heb “it is good in my eyes.” Cf. v. 7.

[29:6]  ² tn Heb “your going forth and your coming in.” The expression is a merism.

[29:6]  ³ tn Heb “camp.”

[29:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “eyes.”

[29:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “good.”

[29:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “go.”

[29:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “and you must not do evil in the eyes of the leaders of the Philistines.”

[29:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “I know that you are good in my eyes.”

[29:10]  ⁹ tc The LXX and a couple of Old Latin mss include here the following words: “and you shall go to the place that I have appointed you. Don’t place an evil thing in your heart, for you are good before me.”

[29:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “when you get up early in the morning and you have light, go.”

[29:11]  ¹¹ tc Heb “to go in the morning to return.” With the exception of Origen and the Lucianic recension, the Old Greek tradition lacks the phrase “in the morning.” The Syriac Peshitta also omits it.