Chapter 27

1 Saul hearing David to be in Gath seeketh no more for him. 5 David beggeth Ziklag of Achish. 8 He, invading other countries, persuadeth Achish he fought against Judah.

1. I shall now perish. David failed to realize that in spite of Saul’s conniving, God was silently working out His will. He interpreted recent happenings as evidence of the hopelessness of reconciliation and of the gradual success of Saul’s plan to ruin and destroy him. In the past David had enjoyed the guidance of Gad and Abiathar—of the Urim and Thummim—but now in discouragement he turned from divine help and laid plans on his own responsibility. Nevertheless, God graciously turned David’s mistakes into steppingstones toward ultimate success!

Nothing better. In spite of all David had done for his own countrymen, they manifested but little sympathy for him now that he was in disfavor with the king. The men of Keilah would have turned him over to Saul (see ch. 23:1–13). The Ziphites twice informed Saul of his hiding place (chs. 23:19; 26:1), and Nabal proved as unfriendly as Doeg had been (ch. 25:10, 11). Twice he had extended the hand of mercy to the jealously insane tyrant who openly sought his life (chs. 24:6–11; 26:8–12). From the very people who should have shown him every courtesy he had received only censure and ingratitude, and his life among them had been one continuous nightmare. Living on short rations in caves and forests, in deserts and on mountain crags, he had been treated as an outlaw.

Not long before these incidents (ch. 22:5), God had directed David to return from Moab to Judah. There was much to be done for his own countrymen, and David responded gladly. He may have concluded that his call to return to Judah arose from the need of protecting its people against raids by neighboring nations. But it was probably God’s purpose to demonstrate before all Israel the fortitude, humility, and courage of the one chosen to be king—a faith that waited patiently for God to work out His will in His own good time.

Time and again the Lord wrought for David, and the common people must have begun to think of him as having a charmed life. But after each marvelous deliverance there came another severe test, and David eventually began to feel the futility of seemingly endless danger and uncertainty. To provide for the hundreds of men who now followed him, and to hold them together, would tax the energies of the ablest of men. True, Abigail and Jonathan had encouraged David, but the majority were against him. His faith grew weak.

Downhearted, he finally sought refuge among the enemies of the Lord. In such a course, it seemed to him, lay his only safety. Contrary to the will of God, David now set foot on a thorny road of duplicity and intrigue. Sacrificing confidence in God for his own idea of safety, David tarnished the faith God would have all His servants exhibit before men and angels. How different might have been the history of Israel had David sought and followed the counsel of the Lord as earnestly before leaving Judah as he had previously done upon leaving Moab (see ch. 22:5).

2. Achish, the son of Maoch. The name “Achish” is of uncertain derivation. Some scholars think this Achish the same as that mentioned in 1 Kings 2:39 as the son of Maachah. But Maoch is the masculine form of the word, whereas Maachah is the feminine (see 1 Kings 15:2; 1 Chron. 2:48; 3:2; 7:15; etc.). If both passages refer to the same person, the Achish of 1 Kings 2:39 would have been very aged, for the incident there recorded occurred nearly 50 years after David first fled to Achish (1 Sam. 21:10). But if Achish, son of Maoch, married a woman by the name of Maachah, the son could be referred to as the “son of Maachah,” and therefore the grandson of Maoch. It is probable, however, that the Achish before whom David feigned madness (1 Sam. 21:12, 13) is the same king to whom David now fled. At most the two incidents were not many years apart. In the first instance David was alone; now he was accompanied by hundreds of followers with their families. For a time, at least, the refugees remained in Gath. According to the Targums “Gittih” in the titles of Ps. 8, 81, and 84 designates a musical instrument invented, or a type of music first composed, by David during his sojourn at Gath, thinking gittith to be from Gath. It was on one of his visits to Gath that David composed the 56th psalm, according to its title, which reads, “When the Philistines took him in Gath.” See on 1 Sam. 21:13.

4. Sought no more. Saul would naturally refrain from invading hostile territory in order to capture David; such a move would have provoked a war for which he was unprepared. The wording of the text leaves little doubt that, had David remained in Judah, Saul would have forgotten even his latest promise, and pursued him once more. Perhaps Saul hoped this time, as upon a former occasion (1 Sam. 18:17, 25), that David would fall at the hands of the Philistines.

6. Ziklag. The name is of uncertain derivation. It is first mentioned in Joshua 15:31, as one of the cities in Judah’s inheritance. But when Simeon was awarded certain cities within the borders of Judah, Ziklag was transferred to that tribe (see Joshua 19:1–5). Ziklag was situated in the eastern part of the plains country, and had been taken from Simeon by the Philistines in the days of the judges. It was probably on the site now known as Tell elРKhuweilfeh, 20 1/4 mi. (32.4 km.) southwest of Adullam and 9 1/2 mi. (15.2 km.) north by east from Beersheba. It was to Ziklag that many recruits from the tribes of Benjamin, Gad, Manasseh, Judah, and other tribes joined David 1 Chron. 12).

7. A full year. Heb. yamim, literally, “days.” In Lev. 25:29 yamim, “a full year [literally, “days”],” is clearly equivalent to “a whole year [shanah, the usual word for “year”].”In 1 Sam. 1:3 Elkanah is said to have gone to Shiloh “yearly,” literally, “from days to days.” In ch. 2:19 the same idiom is translated “from year to year.”

8. Went up, and invaded. Though David was hunted like a beast of prey by Saul and spurned by his countrymen, he never wavered in his concern for Israel. Ziklag bordered on the territory of desert marauders who had troubled Israel ever since their entrance into Canaan. The Lord had ordered the complete annihilation of such predatory tribes as the Amalekites (Ex. 17:16; Num. 24:20; Deut. 9:1–4; Deut. 25:17–19; cf. Gen. 15:16), and as the anointed heir to the throne David felt responsible to carry out what Saul had failed to accomplish. David no doubt intended thus to merit the loyalty of his own nation.

The Geshurites. When Israel invaded the lands of Sihon and Og (Joshua 12), they came to the border of the Geshurites, near Mt. Hermon (Joshua 12:5; 13:11). It is possible that these Geshurites had migrated northward from the Negeb (see on Gen. 12:9; Judges 1:9) and the desert of Paran, and that a related tribe lived near Philistia.

The Gezrites. More accurately, “Girzites.” Their location is known only from their close association with the Amalekites in the desert “as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.”

The Amalekites. See on ch. 15:2.

9. David smote the land. The desert tribes had been the enemies of Israel for centuries and had intermittently raided Israelite communities adjacent to the desert. Earlier, when Saul “utterly destroyed” all the Amalekites (ch. 15:8), it is likely that many of them disappeared into the desert, and in a short time reappeared to continue their raids. The wandering Bedouin peoples have a mysterious way of disappearing suddenly, only to reappear in time. The statement that David “left neither man nor woman alive” refers, of course, only to those residing in the communities he attacked. The one way to bring permanent peace to the border towns of Israel was to drive these tribes back so far into the desert that they would hesitate to return. It was almost impossible to exterminate them. They lived on loot secured through guerrilla warfare, and much of the stock and other supplies David captured upon this occasion had probably been taken from Israelite communities in the first place.

10. The south of Judah. Literally, “the Negeb of Judah” (see on Gen. 12:9). The area occupied by these tribes lay within the Negeb. Thus, while David was raiding in the “Negeb of Judah,” he was not fighting against his own people, but with foreign peoples who had trespassed on Judah’s territory. At the same time his statement was sufficiently ambiguous to permit Achish to interpret it otherwise.

Jerahmeelites. Jerahmeel was the first-born son of Hezron, the grandson of Judah (1 Chron. 2:9, 25. He was probably born after Jacob went to Egypt, for he is not mentioned among the 70 persons of Jacob’s household who migrated to Egypt (Gen. 46:12). It is not certain whether this clan accompanied Israel in the Exodus movement or not. They seem to have settled in the region south of Hebron. They probably lived as nomads, and took no part in the national affairs of Israel.

Kenites. See on Gen. 15:19.

11. Tidings. This word has been supplied and should obviously be omitted. What is meant is that David took no prisoners back with him to Ziklag, lest these slaves should inform the Philistines of the raid.

12. Achish believed. The duplicity of David was another serious blunder, unworthy of one who had been so highly exalted in spiritual privileges. The price of victory in the conflict with sin is unceasing vigilance and constant surrender to the will of God. But the goodness of God did not forsake David in his hour of discouragement. David possessed a fixedness of purpose and a sincere desire to cooperate fully with the program of God. This attitude led him to acknowledge his sins upon their disclosure and to set out immediately to rectify his errors.

David made his first mistake in leaving Judah. To the sin of deserting his fellow countrymen without divine permission he added the second sin of duplicity. Had David remained in Judah, God could have delivered him as He had previously done. When Israel went to Gilboa to withstand the Philistine attack (ch. 28:4), David might have been used of the Lord to bring about such a victory as to win the popular acclaim of the entire country. While Saul had made a serious mistake in seeking the life of David, David now made an almost fatal blunder in leaving his own land without definite counsel from God.

Ellen G. White comments

1–12PP 673, 674

1, 2 PP 672

3, 5, 6, 12        PP 672