1Sa 27 | EE | STEP | Then David thought, ‘I am sure that Saul will kill me one day. But I have a good idea. I will go to the country of the Philistines and I will be safe from Saul. He will stop looking for me in Israel. Then I will be free from Saul.’

1 Samuel 27

David lives with the Philistines

1 Then David thought, ‘I am sure that Saul will kill me one day. But I have a good idea. I will go to the country of the Philistines and I will be safe from Saul. He will stop looking for me in Israel. Then I will be free from Saul.’

2 So David and his 600 men left Israel. They went to Achish, who was the son of Maoch. Achish was the king of the town called Gath. 3 David, his men, and their families lived in Gath with Achish. David had his two wives with him. One wife was Ahinoam. She came from the town called Jezreel. His other wife was Abigail, whose husband Nabal was dead. She came from the town called Carmel. 4 People told Saul that David had run away to Gath. So Saul stopped looking for him.

5 Then David said to Achish, ‘Are you happy with me? If you are, I do not need to live in the king’s town with you. Please let me have a town somewhere else in this country where I can live.’

6 That day, King Achish gave the town called Ziklag to David. Since then Ziklag has been part of the king of Judah‘s land. 7 David lived in the country of the Philistines for one year and 4 months. ^{▼▼27:7 Ziklag was near the Philistine border with the country of Judah. But it was far away from Saul’s town of Gibeah and the 5 main Philistine towns.}

8 During that time David and his men attacked the tribes of the people called Geshurites, Girzites and Amalekites. These people had lived in that place for a very long time. Their land went down as far as the land near Shur and the country called Egypt. 9 When David attacked them, he killed all the men and women. But he took all their sheep, cows, donkeys, camels and their clothes. Then he returned to Achish.

10 Achish asked David, ‘Which place did you go and attack today?’ Sometimes David would tell him that he had gone to the south part of Judah. Other times David told him that he went to the land of the tribe of Jerahmeel or the Kenite tribe. 11 David killed everyone in the places that he attacked. He never took anyone back to the town called Gath. So nobody could tell Achish what David had really done. 12 Achish believed what David had said. Achish thought, ‘The Israelites will hate David very much now. So David will have to be my servant for all time.’