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David Returns to Achish

¹ Then David thought to himself,^[a] "Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul! There is nothing better for me but that I must certainly escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will desist from searching for me further in all of the territories of Israel, and so I will escape from his hand." ² So David got up and crossed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, the king of Gath. ³ David settled with Achish in Gath, he and his men, each with his household.^[b] David took along his two wives Ahinoam from Jezreel^[c] and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. ⁴ And it was reported to Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he no longer searched for him.^[d]

⁵ Then David said to Achish, "Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, then let them give me a place in one of the country towns^[e] that I can live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city^[f] with you?" ⁶ So Achish gave him Ziklag on that day. (Therefore, Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until this day.) ⁷ The number of days that David lived in the countryside of the Philistines was one year and four months.

⁸ Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites, for they had been living in the land for a long time in the direction of^[g] Shur and as far as^[h] the land of Egypt. ⁹ So David struck the land and did not leave a man or a woman alive; he took the sheep,^[i] the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing. Then he returned and came to Achish. ¹⁰ And Achish said, "Against whom have you raided today?" David said, "Against the Negev of Judah and against the Negev of the Jerahmeelites and against the Negev of the Kenites." ¹¹ And David did not leave alive a man or a woman to bring them back to Gath, thinking,^[j] "So that they will not report about us, saying, ‘David did thus and so.'" Thus was his practice all the days that he lived in the countryside of the Philistines. ¹² And Achish trusted David, saying, "He has made himself utterly hated^[k] among his people in Israel, and he will be my servant forever."