Bible Commentaries
1 Samuel 29

Verses 1-11

Chapter 29

Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek: and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel. [Which is the area of Armageddon, actually it's the whole plains of Megiddo, Jezreel, Israel on, they all come together.] The lords of the Philistines passed on by the hundreds, and by the thousands: but David and his men passed in the rereward with Achish. And then said the princes of the Philistines, What are these Hebrews doing here? And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines, Is this not David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, which has been with me for these days, or rather years, and I've found no fault in him since the day that he came unto me to this day? And the princes of the Philistines were angry with him; and the princes of the Philistines said to him, Hey make this fellow get out of here, that he may go again to his place which you have appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the midst of the battle he returned [actually] and he be reconciled to his master? and then he'll turn against us? Is not this the David, of whom they sang, that he has killed his tens of thousands? So Achish called David, and he said to him, Surely as the Lord lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the host is good in my sight: for I have not found evil in thee since the day that you've come to me: nevertheless the lords of the Philistines do not favor you. Now return, and go in peace, that you displease not the lords of the Philistines. David said, What have I done? and what have you found in your servant so long as I have been with thee this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king? Achish answered and said to David, I know that you are good in my sight, as an angel of God: notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to battle. Now get up early in the morning, and as soon as it gets light, take off ( 1 Samuel 29:1-10 ).

So David here really was divinely protected from God, as I see it, from fighting against Saul and Jonathan, and those of his own friends and all that were there. God preserved him from this fighting against Israel.

So David and his men got up and they returned ( 1 Samuel 29:11 ). "