In this chapter we see the wisdom of David as he deliberately goes into the land of the Philistines. He knew that Saul wouldn’t go here in case a war broke out. David knew he would be safe in this land, 1 Samuel 27:1. Although David had been warned on another occasion when he was in Moab to return to Judah, 1 Samuel 22:5, it doesn’t appear that it was God’s will for David to dwell in Philistia at this time.
David and six hundred men went over to Achish son of Maok king of Gath and settled in Gath with Achish, 1 Samuel 27:2-3. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal, 1 Samuel 27:4.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘So it appears that the men who consorted with David had wives and families. David and his company resembled a tribe of the wandering Arabs.’
David’s plan to go to the land of the Philistines worked, as Saul called off his search for him, 1 Samuel 27:4. David wants a place where his men wouldn’t cause any confrontation with the soldiers of Achish, 1 Samuel 27:5. In other words, he could still be far enough away from the Philistines, without getting involved with them and at the same time, be far enough away from Saul and his army. In doing so, he could pretend to Achish that he was on the side of the Philistines because the Israelites were against him.
On that day Achish gave David Ziklag, 1 Samuel 27:6. This tells us that the date of writing of 1 Samuel was sometime after the division of Israel into the northern and southern kingdoms. The south was called the kingdom of Judah. The division took place after the death of Solomon and continued until the captivity of the kingdom of Judah in 586 B.C. Ziklag was an ideal location for David, it was around twelve miles north-northeast of Beersheba. Ziklag was assigned to Simeon but later incorporated into the territory of Judah, Joshua 19:5.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Ziklag was at first given to the tribe of Judah, but afterwards it was ceded to that of Simeon, Joshua 15:31 / Joshua 19:5. The Philistines had, however, made themselves masters of it, and held it to the time here mentioned; it then fell into the tribe of Judah again, and continued to be the property of the kings of Judah. This verse is a proof that this book was written long after the days of Samuel, and that it was formed by a later hand, out of materials which had been collected by a contemporary author.’
David needed to be at a distance from the observation of Achish in order to carry out his plans for deceiving the king of Gath.
David lived in Philistine territory for a year and four months, 1 Samuel 27:7, during which he raided desert tribes raided desert tribes to the south that were still within the territory that God had originally given to the nation of Israel as part of the Promised Land.
David and his men raided the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites and we are told that from ancient times these peoples had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt, 1 Samuel 27:8. Although there’s no record of the Geshurites, we do know that the Amalekites were supposed to have been destroyed by Saul in his early reign, 1 Samuel 15:1-35.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The Geshurites bordered upon the Philistines, and lived in the mountainous district which terminates the desert on the northeast. They were a different tribe, or, at least, a different branch of it, from the Geshurites who lived on the northeast border of Bashan, and were Arameans, 2 Samuel 15:8. The Girzites may be connected with those who gave their name to Mount Gerizim.’
David didn’t leave a man or woman alive, but took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, and clothes and then he returned to Achish, 1 Samuel 27:9. It appears that Achish didn’t understand why David was raiding the desert tribes, 1 Samuel 27:10. The word ‘Negev’ 1 Samuel 27:10, literally means ‘the dry country’. The Negev of Judah was the tribe of Judah itself, the Negev of Jerahmeel was one of the prominent clans of Judah, 1 Chronicles 2:9 / 1 Chronicles 2:42, and the Negev of the Kenites had been associated with Israel since the days of Moses, whose father-in-law Jethro was of the Kenites. Also, Jael who destroyed Sisera was a Kenite, Judges 4:17.
David knew exactly what he was doing, 1 Samuel 27:10-11. He was doing what his forefathers failed to do in removing the Canaanites from the land, Joshua 17:12-13 / Judges 1:19 / Judges 1:28. If David had actually raided these people, as he said he did, Achish’s belief that Israel at that time hated David would have been true, 1 Samuel 27:12.