1 Samuel 21:10

_AND DAVID AROSE, AND FLED THAT DAY FOR FEAR OF SAUL, AND WENT TO ACHISH THE KING OF GATH._ David ... fled that day for fear of Saul. The king's uncontrolable violence and jealousy of David, together with the number of court parasites ready to give information to Saul of his place of refuge, rendered it impossible for him to remain within the territory of Israel, and he had resolved to leave the country. AND WENT TO ACHISH THE KING OF GATH - which was one of the five principalities of the Philistines; but its site is unknown. Dr. Robinson ('Biblical Researches,' 2:, 420) and Ritter ('Erdkunde,' 16 ter; 'Theil,' 136-139,) take it to be Deir-Dubb'an. But their opinion has not been adopted. In this place his person must have been known; and to venture into that country, he their greatest enemy, and with the sword of Goliath in his hand, would seem to have been a rash and perilous experime...

10-15 God's persecuted people have often found better usage from Philistines than from Israelites. David had reason to put confidence in Achish, yet he began to be afraid. His conduct was degrading, and discovered wavering in his faith and courage. The more simply we depend on God, and obey him, the more comfortably and surely we shall walk through this troublesome world....

Verse 1 Samuel 21:10. _WENT TO ACHISH THE KING OF GATH._] This was the worst place to which he could have gone: it was the very city of Goliath, whom he had slain, and whose sword he now wore; and he soon found, from the conversation of the servants of Achish, that his life was in the most imminent danger in this place....

ACHISH KING OF GATH - It appears from the title that Psalms 34 was composed on this occasion. (See the note there.) Nothing can give a more lively impression of the straits to which David was reduced than the fact of his going to the country of the Philistines....

DAVID'S FLIGHT TO NOB, AND SUBSEQUENTLY TO THE PHILISTINES (1 Samuel 21:1.). EXPOSITION DAVID'S FLIGHT TO NOB (1 Samuel 21:1). 1 SAMUEL 21:1 THEN CAME DAVID TO NOB. Nob means a _knoll _or _hill, _and apparently was situated a little to the north of Jerusalem on the road leading to Gath. The ark had evidently been removed thither by Saul early in his reign, after it had remained for twenty years in the house of Abinadab; a

AND DAVID AROSE AND FLED THAT DAY FOR FEAR OF SAUL,.... He had fled before for fear of him both from his own house, and from Naioth, 1 Samuel 19:18; but now he fled out of the land of Israel, for fear of him; or it may be the reason of his fear and flight on this day was because of Doeg the Edomite, lest he should go directly to Saul, and tell him where he was; and therefore through fear of him would not stay any longer, but the same day he came, he fled: AND WENT TO ACHISH THE KING OF GATH; Gath, according to Bunting p, was twenty four miles from Nob. Achish, the king of it, is called Abimelech in the title of the thirty fourth psalm, see Psalms 34:1, that name being common to the kings of the Philistines, as Pharaoh was to the kings of Egypt. It may seem strange that David should go in

6. DAVID'S VARIED EXPERIENCES CHAPTER 21 _ 1. David at Nob with Ahimelech (1 Samuel 21:1)_ 2. David's flight to Achish, King of Gath (1 Samuel 21:10) With this chapter begins the record of David's wanderings as an exile. A number of Psalms were written by him during this period of the rejection of the Lord's anointed. We shall point out some of them. These Psalms are prophetic also foreshadowing the rejection and the sufferings of Christ as well as the tribulations of the pious remnant of Israel during the closing years of the age, preceding the coming and enthronement of the King of Israel, our Lord. He reached Nob after his separation from Jonathan. At Nob the tabernacle of the Lord had been established and Ahimelech (my brother is King) the son of Ahitub (22:9) and g

1 SAMUEL 21. DAVID AT NOB AND GATH. 1 Samuel 21:1 (J). From one of the ancient documents; it is not clear which of the previous sections finds its sequel here. It is often connected with 1 Samuel 19:17: if this is right, David fled straight from his own house to Nob. It is likely that originally stories of single episodes of David's adventures circulated separately by oral tradition or otherwise, not forming a connected narrative. When they were collected, different editors might arrange and connect them in different ways. David fled to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Nob was probably a little N. of Jerusalem, on the way from Gibeah to Bethlehem. According to 1 Samuel 22:9 Ahimelech was the son of Ahitub, and

FOR FEAR OF SAUL. from the face of Saul....

David's flight to Gath 10. _and went to Achish_ In the extremity of peril, David was driven to take refuge among Saul's bitterest enemies, and offer himself as a servant to Achish (1 Samuel 21:15). He hoped no doubt that the Philistines would not recognise the stripling who slew their champion. Unlike Themistocles and Alcibiades when they were banished from Athens, he had no intention of turning traitor to his country. The circumstances of this sojourn at Gath and that recorded in ch. 27 are entirely unlike, and correspond exactly to the difference of occasion. In the present case David went alone, was ill received, and was compelled to feign madness for safety and escape as soon as possible: later on when his breach with Saul was notorious, he went with a numerous following, was received and established at Ziklag, and remained for more than a year....