1 Samuel 27:12

_AND ACHISH BELIEVED DAVID, SAYING, HE HATH MADE HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL UTTERLY TO ABHOR HIM; THEREFORE HE SHALL BE MY SERVANT FOR EVER._ Achish believed David. Achish was deceived by the tale, and considered that, as so great an outrage upon his countrymen would alienate all Israel from David, he might now employ him as a useful auxiliary in the expeditionary enterprise he had been meditating against the kingdom of Saul. The gross deception practiced upon his royal host, and the indiscriminate slaughter which David had committed, lest any one should escape to tell the real truth, exhibit an unfavourable view of his integrity and uprightness at this period....

8-12 While David was in the land of the Philistines, he attacked some remains of the devoted nations. The people whom he cut off were long before doomed to destruction. It is often wisdom to shun public notice, but we must in no situation be idle. We must always try to do somewhat in the cause of God. This expedition David hid from Achish. But an equivocation which serves the purpose of a lie, is as like to it as a hypocrite is to a profane person, it is only better in appearance, therefore more dangerous. Yet, though believers often manifest imperfections, they can never be prevailed upon to renounce the service of God, and to unite interests with his enemies, or finally to become the servants of sin and Satan. But what a train of evils follow from unbelief! When we forget the Lord's past mercies, and his gracious assurances, we shall be overwhelmed with desponding fears, and probably...

Verse 1 Samuel 27:12. _HE HATH MADE HIS PEOPLE - UTTERLY TO ABHOR HIM_] This deception, which Dr. Delaney says "_did harm to nobody, and to the_ _account of which he is at an utter loss what degree of guilt to_ _charge_," imposed upon Achish, had the most direct tendency to make him imagine himself secure, while in the utmost danger; and to have a faithful friend and able ally in David, while he was the veriest enemy he could possibly have. Shame on him who becomes the apologist of such conduct! As to Dr. Chandler, he should know that no _lie_ is of the _truth_, and that all _falsity_ is an abomination to the Lord....

DAVID FINDS A REFUGE AT ZIKLAG (1 Samuel 27:1.). EXPOSITION DAVID AGAIN SEEKS PROTECTION AT GATH (1 Samuel 27:1). 1 SAMUEL 27:1 DAVID SAID IN HIS HEART. Hebrew, "to his heart," to himself (see 1 Samuel 1:13). l shall perish by the hand. The verb is that used in 1 Samuel 12:25;...

AND ACHISH BELIEVED DAVID,.... As he would have him understand his story; imposing upon him by ambiguous terms, insinuating he had been against the southern parts of Judah, when he had been against foreign nations that lay to the south of Judah: SAYING, HE HATH MADE HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL UTTERLY TO ABHOR HIM; they shall never forgive him the destruction of their cities, and the inhabitants of them, and the plunder of their goods and cattle; his name will be had in the utmost detestation and abhorrence, and he must never return thither any more: THEREFORE HE SHALL BE MY SERVANT FOR EVER: would be glad to continue with him as a servant, and be obliged to serve him faithfully and truly, since his own people, and even those of his own tribe, would never more receive him; it being, as he understood it, the south of Judah that he had been plundering....

CHAPTER 27 _ 1. David's unbelief (1 Samuel 27:1)_ 2. With Achish, King of Gath (1 Samuel 27:3) 3. His slaughter and deception 27:8-12) David became despondent. After all the gracious evidences that the Lord was with him, shielded him and guarded his very footsteps, he relapses in unbelief. Such is the heart of man! He fears for his life and then takes once more his case out of the Lord's hands and flees to Achish the king of Gath. He had been there before and at that former visit he feigned insanity and the Philistinian Ahimelech Achish of Gath had driven him away. Now he is welcomed by Achish, for he brings a small army of 600 young men with him and receives Ziklag to dwell in with his two wives and his household. And Saul after this sought him no more. David abode

1 Samuel 27:1 to 1 Samuel 28:2. DAVID AT GATH (J). Sequel to 1 Samuel 26:25 (_cf._ 1 Samuel 21:10). 1 SAMUEL 27:1. As a last resource David takes refuge at Gath. 1 SAMUEL 27:6. ZIKLAG: Joshua 15:31. 1 SAMUEL 27:7. This paragraph does not simp

PEOPLE ISRAEL. Israel's People....

David's raids upon neighbouring tribes 8. _the Geshurites_ A tribe dwelling south of Philistia near the Amalekites (see Joshua 13:2), to be distinguished from the Geshurites in Syria (2 Samuel 15:8). _the Gezrites_ These cannot be the inhabitants of _Gezer_(Joshua 10:33), which was far away from the scene of David's operations. The written text (_Kthîbh_) as distinguished from the traditional reading (_Qrî_) has GERZITES. It has been conjectured that this was an ancient Arab tribe which at one time wandered up northwards and gave its name to Mount Gerizim; as their neighbours the Amalekites left traces of former migrations in the name "the mountain of the Amalekites" in the territory

_David's Pretended Campaign Against Judah._ 1 Samuel 27:8-12 8 And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those _nations were_ of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt. 9 And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish. 10 And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road today? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites. 11 And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring _tidings_ to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so _will_ be his manner all the while he dwelleth _in_ the country of the Phili