1 Samuel 27:2

_AND DAVID AROSE, AND HE PASSED OVER WITH THE SIX HUNDRED MEN THAT WERE WITH HIM UNTO ACHISH, THE SON OF MAOCH, KING OF GATH._ Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath. The particular description of this king's family creates a presumption that he was a different king from the reigning sovereign on David's first visit to Gath. Whether David had received a special invitation from him, or a mere permission to enter his territories, cannot be determined. It is probable that the former was the case; as, from the universal notoriety given to the feud between Saul and David, which had now become irreconcileable, it might appear to Achish good policy to harbour him as a guest, and so the better pave the way for the hostile measures against Israel which the Philistines were at this time meditating....

1-7 Unbelief is a sin that easily besets even good men, when without are fightings, and within are fears; and it is a hard matter to get over them. Lord, increase our faith! We may blush to think that the word of a Philistine should go further than the word of an Israelite, and that the city of Gath should be a place of refuge for a good man, when the cities of Israel refuse him a safe abode. David gained a comfortable settlement, not only at a distance from Gath, but bordering upon Israel, where he might keep up a correspondence with his own countrymen....

Verse 1 Samuel 27:2. _DAVID AROSE, AND HE PASSED OVER - UNTO ACHISH_] There is not one circumstance in this transaction that is not blameable. David joins the enemies of his God and of his country, acts a most inhuman part against the Geshurites and Amalekites, without even the pretense of a Divine authority; tells a most deliberate falsehood to Achish, his protector, relative to the people against whom he had perpetrated this cruel act; giving him to understand that he had been destroying the Israelites, his enemies. I undertake no defence of this conduct of David; it is all bad, all defenceless; God vindicates him not. The inspired penman tells what he did, but passes no _eulogium_ upon his conduct; and it is false to say that, because these things are _recorded_, therefore they are _approved_. In all these transactions David was in no sense a man after God's own heart...

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 DAVID AROSE,.... From the place where he was: AND HE PASSED OVER; the borders of land of Canaan: WITH THE SIX HUNDRED MEN THAT [WERE] WITH HIM; having neither lost any, nor had any added to him, since he was at Keilah, 1 Samuel 23:13; UNTO ACHISH, THE SON OF MAOCH, KING OF GATH; whether this was the same Achish David was with before, 1 Samuel 21:10, is not certain; it seems as if he was not the same, since he is described as the son of Maoch, as if it was to distinguish him from him; though it is not improbable that he was the same person. Some think a that he is described not from his father, but from his mother, whose name was Maacha. The circumstances of David were now very much altered from what they were when he went to Gath before;

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

MEN. Hebrew. _'enosh._ App-14....

_Achish, the son of Maoch_ If he was the same as the Achish of 1 Samuel 21:10, and the Achish son of Maachah of 1 Kings 2:39, he must have reigned some fifty years. But more probably the same name was borne by different individuals....

ACHISH, THE SON OF MAOCH— Most writers agree, that this _Achish,_ to whom David now fled, was notthe Achish by whom he was so inhospitably received, and from whom he so narrowly escaped, when he was before at Gath. His being called here _Achish, the son of Maoch,_ sufficiently indicates that he was another person; for those words can, in the nature of the thing, have no other use, than to distinguish this Achish from another of the same name. And, indeed, this Achish seems as well distinguished from the other by the rest of his character, as by being called the _son of Maoch._ But here, by the way, is a fair proof that this book was written at the time when it is said to have been written; inasmuch as this distinction was information enough to the people of that age, but could neither be given nor received as such either by any writer or reader of a subsequent period....