1 Samuel 27:5

_AND DAVID SAID UNTO ACHISH, IF I HAVE NOW FOUND GRACE IN THINE EYES, LET THEM GIVE ME A PLACE IN SOME TOWN IN THE COUNTRY, THAT I MAY DWELL THERE: FOR WHY SHOULD THY SERVANT DWELL IN THE ROYAL CITY WITH THEE?_ Let them give me a place in some town in the country. It was a prudent arrangement on the part of David: for it would prevent him being an object of jealous suspicion or of mischievous plots among the Philistines. It would place his followers more beyond the risk of contamination by the idolatries of the court and capital; and it would give him an opportunity of making reprisals on the freebooting tribes that infested the common border of Israel and the Philistines....

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 27:5. _WHY SHOULD THY SERVANT DWELL IN THE ROYAL CITY_] He seemed to intimate that _two princely establishments_ in the same city were too many. Achish appears to have felt the propriety of his proposal, and therefore appoints him Ziklag....

David, with characteristic Oriental subtlety (compare 1 Samuel 21:2), suggests as a reason for leaving Gath that his presence was burdensome and expensive to the king. His real motive was to be more out of the way of observation and control, so as to act the part of an enemy of Saul, without really lifting up his hand against him and his own countrymen of Israel....

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 SAID UNTO ACHISH,.... After he had been some time with him: IF I HAVE NOW FOUND GRACE IN THINE EYES; or was in favour, as he thought himself to be, by various instances of respect shown him: LET THEM GIVE ME A PLACE IN SOME TOWN IN THE COUNTRY, THAT I MAY DWELL THERE: he does not ask for a city or town, but a place in one of them, though one was given him; but of whom he asks it, it is not easy to say; though it is certain that Achish gave it him, 1 Samuel 27:6. Perhaps he might desire it might be given him by Achish, with the consent of his princes and nobles, or at least of his privy council; that so it might be to general satisfaction, and the grant more authentic; though it may be impersonally read, as in the Vulgate Latin version, "let there be given me", c. David's view in this might be partly to prevent the envy of the courtiers of Ach

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

_in some town in the country_ In one of the provincial cities as distinguished from the metropolis Gath. _why should thy servant dwell_, &c. He wished for a more independent position, where he might be less exposed to the jealousy of the Philistine lords, and have free opportunity for ruling and organizing his followers....

David's Second Flight to Gath, 1 Samuel 27:1-12. _David Again in Gath._ 1 Samuel 27:1-7 And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: _there is_ nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand. 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. 3 And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, _even_ David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife. 4 And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no