1st Shamu'AL (1 Samuel) — 27

Daud among the Philistines

1 But Daud kept thinking to himself, “Someday Shaul is going to get me. The best thing I can do is escape to the Philistines. Then Shaul will stop hunting for me in Yashar'AL territory, and I will finally be safe.”

2 So Daud took his six hundred men and went over and joined Achish son of Mauch, the king of Gath. 

3 Daud and his men and their families settled there with Achish at Gath. Daud brought his two wives along with him, Ahinuam from Yazraal and Abigail, Nabal’s widow from Carmel. 

4 Word soon reached Shaul that Daud had fled to Gath, so he stopped hunting for him.

5 One day Daud said to Achish, “If it is all right with you, we would rather live in one of the country towns instead of here in the royal city.”

6 So Achish gave him the town of Ziklag (which still belongs to the kings of Yahudah to this day), 

7 and they lived there among the Philistines for a year and four months.

8 Daud and his men spent their time raiding the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalakites people who had lived near Shur, toward the land of Mitzraym, since ancient times. 

9 Daud did not leave one person alive in the villages he attacked. He took the sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing before returning home to see King Achish.

10 “Where did you make your raid today?” Achish would ask. And Daud would reply, “Against the south of Yahudah, the Yarahmalites, and the Kanites.”

11 No one was left alive to come to Gath and tell where he had really been. This happened again and again while he was living among the Philistines. 

12 Achish believed Daud and thought to himself, “By now the people of Yashar'AL must hate him bitterly. Now he will have to stay here and serve me forever!”