Scripture Daily

Context No. 129 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 29:6-11: in context

6Then Achish called David and said to him, “As the LORD lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army is good in my sight; for I have not found evil in you since the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, the lords don’t favor you. 7Therefore now return, and go in peace, that you not displease the lords of the Philistines.” 8David said to Achish, “But what have I done? What have you found in your servant so long as I have been before you to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?” 9Achish answered David, “I know that you are good in my sight, as an angel of God. Notwithstanding, the princes of the Philistines have said, ‘He shall not go up with us to the battle.’ 10Therefore now rise up early in the morning with the servants of your lord who have come with you; and as soon as you are up early in the morning and have light, depart.” 11So David rose up early, he and his men, to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines; and the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

David has been on the run from Saul for years, and has taken the only shelter available: he has gone over to the Philistines and become a vassal of Achish, king of Gath. Now the Philistines are massing to fight Israel, and Achish has brought David and his men along. This passage is the other Philistine commanders refusing to have him.

Achish's speech is warm and awkward. As the LORD lives, he says, using Israel's own divine name to David's face, you have been honest, and I have found no fault in you from the day you came to me. Nevertheless the lords do not approve of you. So go back in peace, and do not displease them.

David protests, and his protest is a masterpiece of ambiguity: what have I done, that I should not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king? He never says which king or which enemies. He has been raiding elsewhere and reporting it as raids on Judah, and he is one battle from having to fight his own people. The Philistine lords' distrust rescues him from a corner he built himself. What have I talked my way into, where being turned down would be the best thing that could happen?

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