1 Samuel 21:10

And David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul,.... He had fled before for fear of him both from his own house, and from Naioth, 1 Samuel 19:18; but now he fled out of the land of Israel, for

And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. David ... fled that day for fear of Saul.

A strange action; but it must be considered, 1. That Saul’ s rage was so great and implacable, his power also and diligence in hunting after him so great, that he despaired of escaping him any other way; and it is not strange if a desperate disease produceth a desperate remedy. 2. David might reasonably think, that being persecuted and banished by Saul, and the Israelites under his command, he should be welcome to the Philistines; who would be glad, not only to be freed from all those evils which he had from time to time done, and was likely further to do to them, but also to make him their friend, and oblige him by their kindness, and to make him the more odious and irreconcilable to Saul and the Israelites. Quest. But why did he go to these, and not rather to some other neighbour nation? Answ. Because they were all at peace with Saul; and therefore would certainly have delivered him up, upon Saul’ s demands.

1 Samuel 21:10 And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.Ver. 10. And went to Achish,] i.e., Into his country, - any whither from Saul, that Hercules furens, that flung firebrands, - where he had little likelihood of being safe; but he hoped to live there secretly and unknown, as a sojourner; which yet could not be.

(10) And David arose and fled·—The cause of this sudden flight was, of course, the fear of Doeg, one of Saul’s most trusted servants. Not an hour must be lost, thought David; my deadly foe will hear that I am here, and I shall be trapped like a hunted beast of prey. It seems at first sight strange that David should dare to go among the Philistines, who had such good cause to hate and fear him, but the son of Jesse ever thought lightly of himself, and had no idea that his person was so well known, or his story so generally current as it subsequently proved to be. (See 1 Samuel 21:11.) Of David’s humility, so conspicuously exhibited on this occasion, when he ventured among his foes, not dreaming how great a personage they considered him, the Babylonian Talmud strikingly writes:—“No man in Israel despised himself more than David where the precepts of the Lord were concerned, and this is what he said before God (Psalms 131:1-2), ‘Lord, my heart was not haughty when Samuel anointed me king, nor were mine eyes lofty when I slew Goliath . . . as a child . . . have I likened myself before Thee in not being ashamed to depreciate myself before Thee for Thy glory.’”—Treatise Bamidbar, chap 4. Achish the king of Gath.—The title “king” is somewhat loosely used in this scene among the Philistines. Achish was one of the Philistine lords, perhaps the hereditary lord of Gath. Achish is called Abimelech in the title of Psalms 34, that apparently being the title, the “nomen dignitatis,” of the hereditary (or elected) chief among the Philistines, like Agag among the Amalekites. It is quite possible that this Achish, although called king of Gath, was the supreme chief or king of the Philistine nation. Gath was the nearest Philistine city to the sanctuary of Nob where David then was.

Verse 10. Went to Achish the king of Gath.] This was the worst place to which he could have gone: it was the very city of Goliath, whom he had slain, and whose sword he now wore; and he soon found, from the conversation of the servants of Achish, that his life was in the most imminent danger in this place.

10–15. David’s flight to Gath 10. and went to Achish] In the extremity of peril, David was driven to take refuge among Saul’s bitterest enemies, and offer himself as a servant to Achish (1 Samuel 21:15). He hoped no doubt that the Philistines would not recognise the stripling who slew their champion. Unlike Themistocles and Alcibiades when they were banished from Athens, he had no intention of turning traitor to his country. The circumstances of this sojourn at Gath and that recorded in ch. 27 are entirely unlike, and correspond exactly to the difference of occasion. In the present case David went alone, was ill received, and was compelled to feign madness for safety and escape as soon as possible: later on when his breach with Saul was notorious, he went with a numerous following, was received and established at Ziklag, and remained for more than a year.

Achish king of Gath - It appears from the title that Ps. 34 was composed on this occasion.

DAVID AT GATH, 1 Samuel 21:10-15. 10. Fled that day — Even before that day had closed so great became his fear of being suspected and detained that he secretly fled from Nob. For fear — Rather, from the face of Saul.