068. XLVI. David Among The Philistines
§ XLVI. DAVID AMONG THE PHILISTINES 1 Samuel 27:1-12; 1 Samuel 28:1-2, 1 Samuel 29-30
1. David a refugee at the court of Achish. Then David said to himself, I shall be destroyed some day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me longer in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand. So David arose and went over, together with the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, together with his men, each with his household, David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife. And when Saul was informed that David had fled to Gath, he sought him no more.
2. Life as a feudal lord at Ziklag. But David said to Achish, If now I have found favor in your sight, let a place in one of the towns in the open country be given me, that I may dwell there; for why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you? Then Achish gave him Ziklag at that time; therefore Ziklag belongs to the kings of Judah to this day. And the length of the time that David dwelt in the open country of the Philistines was a year and four months. And David and his men went up, and made a raid upon the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for these tribes dwell in the land which extends from Telem as far as Shur, even to the land of Egypt. And as often as David smote the land, he did not leave alive man or woman, but taking the sheep, the oxen, the asses, the camels, and the clothing, he returned and came to Achish. Then, when Achish said, Where have you made a raid today? David answered, Against the South Country of Judah, or against the South Country of the Jerahmeelites and against the South Country of the Kenites. But David never left alive man or woman, to bring them to Gath, for he thought, They might give information against us and say, ‘Thus has David done.’ And such was his custom all the while he dwelt in the open country of the Philistines. And Achish trusted David, saying, He has brought himself into ill-repute with his people Israel; therefore he will be my servant forever.
3. Summons to fight against Israel. Now in those days the Philistines assembled their forces to make a campaign against Israel. And Achish said to David, Be assured that you, together with your men, must go with me along with the forces. And David said to Achish, Therefore you shall now know what your servant can do. And Achish said to David, Therefore I make you my body-guard from this time on.
4. Protest of the Philistine commanders. And the Philistines had assembled their forces at Aphek; and the Israelites encamped by the fountain in Jezreel. And the tyrants of the Philistines were marching past, with hundreds and with thousands; and David and his men marched in the rear guard with Achish. Then the commanders of the Philistines said, What are these Hebrews? And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, This is David, the servant of Saul, the king of Israel, who has now already been with me two years, and I have found no fault in him from the time that he came over to me to the present. But the commanders of the Philistines were enraged against him, and said to him, Send back the man that he may return to the place where you have stationed him. Let him not go down with us to battle and let him not be in the camp an adversary to us; for with what could this fellow better ingratiate himself with his master than with the heads of these men? Is not this David of whom they sang responsively in the dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, But David his ten thousands?
5. David’s dismissal. Then Achish called to David and said to him, As Jehovah liveth, you are upright, and it is my desire that you should go out and in with me in the camp; for I have found no evil in you from the time that you came to me to the present, but you are not regarded favorably by the tyrants. Therefore now return and go in peace, that you may do nothing to displease the tyrants of the Philistines. And David said to Achish, But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant from the day that I entered into your service to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king? And Achish answered and said to David, I know that you are as good in my sight as a Messenger of God, but the commanders of the Philistines have said, ‘He shall not go up with us to the battle.’ Therefore now rise early in the morning, with the servants of your lord who came with you, and go to the place where I have stationed you, and do not entertain any evil design in your heart, for you are good in my sight, but rise early in the morning and as soon as it is light, depart. So David rose early, together with his men, to depart in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
6. The Amalekite raid on Ziklag. Now when David and his men on the third day came to Ziklag, the Amalekites had made a raid on the South Country and upon Ziklag, and had smitten Ziklag and burnt it with fire, and had carried away captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, without slaying any, and had carried them off and gone on their way. And when David and his men came to the city, there it was burned down, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him wept aloud until they were no longer able to weep. And David’s two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
7. The divine command to pursue the marauders. And David was in great straits, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was embittered, each for his sons and for his daughters; but David strengthened himself in reliance on Jehovah his God. And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, Bring here to me the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. And David inquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I pursue this marauding band? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him,
Pursue, For thou shalt surely overtake, And thou shalt surely rescue.
8. The pursuit. So David went, together with the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind remained. But David pursued together with four hundred men; while two hundred remained behind, who were too faint to cross the brook Besor. And they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David and gave him food to eat and water to drink; and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit revived, for he had eaten no bread and drunk no water for three days and nights. And David said to him, To whom do you belong? And whence are you? And he said I am an Egyptian lad, an Amalekite’s servant, and my master abandoned me because three days ago I fell sick. We made a raid upon the South Country of the Cherethites and upon that which belongs to Judah and upon the South Country of Caleb, and Ziklag we burned with fire. And David said to him, Will you bring me down to this band? And he said, Swear to me by God, that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this band.
9. The attack and recovery of the plunder. And when he had brought him down, there they were spread over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, on account of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. And David smote them from twilight to evening in order to destroy them completely. And none escaped except four hundred young men, who rode upon the camels and fled. And David recovered all the persons whom the Amalekites had taken; and David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing of them missing either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken to themselves—David brought back all. And he took all the flocks and the herds and drove those animals before the people, and they said, This is David’s spoil.
10. The precedent regarding the division of spoil. Now when David came to the two hundred men, who had been too faint to follow him, so that he had to leave them behind at the Brook Besor, they went out to meet David, and the people who were with him. And when they came near to the people, they saluted them. Then all the wicked and base scoundrels among the men who went with David began to say, Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except to each, his wife and his children, that he may take them away and depart. But David said, Do not so, after that which Jehovah hath given us and after he hath preserved us and delivered the marauding band that came against us into our hand. And who will give heed to you in this matter? For : As is the share of him who goes down into battle, So is the share of him who remains with the baggage.
They shall share alike. And from that time on he made it a statute and precedent in Israel to this day.
11. Presents sent to the southern chieftains. And when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, his friends, saying, See! a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of Jehovah, to them who were in Bethel, in Ramoth in the South Country, in Jattir, in Aroer, in Siphmoth, and to them who were in Eshtemoa, in Carmel, in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, in the cities of the Kenites, in Hormah, Beersheba, in Athach, in Hebron, and to those in all the places where David and his men had sojourned.
I. David as a Vassal of Achish. David’s act in throwing himself upon the mercy of the Philistines shows to what difficult straits he had been reduced. The deed was in keeping with the customs of the time. Refugees frequently fled from one tribe to another. The Semitic law of hospitality protected the stranger, even though he came from a hostile tribe. Between courageous foemen, such as David and the Philistines had proved themselves on many battle-fields, a friendly alliance was easy. In welcoming the ablest champion of the Hebrews, the Philistines would naturally feel that they had won a great advantage over Saul. With David came six hundred of the most experienced Hebrew warriors. With David also went the interest and loyalty of the tribes of southern Canaan. This blow to Saul’s power probably encouraged the Philistines to make that determined attack upon the Hebrews which resulted in the great disaster on Mount Gilboa.
David also doubtless trusted to his own personal charm, which had so often proved invincible. Again his expectations were not disappointed. He soon commanded the absolute confidence of the Philistine king of Gath. At his own request, David, with his followers, was assigned to Ziklag, situated somewhere on the southern Philistine border. There he was able, without close observation, to play the difficult rôle which he had assumed. Only a diplomat like David could have succeeded. It was essential to his future hopes that he should not alienate his Hebrew kinsmen. At the same time he must prove his loyalty to his Philistine master. Successful forays against the Amalekites enabled him for a time to satisfy the difficult demands of the situation.
II. The Philistine Advance. The course of events soon placed David in a most trying situation. The confidence of the Philistine king involved him in an almost impossible dilemma. As the body-guard of Achish, he was commanded to join the Philistine army in its march against Saul; but David’s diplomacy proved equal to the test. It is difficult to determine what course he would have followed on the actual battle-field. The fears of the Philistine commanders would probably have been realized. Fortunately their lack of confidence compelled Achish to dismiss David, and he was thus delivered from his most difficult dilemma.
III. The Pursuit and Defeat of the Amalekites. The moment of David’s return to his home at Ziklag was supremely opportune. Assuming that he would join the Philistines in their campaign, David’s old foes, the Amalekites, had improved the opportunity to attack and loot Ziklag. Following the command of the divine oracle, David with his followers was soon in hot pursuit. A sudden attack at evening quickly scattered the robbers and left David in possession of their spoil. The precedent, which he established in dividing this spoil, became henceforth a binding law. The incident well illustrates the way in which the ancient Hebrew laws came into existence. A principle thus concretely laid down by a chieftain or king soon crystallized into a definite statute, which was recognized as binding by succeeding generations. Following the tendency of later Judaism, the priestly writers in Numbers 31:27 attribute the origin of this institution to Moses.
IV. The Distribution of the Spoil. David’s distribution of that part of the Amalekite spoil which fell to him reveals clearly his ambition. Portions were sent to the elders of all the important towns in southern Judah and the South Country. The Bethel near Ziklag, Aroer, Carmel, Hebron, Beersheba and possibly Arad are among the towns definitely mentioned. In addition to his own tribesmen of Judah, the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites were similarly favored. These gifts clearly represent a bid for the support of the tribes of southern Canaan. In the light of the events which quickly followed, they prepared the way for that call which soon came to David to become king of Judah; and when the place sought the man, the man was fully ready for the place.