David's Second Sojourn in the Land of the Philistines 1 And David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.” “And David said in his heart:”—… whilst he consulted not with God as formerly, but with carnal reason, an evil counsellor, and with the rest of his company, as Josephus telleth us...” (John Trapp)— “‘Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.’”— “But this was certainly a very great mistake and fault in David; for, 1. This proceeded from gross distrust of God’s promise and providence; and that after such repeated demonstrations of God’s peculiar care over him, which gave hint cause to conclude quite contrary to what is here said. 2. He forsakes the place where God had settled him, 1 Samuel 22:5, and given him both assurance and experience of his protection there. 3. He voluntarily runs upon that rock which he cursed his enemies for throwing him upon, 1 Samuel 26:19, and upon many other snares and dangers, as the following history will show…” (Matthew Poole) Despondency “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! ” (Matthew Henry) David was a man of faith and righteousness was reckoned to his account. Saul would not relent in his desire to destroy him, yet: “David had every assurance that he would be king. From Samuel, Jonathan and Saul he had heard predictions of his coming exaltation; yet suddenly he seems to have had a fainting-fit and to have concluded that he would after all perish by the hand of Saul. It was thus with Elijah under the juniper bush, when he asked God to take away his life; and thus with the Baptist, when from prison he sent to ask whether Jesus was the Christ…. [When doubts come, let us inundate ourselves in the Word of God; and thus:]— Let us believe that God’s Word shall stand though the heavens fall. Let us especially beware of taking our own measures of self-defense. The caves of Adullam are safer for the child of God than the land of the Philistines.” (F. B. Meyer) Is Jesus the Author of your salvation?! If so, then fret not. “If you know anything of precious faith, I would charge it upon you as one of the grand lessons of the soul: learn to make Jesus the Finisher as well as the Author of your faith and salvation. There are many souls who know Christ as the Author, but very few are so highly taught as to make him the Finisher.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary) “David erred in comparing his own with his enemy’s forces. Compare the suggestions of sense and faith. Sense says, 'what can six hundred with a valiant captain do against the army of Saul?' Sense sees the host of Satan’s emissaries encamped before the solitary soul and says, ‘Fly, for thy life fly, ere they overtake.’ Faith goes beyond, stoops not to count the opposing forces, and gives assurance of the victory. Sense says, ‘I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul.’ Faith says, ‘Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.’ ‘Stand still and see the salvation of God.’” (J. H. Snell)
2 Then David arose and went over with the six hundred men who were with him to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 So David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s widow. 4 And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath; so he sought him no more.
5 Then David said to Achish, “If I have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?” 6 So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.
“David reasonably thought that Achish would gladly receive him, as indeed he did; partly, because he saw Saul’s implacable enmity against him.” (Poole) “‘And David arose’,.... From the place where he was: ‘and he passed over’; the borders of land of Canaan: ‘with the six hundred men that were with him’; having neither lost any, nor had any added to him, since he was at Keilah, 1 Samuel 23:13, ‘unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.’” (Gill) “He had been there before and at that former visit he feigned insanity and the Philistinian Ahimelech Achish of Gath had driven him away.” (Gaebelein) “There was a wide difference between the circumstances of this and his former visit to Gath. Then he was a fugitive, almost unattended; now he was at the head of an army of trained and devoted soldiers.” (C. J. Ellicott) “And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath,... and he sought no more again for him,’ David thus gaining his object.” (Paul E. Kretzmann)
“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,’ one of the suburbs or country-cities, ‘that I may dwell there; for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee?’ David's plea and suggestion was that his men were overcrowding the city and that their expenses were very large, but his real motive undoubtedly was to get away from the idolatrous customs of the Philistines, which surely must have brought him, as the guest of the king, into unpleasant situations at times.” (Paul E. Kretzmann)“Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day,’ not only to inhabit, but to possess it as his own…. It was given to the tribe of Judah before [by Yahweh], Joshua 15:31 , but the Philistines kept the possession of it 'till this time. And being given by them to David, it now belonged not to the tribe of Judah; but to the king of Judah, David and his heirs forever.” (John Wesley)
Yahweh worked all things out for the good of David who loved Him is was called according to His purpose. Ziklag was obtained by it’s rightful owner and David here, in actuality, dwelled in the land of Judah while allied with the Philistine king. It “was a border fortress. 'From its neighbourhood (Joshua 19:5) to Beth-marcaboth (the house of chariots) and Hazar-susah (the village of horses), it appears to have been a kind of fortress for protection from the Bedouin marauders of the caravans, such as Nukhl and Akabah, on the Haj route at the present day' (Drew's 'Scripture Lands,' p. 124).” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) “And besides, it became a rendezvous for his friends out of Judea to resort unto him, as they did for his better advancement to the kingdom. [1 Chronicles 12:1; 1 Chronicles 12:22].” (John Trapp) Perhaps this was a political move of Achish to assign him to such a city as bordered on Canaan and belonged to Judea from whence David came.
1 Samuel 27:7 Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months. 8 And David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. For those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as you go to Shur, even as far as the land of Egypt. 9 Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish.
“David did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” (1 Kings 15:5) But here sin is commonly accused of him. Ye this was not a murderer, nor a liar. “David used the opportunity that his location afforded to defeat and to annihilate the common enemies of Israel and the Philistines that lived to Israel’s southwest. David did not leave any survivors, as the LORD had commanded (Deuteronomy 7:1-6, 16; 20:16-18; Joshua 11:10-14). He was clearing the Promised Land of foreign foes so the Israelites could occupy it.” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable)
“The people whom he cut off were long before doomed to destruction...” (Matthew Henry) by command of Yahweh God of Israel. “‘And David and his men went up,’.... From Ziklag, where they dwelt: ‘and invaded the Geshurites’ some of the old inhabitants of the land of Canaan, the remains of the Amorites, whose land was given to the half tribe of Manasseh, but could never be expelled; and therefore David had a just right to invade them, and, if he could, either expel or destroy them; see Deuteronomy 3:14; these are the Geshurites which are joined with the Philistines, Joshua 13:2, ‘and the Gezrites;’ the inhabitants of Gezer, which place fell to the tribe of Ephraim; but that tribe could not drive out the inhabitants of it, and therefore David now fell upon them as the enemies of Israel, and seized on their country, as belonging to them, Joshua 16:3, ‘and the Amalekites;’ the sworn and implacable enemies of Israel, and whose memory they were laid under obligation to root out. These were such as had escaped the sword of Saul, and had fled to the more distant parts, against whom David now went; and perhaps these had fled to and mixed themselves with the people here mentioned: ‘for these nations were of old the inhabitants of the land;’ of the land of Canaan: ‘as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt;’ see 1 Samuel 15:7.” (John Gill)
“‘And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive;’ for these being the old Canaanites and Amalekites, according to the law of God were not to be spared, but utterly destroyed; which may be observed to remove the charge of cruelty that might be brought against David on this account, Deuteronomy 7:2.” (John Gill) “But [he] took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish,” giving them to him, as Abraham had done with the king of Sodom after the battle for Lot and his descendants in Genesis 14:23, saying “I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’”
10 Then Achish would say, “Where have you made a raid today?” And David would say, “Against the southern area of Judah, or against the southern area of the Jerahmeelites, or against the southern area of the Kenites.” 11 David would save neither man nor woman alive, to bring news to Gath, saying, “Lest they should inform on us, saying, ‘Thus David did.’ ” And thus was his behavior all the time he dwelt in the country of the Philistines. 12 So Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people Israel utterly abhor him; therefore he will be my servant forever.”
Here is where some accuse David of falsities, as Dummelow: “The deception was that Achish understood that David had smitten the Hebrew inhabitants of the lands bordering on the desert, whereas he had smitten the nomad tribes who dwelt in the actual desert.” (John Dummelow) It is written: “David would save neither man nor woman alive, to bring news to Gath, saying, “Lest they should inform on us, saying, ‘Thus David did.’” (11) But: “We cannot blame David because he made expeditions against Canaanitish races and Amalekites, neither are we justified in at once accusing him of cruelty towards the conquered. The accusation would have had some foundation if he had been actuated merely by the prudential motives given in 1Sa . But this was certainly not the case. The principal reason is rather to be sought in the Mosaic law, which declares these races to be under the curse. But it is impossible to justify his equivocation.” (Hengstenberg) David's motives were mixed; but he was justified before Yahweh.