1 And David said to himself, Some day death will come to me by the hand of Saul: the only thing for me to do is to get away into the land of the Philistines; then Saul will give up hope of taking me in any part of the land of Israel: and so I may be able to get away from him. 2 So David and the six hundred men who were with him went over to Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 And David and his men were living with Achish at Gath; every man had his family with him, and David had his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, who had been the wife of Nabal. 4 And Saul, hearing that David had gone to Gath, went after him no longer. 5 Then David said to Achish, If now I have grace in your eyes, let me have a place in one of the smaller towns of your land, to be my living-place; for it is not right for your servant to be living with you in the king's town. 6 So Achish straight away gave him Ziklag: and for that reason Ziklag has been the property of the kings of Judah to this day. 7 And David was living in the land of the Philistines for the space of a year and four months. 8 And David and his men went up and made attacks on the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites; for these were the people who were living in the land from Telam on the way to Shur, as far as Egypt. 9 And David again and again made attacks on the land till not a man or a woman was still living; and he took away the sheep and the oxen and the asses and the camels and the clothing; and he came back to Achish. 10 And every time Achish said, Where have you been fighting today? David said, Against the South of Judah and the South of the Jerahmeelites and the South of the Kenites. 11 Not one living man or woman did David ever take back with him to Gath, fearing that they might give an account of what had taken place, and say, This is what David did, and so has he been doing all the time while he has been living in the land of the Philistines. 12 And Achish had belief in what David said, saying, He has made himself hated by all his people Israel, and so he will be my servant for ever.
1 Samuel · Bible in Basic English
1 Samuel 27 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Achish
King of Gath to whom David fled twice, first feigning madness and later living in his territory with Ziklag as his town, and who trusted David until the Philistine commanders sent…
Cited in the guide: 1 Samuel 21:10; 1 Samuel 21:12; 1 Samuel 27:2
Ahinoam
A woman of Jezreel whom David married; she went with him to Gath, was captured by the Amalekites at Ziklag and rescued, and bore his firstborn Amnon in Hebron.
Cited in the guide: 1 Samuel 25:43; 1 Samuel 27:3; 1 Samuel 30:5
David
The shepherd who became Israel's greatest king and a man after God's own heart.
Cited in the guide: 1 Sam. 16 - 1 Kings 2; 2 Sam. 7; 1 Chron. 2:15; Matt. 1:6
Maoch
Named as the father of Achish, the king of Gath.
Cited in the guide: 1 Samuel 27:2
Cross references (12)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Isaiah 40:27–31; Isaiah 51:12; 1 Samuel 23:17; 1 Samuel 28:1–2; 1 Samuel 16:13
- 2 1 Samuel 25:13; 1 Samuel 21:10; 1 Kings 2:39–40; 1 Samuel 30:8
- 3 1 Samuel 25:42–43; 1 Samuel 30:5; 1 Samuel 25:3; 1 Samuel 25:18–35; 1 Samuel 30:3
- 4 1 Samuel 26:21
- 5 Genesis 46:34; 2 Corinthians 6:17
- 6 Nehemiah 11:28; Joshua 15:31; 1 Samuel 19:5; 2 Samuel 1:1; 1 Samuel 30:1
- 7 1 Samuel 29:3
- 8 1 Samuel 15:7–8; Joshua 13:2; Joshua 13:13; Judges 1:29; Joshua 16:10
- 9 1 Samuel 15:3; 1 Samuel 15:7; Genesis 25:18; Deuteronomy 25:17–19; Joshua 6:21
- 10 Judges 1:16; 1 Chronicles 2:25; 1 Chronicles 2:9; Judges 4:11; 1 Samuel 30:29
- 11 Proverbs 29:25; Proverbs 12:19; 1 Samuel 22:22
- 12 Genesis 34:30; 1 Samuel 13:4
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences