1 Samuelchapter 29
11 verses · Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
Then said the princes of the Philistines, What do these Hebrews here? And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, which hath been with me these days, or these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell unto me unto this day?
Introduction
Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition, History, 1 Samuel Overview.
This chapter answers a question every later Israelite would ask about David and the battle where Saul died. The Philistine armies are gathering, and David marches in their rear guard with the king he has served. Listen to the Philistine commanders and the song they remember. Listen to Achish praise a man whose deception he never discovered, and to the oath he swears. Listen above all to David's reply, and ask which lord and which enemies he means. The dismissal turns out to be a rescue.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who needed to know whether their king had fought against Israel
- What
- An account of the Philistine commanders refusing to let David march with them, and of Achish sending him home.
- Where
- Aphek on the coastal plain, where the Philistine forces mustered before moving north to Jezreel.
- When
- The eve of the battle of Gilboa; on the common reckoning about 1010 BC.
- Why
- To show that David had no part in the battle where Saul died, and that God brought him out of a trap of his own making.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to David, who is here a vassal captain in a Philistine order of battle, and to Achish, who has trusted him for sixteen months.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The time is the muster before Gilboa, within days of the battle. The site places it about 1010 BC.
The place is Aphek on the coastal plain, the same staging point from which the Philistines marched when the ark was lost in chapter 4. Israel is camped at the spring in Jezreel, to the north.
The occasion is a review of troops. The five Philistine rulers pass their units in order, by hundreds and by thousands, and David's six hundred come up in the rear with Achish.
A first hearer knew the objection the commanders raise was professional rather than personal. A mercenary unit with old ties to the enemy is a standard way to lose a battle, and they say so at verse 4. Yigael Yadin describes the review and the ordering of units as real procedure.
A first hearer also caught the weight of the song they quote at verse 5. Philistine officers knew Israel's victory songs by heart, which is itself a measure of how thoroughly David had beaten them. The same words had made his name at 18:7 and had followed him to Gath at 21:11.
Significance
The chapter answers a question a later Israelite would certainly ask. It says plainly that David was sent home before the march, over the protest of the man who wanted him there.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
It also shows a man taken out of a trap he had walked into by his own reasoning. He was removed by the suspicion of enemy generals who did not trust him.
The dismissal is the deliverance in a second sense. Sent away at first light, David and his men march south, which is the only reason they reach Ziklag when they do.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The corpus holds one commented verse of this chapter in English, and it is a note on a single word. On the Philistine lords asking about David, Rashi reads the verb of his stay as dwelling (Rashi on I Samuel 29:3:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY). He points to Bereishis 25:18 for the same sense (same ref). The rest of the chapter is commented across by three writers whose English the corpus does not hold, so they stand as citations. Malbim comments at I Samuel 29:1:1, 29:2:1, 29:4:1, 29:5:1, 29:6:1, 29:7:1, 29:8:1 and 29:9:1. Metzudat David comments at 29:2:1, 29:3:1, 29:4:1, 29:5:1, 29:6:1, 29:7:1, 29:8:1, 29:9:1 and 29:10:1. Radak comments at 29:2:1, 29:3:1, 29:4:1, 29:5:1, 29:6:1 and 29:10:1. The corpus holds twenty-four comments on this chapter and one rabbinic locator. That this weighting fits a chapter turning on a council of war rather than on a saying is the writer's reading.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records one rabbinic locator on this chapter, a Midrash without text. The Philistine lords' question about the Hebrew with Achish draws Midrash Tehillim 34:1. The rabbis teach in that place, and this site reports it as their teaching rather than as a rule of the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Samuel 29:3:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Malbim, Malbim on I Samuel 29:1:1, 29:2:1, 29:4:1, 29:5:1, 29:6:1, 29:7:1, 29:8:1 and 29:9:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Samuel 29:2:1, 29:3:1, 29:4:1, 29:5:1, 29:6:1, 29:7:1, 29:8:1, 29:9:1 and 29:10:1, cited only; Radak, Radak on I Samuel 29:2:1, 29:3:1, 29:4:1, 29:5:1, 29:6:1 and 29:10:1, cited only.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Philistine lords will not have David in the battle
1 Samuel 29:1-2
gathered together all their armies to Aphek: The armies gather at Aphek in the north while Israel camps by the fountain in Jezreel, the same ground where Saul's line falls in chapter thirty-one. David rides in the rear guard with Achish, a captain in a foreign king's army after a year and four months at Ziklag, the last stage of the outlaw years that began at Adullam. The chapter opens with David positioned exactly where he must be removed from, inside the very army marching toward the field where Saul dies.
1 Samuel 29:1
“A fountain - Probably, the fine spring Ain-Jalud. It is impossible to say what the special circumstances were which led to the struggle between Israel and the Philistines taking place so far north as the plain of Jezreel. Possibly it was connected with some movements of the Aramaic tribes to the north of Palestine. See 2 Sam. 8.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Samuel 29:1
“A person who compares the Bible account of Saul's last battle with the Philistines, with the region around Gilboa, has the same sort of evidence that the account relates what is true, that a person would have that such a battle as Waterloo really took place. Gilboa, Jezreel, Shunem, En-dor, are all found, still bearing the same names.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
David's men march at the rear as the bodyguard of Achish, the post he was given at 28:2, as Albert Barnes notes. Matthew Henry names the trap David stood in. If Saul fell in this battle, the blame would be laid at David's door.
1 Samuel 29:2
“David and his men passed on in the rereward with Achish--as the commander of the lifeguards of Achish, who was general of this invading army of the Philistines.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 29:2
“If Saul should be killed (as it proved he was) in this engagement, the fault would be laid at David's door, as if he had killed him. So that on each side there seemed to be both sin and scandal. This was the strait he was in; and a great strait it was to a good man, greater to see sin before him than to see trouble.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 29:2
“By hundreds, and by thousands - They were probably divided, as the Jewish armies, by fifties, hundreds, and thousands; each having its proper officer or captain.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 29:3-4
What do these Hebrews here?: Achish defends David to his own princes with a plain testimonial, no fault found in him since the day he fell unto me. The princes answer with military logic David cannot disprove, that a man cannot buy his way back into Saul's favor except with Philistine heads, and their suspicion sits closer to the truth than Achish's trust, since David had spent his months at Ziklag raiding towns he never reported to his Philistine lord. The scene sets one Gentile king's honest good opinion against shrewder men who read the case rightly for the wrong reason.
1 Samuel 29:3
These days, or these years - I suppose these words to mark no definite time, and may be understood thus: “Is not this David, who has been with me for a considerable time?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown fault David for what he tells Achish at 29:8, offering to fight against the enemies of the king when he likely had no purpose to fight. They see an earlier false step bearing its fruit. The anger of the commanders keeps David out of the battle.
1 Samuel 29:4
“The princes of the Philistines were wroth - It is strange that they had not yet heard of David’s destruction of a village of the Geshurites, Gezrites, and Amalekites, 1Sa 27:8, 1Sa 27:9. Had they heard of this, they would have seen much more cause for suspicion.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 29:4
“But David is not free from censure in his professions to Achish (1Sa 29:8), to do what he probably had not the smallest purpose of doing--of fighting with Achish against his enemies. It is just an instance of the unhappy consequences into which a false step--a departure from the straight course of duty--will betray everyone who commits it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?: The song first sung by Israel's women at 18:7 returns here from Philistine mouths, and it does the opposite work now, praise that once cost David Saul's jealousy costs him a place in the Philistine line. The princes quote the very words that proved his standing with Israel to argue he cannot be trusted against Israel. His own reputation becomes the means that keeps him off the field at Gilboa.
1 Samuel 29:5
“Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances,.... Long ago: saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands; so that he is an old sworn enemy of ours; and the more valiant and victorious he has been, the less is he to be trusted, see 1Sa 18:7.”
Sent back at daybreak, good as an angel of God
1 Samuel 29:6-7
Surely, as the Lord liveth, thou hast been upright: Achish swears as the Lord liveth, a Philistine king using the covenant name of Israel's God, and some of the bench read it as a mark of what he had picked up across a year and four months in David's company. He lays the whole dismissal on the princes and keeps none of it for himself, praising David's conduct in the same breath he sends him away. The good word he gives is genuine and does David no good at all, since the men who outrank him in this council will not be moved by it.
1 Samuel 29:6
“Thou hast been upright - So he thought, for as yet he had not heard of the above transaction; David having given him to understand that he had been fighting against Israel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 29:6
“The princes - The Lords of the other eminent cities, who were confederate with him in this expedition. These days or years - That is, did I say days? He hath now been with me a full year and four months, chap. xxvii, 7, and he was with me some years ago, chap. xxi, 10, and since their time hath been known to me.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Achish sends David back before the leaders take fresh offense. Matthew Henry says the early start ordered in verse 10 served the same end, as the leaders of the Philistines would grow more suspicious if David stayed with the army. Albert Barnes sees Providence in the dismissal, which sent David home in time to recover his wives at Ziklag.
1 Samuel 29:8-9
But what have I done?: David protests that he has done nothing to earn dismissal, and several of the older writers read the protest as performance rather than sincerity, since he had led Achish to believe he raided Israelite towns while actually striking Israel's enemies at 27:8-10. Achish answers with a compliment shaped like prophecy, David is good in his sight as an angel of God, language Matthew Henry sets beside Zechariah's promise that the house of David would be as the angel of the LORD. One is a court compliment, the other a divine word, and Henry names the difference rather than let them merge.
1 Samuel 29:8
“David said - what have I done? - Dr. Chandler and others may say what they will to make David act a consistent part in this business; but it is most evident, whatever his intentions might be as to the part he was to take in the approaching battle, he did intend to persuade Achish that he would fight against Israel; and affects to feel his reputation injured by not being permitted on this occasion to show his fidelity to the king of Gath.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 29:8
“He seemed anxious to serve him when he was at this juncture really anxious to leave him, but he was not willing that Achish should know that he was. No one knows how strong the temptation is to compliment and dissemble which those are in that attend great men, and how hard it is to avoid it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Achish compares David to an angel of God, and John Wesley takes the phrase to mean one in whom no fault is found, as Achish said in verse 6. Wesley adds that the nations also believed in good spirits who served God as messengers. Adam Clarke thinks Achish learned the phrase from David.
1 Samuel 29:9
“As an angel of God - There is some reason to think that Achish had actually embraced or was favourably disposed towards the Jewish religion. He speaks here of the angels of God, as a Jew might be expected to speak; and in 1Sa 29:6 he appeals to, and swears by Jehovah; which, perhaps, no Philistine ever did. It is possible that he might have learned many important truths from David, during the time he sojourned with him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 29:9
“What Achish says of David, God, by the prophet, says of the house of David ( Zech. xii. 8 ), that it shall be as the angel of the Lord. But the former is a court-compliment; the latter is a divine promise.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 29:10-11
with thy master’s servants that are come with thee: David and his men rise early and turn back toward Philistine territory while the Philistines march up to Jezreel for the battle that kills Saul and Jonathan. Wesley reads the timing as more than accident, for David did not yet know Ziklag needed him, but God did, and sent him back exactly when a raided home called for a rescuer. The chapter's whole shape serves this one exit, David is removed from the field where Saul falls, so that when the news comes to him in chapter one it comes as a report rather than a memory, and his lament and his judgment on the killer of the anointed are not touched by his own hand in that battle.
1 Samuel 29:10
“With thy master’s servants - Who were these? has been very properly asked; and to this question there can be but two answers: - 1. The six hundred Israelites which were with him; and who might still be considered the subjects of Saul, though now residing in a foreign land. 2. The servants of achish; i.e., David’s men thus considered; because on his coming to Gath, he had in effect given up himself and his men to Achish.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The verse parts the two armies, David south toward Ziklag and the Philistines north to Jezreel for the battle in which Saul falls in chapter 31. Bede drew on the meaning of the place names, Jezreel as the seed of God and Aphek as new wrath. Three days later David reaches a burned Ziklag.
1 Samuel 29:11
“Rose up early - David did not then know, how necessary this was, for the relief of his own city. But God knew it well, and sent him thither accordingly.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, a council scene at a muster, in which a foreign king's testimonial is overruled by his own commanders, as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Saul has slain his thousands, sung a third time | The song the women of Israel sang at 18:7 is quoted here at verse 5 by Philistine commanders. It had cost David Saul's favour when Israel sang it, and it costs him a place in the Philistine line when Gath sings it. The store's exposition note on verse 5 records the reversal, that his own reputation is the means that keeps him off the field at Gilboa.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Samuel 29:5. | 1 Samuel 29:5, 1 Samuel 18:7, 1 Samuel 21:11 |
| I have found no fault in him, said twice | Achish clears David to the commanders at verse 3 and then to David's face at verse 6, in almost the same words both times. At verse 9 he adds a third form of it, that David is as pleasing in his sight as an angel of God. The store's exposition note on verses 3 to 4 records that the commanders' suspicion sits closer to the truth than the king's trust.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Samuel 29:3. | 1 Samuel 29:3, 1 Samuel 29:6, 1 Samuel 29:9 |
| What have I done, put to a Philistine king | David's protest at verse 8 uses the same form he used to Saul at 26:18, what have I done and what evil is in my hand. The store's exposition note on verses 8 to 9 records that several of the older writers read the protest as performance. David had led Achish to believe he was raiding Israelite towns while striking Israel's enemies at 27:8 to 10. The text gives the words and no verdict.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 1 Samuel 29:8. | 1 Samuel 29:8, 1 Samuel 26:18, 1 Samuel 27:10 |
| Two armies named at the top and the bottom of the chapter | Verse 1 puts the Philistines at Aphek and Israel by the spring in Jezreel. Verse 11 sends David south to Philistine territory and the Philistines north to Jezreel. The chapter opens and closes on the same two movements, and between them the one man who belonged to neither army is removed from the field.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Samuel 29:1. | 1 Samuel 29:1, 1 Samuel 29:11 |
The historical value
12 more paragraphs on the patterns
The two places in verse 1 are the campaign's own geography. The Philistines gather at Aphek and Israel camps by the spring in Jezreel, which is the ground the battle of chapter 31 is fought over. The store's exposition note on verses 1 to 2 records that Jezreel is where Saul's line falls two chapters later.
The chapter shows how a Philistine army was organised. Verse 2 has the leaders marching out units of hundreds and thousands, with David and his men behind them. Verse 4 shows the commanders overruling the king of Gath in council, which is the kind of decision the five lords of the Philistines are shown taking elsewhere in the book.
The site carries the identification of ancient Gath with Tell es-Safi in this book's dossier, which is the city Achish rules and the place David had been living since 27:3.
The debated concept
Whether David intended to fight against Israel is the chapter's open question, and Scripture gives no answer. His reply to Achish at 28:2 commits to nothing while sounding like consent, as the store's exposition note on verses 1 to 2 of chapter 28 records. His protest here at verse 8 asks why he may not go and fight the enemies of my lord the king, and the phrase can be read of Achish or of Saul. The store's exposition note on verses 8 to 9 records that several of the older writers read the protest as performance rather than sincerity. Matthew Henry and John Wesley both take that line. The narrator states the words and makes no judgment.
What Achish's oath at verse 6 shows is read two ways in the store's note on verses 6 to 7. Some of the older writers take a Philistine king swearing by the covenant name as a mark of what he had picked up in a year and four months of David's company. Others take it as the courtesy of a man swearing by the god of the person he is addressing. The text records the oath and explains nothing.
Whether the compliment at verse 9 carries any weight is a smaller question the writers raise. Matthew Henry, cited in the store's note on verses 8 to 9, sets the court compliment beside a prophecy. Achish says David is as an angel of God, and Zechariah promises that the house of David would be as the angel of the LORD. Henry names the difference between the two rather than letting them merge.
The divine connection
The chapter records no word from the LORD, and the older writers read the whole of it as providence working through Philistine suspicion. John Wesley, cited in the store's note on verses 10 to 11, holds that David did not yet know Ziklag needed him. God did know, and sent him back exactly when a raided home called for a rescuer. That is a reading of the sequence rather than a claim the text makes. What the text supplies is the timing, David marching south at verse 11 and reaching a burned town on the third day at 30:1.
The second effect is the one the whole following book rests on. David is absent from the battle in which Saul dies, so no one can say that the man who took the throne helped to empty it. The chapter does not say this, and the narrative of 2 Samuel 1 to 4 depends on it throughout.
How the rest of Scripture reads this chapter
The New Testament does not cite 1 Samuel 29. Within the Old Testament the song of verse 5 is the thread. It is sung by the women of Israel at 18:7, quoted by the servants of Achish at 21:11, and quoted by the commanders here. The same march is told from the other side at 1 Chronicles 12:19 to 22. That passage records the men of Manasseh who deserted to David as he went up with the Philistines, and states that the Philistine lords sent him away.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Samuel 29:6; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, cited in the store's exposition note on verses 3 to 4; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 1 Samuel 29:11 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Samuel 29:8.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Samuel; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.