1 Samuel 27

₁David said to himself: ‘It will not be a long time before Saul catches me and kills me. It will be better if I flee to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop looking for me everywhere in the land_of_Israel. There I will get away from him.’

₂Then David and his 600 men went away to King Achish from the town of Gath. He was the son of Maok. ₃David and his men stayed with Achish in Gath and they took their families with them. David's 2 wives were Ahinoam, from the town of Jezreel, and Abigail, the widow of Nabal from Carmel. ₄When they told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer looked for David. ₅David said to Achish: ‘If you are my friend and are pleased with me, please give me a place to live in one of the towns away from the city of Gath. I am not important. I don't have to live in the royal city with you.’

₆So on that day Achish gave the town of Ziklag to David. That is why Ziklag still belongs to the kings_of_Judah today. ₇David lived in the land of the Philistines for a year and 4 months. ₈He and his men attacked the people of Geshur and Girzi for a very long time, also the Amalekites, the people who lived between Shur and Egypt. ₉When David attacked the people of a town, he killed everyone, men and women, and he took their clothes, their sheep, goats, oxen, donkeys and camels. Then he went back to Achish. ₁₀When Achish asked him where they had attacked people on that day and taken their things, David said they had attacked people in the Negev in Judah, or he said they had attacked the Jerahmeel families or the Kenites in the Negev. ₁₁David and his men always killed everyone when they attacked a town, men and women, so no one could tell what they had done. David did this while he lived in the land of the Philistines. ₁₂Achish was not worried about David. He said: ‘David's own people in Israel say very bad things about him, so he will always be my servant.’