Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
Chapter Twenty-nine. Synopsis of the Chapter
Achis takes David with him to the battle against Saul; but his allies the Philistines, doubting David’s fidelity, and therefore objecting, he sends him home.
1. Now the Philistines gathered together all their troops to Aphec (1); and Israel also camped by the fountain which is in Jezrahel. 2. And the lords of the Philistines marched in hundreds and in thousands; but David and his men were in the rear with Achis. 3. And the princes of the Philistines said to Achis: What mean these Hebrews? And Achis said to the princes of the Philistines: Do you not know David, who was the servant of Saul the king of Israel, and hath been with me many days, or years, and I have found nothing in him, from the day that he fled to me unto this day? 4. But the princes of the Philistines were angry with him, and said to him: Let this man return, and abide in his place where thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest he be an adversary to us when we begin to fight; for how else can he appease his lord, but with the heads of us? 5. Is not this David, of whom they sung in their dances, saying: Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 6. Then Achis called David, and said to him: As the Lord liveth, thou art upright, and good in my sight; and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the army is pleasing to me; and I have found no evil in thee, from the day that thou camest to me unto this day; but thou pleasest not the lords. 7. Return, therefore, and go in peace, and offend not the eyes of the lords of the Philistines. 8. And David said to Achis: But what have I done, and what hast thou found in me thy servant, from the day that I have been in thy sight until this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king? 9. And Achis answering, spoke to David: I know that thou art good in my eyes, as an angel of God; but the princes of the Philistines have said: He shall not go up with us to the battle. 10. Arise therefore in the morning, thou and the servants of thy lord who came with thee; and when you are risen in the night, and it begins to be light, go on your way. 11. So David rose in the night, he and his men, to set out in the morning, and to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezrahel.
3. AND HATH BEEN WITH ME MANY DAYS OR YEARS.—In Hebrew, now days or now years, that is some days, nay some years. Whence Lyranus, Pagninus and the Innovators think that David dwelt with Achis for several years. The Septuagint favour it, who render it, he stayed with us days, many namely, for this is the second year. Second, Vatablus and R. David explain thus: He hath been with me many days, that is four months, in which he has been as well known to me as if he had stayed with me many years.
or current, in which he was still staying with him. For this the Septuagint require when they render it, for this is the second year; but it is expressly said that David stayed only four months and some days with Achis, chapter 27, verse 7; and Josephus, Abulensis, Serarius, Salianus, Tornielli and others affirm it. David therefore seems to have fled at the end of the year; then to have stayed with him all of January and Feb
4. LET THIS MAN RETURN.—Note here the wonderful providence of God toward his David. For David was here in a plainly dangerous and entangled case, so that he would have been forced either to be a traitor to King Achis, if in the battle he deserted to Saul and the Hebrews; or to be an enemy to his country and his fellow-citizens, if he fought against them. But God as it were cut this tangled knot with a sword. For he sent upon the Philistines distrust Third, Sanchez thinks Achis lied here, to win the Philistines’ belief: and Abulensis and Tornielli think this probable. Fourth, Salianus answers more plainly that Achis had regard to David’s first sojourn, which had begun with him six years before, as was said in chapter 27, or at least had reckoned the end of the past year in which David had come to him, and the beginning of the following concerning David’s fidelity, and fear of the danger they would incur if David in the battle turned his back to his Hebrews, and turned the arms with them against the Philistines, as he had done before. Wherefore they bade him withdraw from the battle, and be sent home. Achis did it with great honour and praise to David, and for his advantage and benefit. For David, withdrawing from the battle, pursued the Amalecites, and took from them the spoils which they had seized from his Siceleg, with the rich booty of themselves: whereas if he had stayed with Achis;
of God (1).” It is a Hebrew comparison and phrase, which they use when they wish to praise and exalt someone highly. So Jacob, to soften his brother Esau, hostile to him because of the birthright taken from him, flatters him saying: “I have seen thy face as if I had seen the countenance of God,” Genesis 33:10. And the woman of Thecua, pleading with David for Absalom, says: “As an angel of the Lord, so is my lord the king,” 2 Kings 14:17.
AN ANGEL OF GOD,—as though to say: Thou art exceedingly pleasing to me; nay I venerate thee “as an angel of God.”
9. I KNOW THAT THOU ART GOOD IN MY EYES, AS AN ANGEL (1)—here the word “Angel” is taken for messenger, says D. Glaire, Professor at the Theological School of Paris.