| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 1But David kept thinking to himself, “Someday Saul is going to get me. The best thing I can do is escape to the Philistines. Then Saul will stop hunting for me in Israelite territory, and I will finally be safe.” | 1David thought to himself, "One of these days I'm going to be swept away by the hand of Saul! There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of searching for me through all the territory of Israel and I will escape from his hand." |
| 2So David took his 600 men and went over and joined Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath. | 2So David left and crossed over to King Achish son of Maoch of Gath accompanied by his six hundred men. |
| 3David and his men and their families settled there with Achish at Gath. David brought his two wives along with him—Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, Nabal’s widow from Carmel. | 3David settled with Achish in Gath, along with his men and their families. David had with him his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the Carmelite, Nabal's widow. |
| 4Word soon reached Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he stopped hunting for him. | 4When Saul learned that David had fled to Gath, he did not mount a new search for him. |
| 5One day David said to Achish, “If it is all right with you, we would rather live in one of the country towns instead of here in the royal city.” | 5David said to Achish, "If I have found favor with you, let me be given a place in one of the country towns so that I can live there. Why should your servant settle in the royal city with you?" |
| 6So Achish gave him the town of Ziklag (which still belongs to the kings of Judah to this day), | 6So Achish gave him Ziklag on that day. (For that reason Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah until this very day.) |
| 7and they lived there among the Philistines for a year and four months. | 7The length of time that David lived in the Philistine countryside was a year and four months. |
| 8David and his men spent their time raiding the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites—people who had lived near Shur, toward the land of Egypt, since ancient times. | 8Then David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. (They had been living in that land for a long time, from the approach to Shur as far as the land of Egypt.) |
| 9David did not leave one person alive in the villages he attacked. He took the sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing before returning home to see King Achish. | 9When David would attack a district, he would leave neither man nor woman alive. He would take sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing and would then go back to Achish. |
| 10“Where did you make your raid today?” Achish would ask. And David would reply, “Against the south of Judah, the Jerahmeelites, and the Kenites.” | 10When Achish would ask, "Where did you raid today?" David would say, "The Negev of Judah" or "The Negev of Jeharmeel" or "The Negev of the Kenites." |
| 11No one was left alive to come to Gath and tell where he had really been. This happened again and again while he was living among the Philistines. | 11Neither man nor woman would David leave alive so as to bring them back to Gath. He was thinking, "This way they can't tell on us, saying, 'This is what David did.'" Such was his practice the entire time that he lived in the country of the Philistines. |
| 12Achish believed David and thought to himself, “By now the people of Israel must hate him bitterly. Now he will have to stay here and serve me forever!” | 12So Achish trusted David, thinking to himself, "He is really hated among his own people in Israel! From now on he will be my servant." |
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