1 Samuel 27:5-12 ▼

5 David said to Achish, |If you will permit me, let me have a place in one of the outlying towns so that I can live there. Why should I live in the royal city with you?|

6 So Achish immediately gave him Ziklag. (This is why Ziklag still belongs to the kings of Judah today.)

7 David stayed in Philistine territory for one year and four months.

8 Then David and his men went to raid the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. (They lived in the territory which extends from Telaim to Shur and Egypt.)

9 Whenever David attacked the territory, he left no man or woman alive. He also took sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing and returned to Achish.

10 Achish would ask, |Whom did you raid today?| And David would answer, |the Negev in Judah,| or |the portion of the Negev where the descendants of Jerahmeel live,| or |the portion of the Negev where the Kenites live.|

11 He did not bring a single man or woman back to Gath alive. He thought, |They could tell Achish what I [really] did.| This was his practice as long as he lived in Philistine territory.

12 And Achish believed David. Achish thought, |He has definitely made his own people in Israel despise him. He'll be my servant from now on.|