David Among the Philistines

27 But David thought to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”

² So David and the six hundred men^(A) with him left and went^(B) over to Achish^(C) son of Maok king of Gath. ³ David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives:^(D) Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. ⁴ When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.

⁵ Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be assigned to me in one of the country towns, that I may live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?”

⁶ So on that day Achish gave him Ziklag,^(E) and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since.

¹⁹ Some of the tribe of Manasseh defected to David when he went with the Philistines to fight against Saul. (He and his men did not help the Philistines because, after consultation, their rulers sent him away. They said, “It will cost us our heads if he deserts to his master Saul.”)^{(A) 20} When David went to Ziklag,^(B) these were the men of Manasseh who defected to him: Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu and Zillethai, leaders of units of a thousand in Manasseh.

⁵ Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.”^(A)