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1 Samuel 29 Bible study: Good in my sight
Achish swears by the LORD that David has been upright and that he has found no evil in him (29:6), and David asks, "But what have I done?" (29:8), in the same Hebrew words he used to Eliab, Jonathan and Saul (17:29, 20:1, 26:18). Good in Achish's eyes, not good in the lords', David is sent home before the battle (29:6-11).
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“Achish answered David, “I know that you are good in my sight, as an angel of God. Notwithstanding, the princes of the Philistines have said, ‘He shall not go up with us to the battle.’”
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“In 1 Samuel 29, both Achish and the Philistine princes begin a question with "Isn’t this David".”
Is that in 1 Samuel 29, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
In whose eyes?
In Hebrew the word eye runs through what Achish says to David (tap sight). "As the LORD lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army is good in my sight" (29:6) (tap upright and good): in Hebrew, literally "good in my eyes". Then, "Nevertheless, the lords don’t favor you" (29:6), in Hebrew literally "in the eyes of the lords you are not good". "Therefore now return, and go in peace, that you not displease the lords of the Philistines" (29:7), and again the Hebrew has eyes: literally "do not do evil in the eyes of the lords of the Philistines". And once more: "I know that you are good in my sight, as an angel of God" (29:9). The same man is good in Achish's eyes and not good in the lords' eyes, and Achish sends him back "that you not displease the lords of the Philistines" (29:7). The chapter's first verse has the same Hebrew word in its other sense: Israel "encamped by the spring which is in Jezreel" (29:1), and spring is ayin too.
Where it leads to Jesus
No fault found, and sent away
1 Samuel 29:6leads toLuke 23:4
Achish told the princes, "I have found no fault in him since he fell away until today" (29:3), and told David, "I have not found evil in you since the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, the lords don’t favor you" (29:6). When Jesus stood before Pilate, Pilate said, "I find no basis for a charge against this man" (Luke 23:4), and the third time, "What evil has this man done? I have found no capital crime in him" (Luke 23:22). "Their voices and the voices of the chief priests prevailed" (Luke 23:23). No New Testament passage cites 1 Samuel 29, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some see the same thing in both rulers: each says he has found no fault in the man before him, and yet gives way to what others demand; the likeness they see is in the rulers' giving way, not in the two men. Others read each in its own setting: Achish's giving way sent David home before a battle against Israel (29:9-11), and the book has already shown what David kept from Achish (27:10-12); Pilate "delivered Jesus up to their will" (Luke 23:25), to be crucified. Luke is written in Greek, so no link between the two chapters' words is claimed.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 1 Samuel 29
That was a taste
The rest of 1 Samuel 29 is waiting in Favor
- "Isn’t this David?"
- "But what have I done?"
- "These Hebrews"
- "As an angel of God"
- Up early, and back to Ziklag
- 6 questions as you read
- 11 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
עַיִןayinsay AH-yin
Strong's: "an eye (literally or figuratively); by analogy, a fountain (as the eye of the landscape)". Brown-Driver-Briggs gives it two entries: "eye", and "spring (of water)". The chapter opens with it as a spring: Israel "encamped by the spring which is in Jezreel" (29:1). Then it is the eye, four times in what Achish says to David. "Good in my sight" (29:6, 29:9) is, in Hebrew, literally "good in my eyes". "The lords don’t favor you" (29:6) is literally "in the eyes of the lords you are not good", and "that you not displease the lords of the Philistines" (29:7) is, in Hebrew, doing evil in their eyes. David had used it to Jonathan: "I have found favor in your eyes" (20:3).
For your group
1 Samuel 29 Bible study questions
- 1Achish said he had found no fault in David, and still sent him back because the lords didn't favor him (29:6-7). When have you been turned away because of what others thought rather than anything you had done, and what did you do with it?
- 2David was marching with Achish's army, and the princes' words sent him home before the battle (29:2, 29:9-11). Has a door ever closed on you that you were later glad of? What did you learn from it?
- 3David asked Eliab, Jonathan, Saul and Achish what he had done (17:29, 20:1, 26:18, 29:8). When you feel treated unfairly, where do you take that question?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 1 Samuel 29 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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