1 Samuel 27 · a question people ask
David told Achish he had raided the South of Judah (27:10), and brought no one back who could say otherwise (27:11). How do Christians read that?
The chapter sets side by side whom David raided (27:8), what he told Achish (27:10), and why he brought no one back to Gath: "Lest they should tell about us, saying, ‘David did this, and this has been his way all the time he has lived in the country of the Philistines.’" (27:11). It doesn't comment on any of it. Earlier chapters asked about Michal's answer to Saul's messengers (19:14) and David's words to Ahimelech (21:2), both spoken while Saul sought David's life (19:11, 20:31). This one is different: here the deceiving is kept hidden by leaving no one alive to tell (27:9, 27:11). Christians read it in two main ways, each resting on its verses. Both agree that the chapter doesn't say the LORD sent David on these raids, and doesn't call his answer to Achish right or wrong.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Reported, not approved
Those who hold this view read the chapter's silence as a report, not a verdict. They hold to God's law, "You shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13), and "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" (Exodus 20:16), and to "Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD" (Proverbs 12:22). They note that the reason 27:11 gives for leaving no one alive is that no one would tell what David had done.
Exodus 20:13 · Exodus 20:16 · Proverbs 12:22 · 1 Samuel 27:11
War on Israel's behalf, hidden from an enemy king
Those who hold this view read the raids as war on peoples of the land that Israel had not yet taken, and on Amalek. The chapter calls them "the inhabitants of the land who were of old" (27:8). When the LORD told Joshua, "there remains yet very much land to be possessed" (Joshua 13:1), he named "all the Geshurites" in it (Joshua 13:2), and of Amalek Moses told Israel, "you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky" (Deuteronomy 25:19). They read David's answer to Achish, whose armies soon gathered "to fight with Israel" (28:1), as they read Rahab's answer to the king of Jericho's men (Joshua 2:4-5), of whom James says she was "justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way" (James 2:25).
1 Samuel 27:8 · Joshua 13:1-2 · Deuteronomy 25:19 · 1 Samuel 28:1 · Joshua 2:4-5 · James 2:25
The verses
“Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you don’t save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.””
“When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.””
“For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you will not be established, nor will your kingdom. Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die!””
“David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me to do something, and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you. I have sent the young men to a certain place.’”