1 Samuel 27 · a question people ask
Was David carrying out the LORD's command against Amalek?
The chapter doesn't say. It names the Amalekites among the peoples David raided (27:8), and it says nothing of the LORD sending him, or of David asking. The command the book told of was given to Saul through Samuel: "Now go and strike Amalek" (15:3), and Saul "struck the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is before Egypt" (15:7). Chapter 15's honest question on that command sets out the main ways Christians read it. Chapter 27 doesn't say that David's raids were that command carried out, and it doesn't say that they weren't. The Amalekites come back into the story three chapters later: "the Amalekites had made a raid on the South and on Ziklag" (30:1).
The verses
“David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for those were the inhabitants of the land who were of old, on the way to Shur, even to the land of Egypt.”
“Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don’t spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’””
“Saul struck the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is before Egypt.”
“When David and his men had come to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the South and on Ziklag, and had struck Ziklag and burned it with fire,”