1 Samuel 27 · a question people ask
Was David right to go over to the Philistines?
The chapter gives David's reason in his own words (27:1) and tells what happened next: Saul stopped looking for him (27:4), Achish gave him Ziklag (27:6), and he lived in the country of the Philistines a full year and four months (27:7). It doesn't say whether he inquired of the LORD first, and it doesn't praise or blame the move. Christians read it in two main ways, each resting on its verses. Both agree that Saul was seeking David's life, "Saul sought him every day" (23:14), and that the LORD had not let Saul take him: "God didn’t deliver him into his hand" (23:14).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A step taken in fear, without asking
Those who put the weight here note that the chapter gives only what David "said in his heart" (27:1), where before Keilah "David inquired of the LORD" (23:2), and that the prophet Gad had told him, "Depart, and go into the land of Judah" (22:5). They read beside it David's own words to Saul the chapter before, that those who drove him out of the LORD's inheritance were saying, "Go, serve other gods!" (26:19).
1 Samuel 27:1 · 1 Samuel 23:2 · 1 Samuel 22:5 · 1 Samuel 26:19
A wise escape from a king who sought his life
Those who put the weight here note how often Saul had come after David: "Saul sought him every day" (23:14), and twice he went out with three thousand chosen men "to seek David" (24:2, 26:2), the second time after he had said, "You are more righteous than I" (24:17). They note that David's plan did what he said it would: Saul "will despair of me, to seek me any more" (27:1), and "he stopped looking for him" (27:4).
1 Samuel 23:14 · 1 Samuel 24:2 · 1 Samuel 24:17 · 1 Samuel 26:2 · 1 Samuel 27:1 · 1 Samuel 27:4
The verses
“David said in his heart, “I will now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So I will escape out of his hand.””
“Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, so he stopped looking for him.”
“Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: therefore Ziklag belongs to the kings of Judah to this day. The number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.”
“David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God didn’t deliver him into his hand.”