1 Samuel 29 David marches with Achish against the Israelites

 1 Samuel 29

David marches with Achish against the Israelites

1 And the Philistines gathered all their armies to Aphek, and the Israelites encamped by the spring that is in Jezreel.

2 And the princes of the Philistines went thither with hundreds and thousands: but David and his men went with Achish in the rear.

3 Then said the princes of the Philistines, What are these Hebrews doing here? And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul king of Israel, who was with me some days or years? and I found nothing in him since the day he rebelled, until today.

4 But the princes of the Philistines were very angry with him; and the princes of the Philistines said unto them, Return this man, and return to his place where thou hast set him, and go not down with us to the battle, lest he turn to us in the adversary's battle: your lord? would it not be with the heads of these men?

5 Is not this that David, of whom they answered one another with dances, saying, Saul smote his thousands, but David his tens of thousands?

6 Then Achish called to David, and said to him, As the LORD liveth, that thou art upright, and that thy going in and thy going out with me into the camp is good in my sight; for I have found no harm in you, from the day you came unto me, until this day; but in the eyes of princes they do not like.

7 Return therefore now, and return in peace: that you may not do harm in the eyes of the princes of the Philistines.

8 Then David said to Achish, Why? What did I do? Or what hast thou found in thy servant, from the day that I stood before thee, until this day, that he may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?

9 But Achish answered and said unto David, I know well: and that thou art indeed in my sight as an angel of God: but the princes of the Philistines said, Let him not go up with us to battle.

10 Now therefore, in the morning, rise up with thy lord's servants, who have come with thee: and in the morning rising, when there is light, depart.

11 Then David arose early in the morning, he and his men, to depart in the morning, and they returned to the land of the Philistines: and the Philistines went up to Jezreel.