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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Samuel 29:1 - 29:1
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Whilst Saul derived no comfort from his visit to the witch at Endor, but simply heard from the mouth of Samuel the confirmation of his rejection on the part of God, and an announcement of his approaching fate, David was delivered, through the interposition of God, from the danger of having to fight against his own people.
1Sa 29:1
The account of this is introduced by a fuller description of the position of the hostile army. “The Philistines gathered all their armies together towards Aphek, but Israel encamped at the fountain in (at) Jezreel.” This fountain is the present Ain Jalûd (or Ain Jalût, i.e., Goliath's fountain, probably so called because it was regarded as the scene of the defeat of Goliath), a very large fountain, which issues from a cleft in the rock at the foot of the mountain on the north-eastern border of Gilboa, forming a beautifully limpid pool of about forty or fifty feet in diameter, and then flowing in a brook through the valley (Rob. Pal. iii. p. 168). Consequently Aphek, which must be carefully distinguished from the towns of the same name in Asher (Jos 19:30; Jdg 1:31) and upon the mountains of Judah (Jos 15:53) and also at Ebenezer (1Sa 4:1), is to be sought for not very far from Shunem, in the plain of Jezreel; according to Van de Velde's Mem., by the side of the present el Afûleh, though the situation has not been exactly determined. The statement in the Onom., “near Endor of Jezreel where Saul fought,” is merely founded upon the Septuagint, in which בָּעַיִן is erroneously rendered ἐν Ἐνδώρ.
1Sa 29:2-3
When the princes of the Philistines (sarne, as in Jos 13:3) advanced by hundreds and thousands (i.e., arranged in companies of hundreds and thousands), and David and his men came behind with Achish (i.e., forming the rear-guard), the (other) princes pronounced against their allowing David and his men to go with them. The did not occur at the time of their setting out, but on the road, when they had already gone some distance (compare 1Sa 29:11 with 1Sa 30:1), probably when the five princes (Jos 13:3) of the Philistines had effected a junction. To the inquiry, “What are these Hebrews doing?” Achish replied, “Is not this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me days already, or years already? and I have found nothing in him since his coming over unto this day.” מְאוּמָה, anything at all that could render his suspicious, or his fidelity doubtful. נָפַל, to fall away and go over to a person; generally construed with אֶל (Jer 37:13; Jer 38:19, etc.) or עַל (Jer 21:9; Jer 37:14; 1Ch 12:19-20), but here absolutely, as the more precise meaning can be gathered from the context.
1Sa 29:4
But the princes, i.e., the four other princes of the Philistines, not the courtiers of Achish himself, were angry with Achish, and demanded, “Send the man back, that he may return to his place, which thou hast assigned him; that he may not go down with us into the war, and may not become an adversary (satan) to us in the war; for wherewith could he show himself acceptable to his lord (viz., Saul), if not with the heads of these men?” הֲלֹוא, nonne, strictly speaking, introduces a new question to confirm the previous question. “Go down to the battle:” this expression is used as in 1Sa 26:10; 1Sa 30:24, because battles were generally fought in the plains, into which the Hebrews were obliged to come down from their mountainous land. “These men,” i.e., the soldiers of the Philistines, to whom the princes were pointing.
1Sa 29:5
To justify their suspicion, the princes reminded him of their song with which the women in Israel had celebrated David's victory over Goliath (1Sa 18:7).