1 Samuel 28:1
New International Version
In those days the Philistines gathered their forces to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, “You must understand that you and your men will accompany me in the army.”

New Living Translation
About that time the Philistines mustered their armies for another war with Israel. King Achish told David, “You and your men will be expected to join me in battle.”

English Standard Version
In those days the Philistines gathered their forces for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, “Understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army.”

Berean Standard Bible
Now in those days the Philistines gathered their forces for warfare against Israel. So Achish said to David, “You must understand that you and your men are to go out to battle with me.”

King James Bible
And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men.

New King James Version
Now it happened in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for war, to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, “You assuredly know that you will go out with me to battle, you and your men.”

New American Standard Bible
Now it came about in those days that the Philistines gathered their armed camps for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, “Know for certain that you will go out with me in the camp, you and your men.”

NASB 1995
Now it came about in those days that the Philistines gathered their armed camps for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, “Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the camp, you and your men.”

NASB 1977
Now it came about in those days that the Philistines gathered their armed camps for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, “Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the camp, you and your men.”

Legacy Standard Bible
Now it happened in those days that the Philistines gathered their armed camps for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, “Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the camp, you and your men.”

Amplified Bible
In those days the Philistines gathered their forces for war to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, “Understand for certain that you and your men will go out with me to battle.”

Christian Standard Bible
At that time, the Philistines gathered their military units into one army to fight against Israel. So Achish said to David, “You know, of course, that you and your men must march out in the army with me.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
At that time, the Philistines brought their military units together into one army to fight against Israel. So Achish said to David, “You know, of course, that you and your men must march out in the army with me.”

American Standard Version
And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their hosts together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me in the host, thou and thy men.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And it was in those days, and the Philistines gathered their camps for battle to the valley to fight with Israel, and Akish said to David: “You will surely know that you will go out with me to the encampment, you and your men!”

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And it came to pass in those days that the Philistines gathered themselves together with their armies to go out to fight with Israel; and Anchus said to David, Know surely, that thou shalt go forth to battle with me, thou, and thy men.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered together their armies to be prepared for war against Israel: and Achis said to David: Know thou now assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to the war, thou, and thy men.

English Revised Version
And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their hosts together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me in the host, thou and thy men.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
At that time the Philistines had gathered their army to fight against Israel. Then Achish said to David, "You need to know that you and your men will be going with me into battle."

Good News Translation
Some time later the Philistines gathered their troops to fight Israel, and Achish said to David, "Of course you understand that you and your men are to fight on my side."

International Standard Version
At that time the Philistines assembled their army for war to fight against Israel. Achish told David, "You know, of course, that you and your men will go out with me into the battle."

JPS Tanakh 1917
And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their hosts together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David: 'Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me in the host, thou and thy men.'

Literal Standard Version
And it comes to pass in those days, that the Philistines gather their camps for the war, to fight against Israel, and Achish says to David, “You certainly know that you go out with me into the camp, you and your men.”

Majority Standard Bible
Now in those days the Philistines gathered their forces for warfare against Israel. So Achish said to David, “You must understand that you and your men are to go out to battle with me.”

New American Bible
In those days the Philistines mustered their military forces to fight against Israel. So Achish said to David, “You realize, of course, that you and your warriors must march out for battle with me.”

NET Bible
In those days the Philistines gathered their troops for war in order to fight Israel. Achish said to David, "You should fully understand that you and your men must go with me into the battle."

New Revised Standard Version
In those days the Philistines gathered their forces for war, to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, “You know, of course, that you and your men are to go out with me in the army.”

New Heart English Bible
It happened in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, "Know assuredly that you are to go out with me to battle, you and your men."

Webster's Bible Translation
And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines collected their armies for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men.

World English Bible
In those days, the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, “Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the army, you and your men.”

Young's Literal Translation
And it cometh to pass in those days, that the Philistines gather their camps for the war, to fight against Israel, and Achish saith unto David, 'Thou dost certainly know that with me thou dost go out into the camp, thou and thy men.'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Philistines Gather Against Israel
1Now in those days the Philistines gathered their forces for warfare against Israel. So Achish said to David, “You must understand that you and your men are to go out to battle with me.” 2David replied, “Then you will come to know what your servant can do.” “Very well,” said Achish. “I will make you my bodyguard for life.”…

Cross References
1 Samuel 27:12
So Achish trusted David, thinking, "Since he has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel, he will be my servant forever."

1 Samuel 29:1
Now the Philistines brought all their forces together at Aphek, while Israel camped by the spring in Jezreel.

1 Samuel 29:2
As the Philistine leaders marched out their units of hundreds and thousands, David and his men marched behind them with Achish.


Treasury of Scripture

And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, Know you assuredly, that you shall go out with me to battle, you and your men.

that the

1 Samuel 7:7
And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

1 Samuel 13:5
And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven.

1 Samuel 17:1
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.

Philistines

Judges 3:1-4
Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan; …

thou shalt go

1 Samuel 27:12
And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever.

1 Samuel 29:2,3
And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands: but David and his men passed on in the rereward with Achish…

Jump to Previous
Accompany Achish A'chish Armed Armies Army Assuredly Battle Camp Camps Collected David Host Israel Philistines Together Understand War Warfare
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Accompany Achish A'chish Armed Armies Army Assuredly Battle Camp Camps Collected David Host Israel Philistines Together Understand War Warfare
1 Samuel 28
1. Achish puts confidence in David
3. Saul having destroyed the witches
4. and now in his fear forsaken of God
7. has recourse to a witch
8. who, encouraged by Saul, raises up Samuel
15. Saul hearing his ruin, faints
21. The woman and his servants refresh him with meat














(1) The Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare.--This was evidently, as Jose-phus remarks, a great effort on the part of the Philistines. It was no ordinary raid or border incursion, such as seems to have been so frequent all through the reign of Saul. Since their defeat in the Valley of Elah, which followed the single combat between Goliath and David, no such Philistine army had been gathered together. We are struck at once with the presence of the enemy in the heart of the land, no longer choosing the well-known and often-contested "Marches," or border districts. The Philistines are now strong enough to strike a blow at the centre of the kingdom, and to challenge a battle on the plain of Jezreel. or Esdraelon, north of Ephraim and Issachar. They probably marched along the sea-border of Canaan, collecting their forces as they advanced from each of their well-known military centres, and then, turning eastward, invaded the land by the Valley of Jezreel, or Esdraelon. They marched still eastward, and took up a strong position on the slopes of one of the groups of mountains that enclosed the broad plain of Jezreel toward the east, near the town of Shunem. King Saul, quickly assembling the fighting men of Israel, marched in pursuit, and coming up with them in the Esdraelon plain, took up his position opposite the Philistines--only a few miles parting the two hosts--on the slopes of another group of mountains, known as Mount Gilboa, lying to the south of the Philistine frontier. (There is a map of the Plain of Esdraelon in Stanley's Jewish Church, vol. ii., Lecture 21, illustrative of this closing scene in Saul's career, well worth consulting.)

And Achish said.--David soon found into what a grievous error he had fallen by taking refuge with the hereditary foes of his people. Want of faith and patience had urged him to take this unhappy step. The sixteen months he had spent in Phihstia had been certainly successful, inasmuch as they had strengthened his position as a "free lance" captain, but nothing more. They had been stained by bloodshed and cruelty. His life, too, was a life of duplicity and falsehood. The results of his unhappy course of action were soon manifest. His nation sustained a crushing and most humiliating defeat, which he narrowly escaped being obliged to witness, if not to contribute to. His own general recognition as king was put off for nearly seven years, during which period a civil war hindered the development of national prosperity; besides which, during this time of internal divisions the seeds were too surely laid of the future disastrous separation of Judah and the south from the northern tribes--a division which eventually took place in his grandson's time, when his strong arm and Solomon's wisdom and power were things of the past.

The summons of Achish to his great military vassal was perfectly natural: indeed, Achish had no reason to suspect that such a campaign as the one the Philistines were about to undertake against King Saul would be in any way distasteful to the wronged and insulted David. Not improbably the presence of David and his trained force--including, as the wily Philistine well knew, some of the bravest souls in Israel--encouraged Achish and the other Philistine lords to this great and, as it turned out, supreme effort against Israel. The King of Gath and his colleagues in Philistia saw that, in the divided state of Israel, their chances of success were very great, and it is highly probable that they looked forward to establishing their friend and follower David on the throne of Saul as a Philistine vassal king.

Verse 1. - In those days. I.e. while David was dwelling at Ziklag. The Philistines gathered their armies together. This was, as Josephus has observed, a war upon a much larger scale than any that had been carried on since the defeat of the Philistines in the valley of Elah; for we find that the invasion was made from the north, and the decisive battle fought not in the usual field of operations, but in the territory of the tribe of Issachar, in the neighbourhood of Jezreel. We are not indeed to suppose from this that the Philistines had conquered all the central districts of the land, and, driving Saul before them, at last brought him to bay, and slew him in the north; for though Ishbosheth was compelled to withdraw to Mahanaim, a city on the eastern side of the Jordan, yet Abner is said to have made him king there not only over the trans-Jordanic tribes, but also "over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin" (2 Samuel 2:9). It may be said, however, that these were but titular claims; but the philistine conquests, as described in 1 Samuel 31:7, if not confined to the valley of Esdraelon, as in 1 Chronicles 10:7, were nevertheless all of them to the north of Mount Gilboa, thus leaving Ephraim, Benjamin, and Judah untouched. Nor do we find the Philistines encamped between David at Hebron and Ishbosheth at Mahanaim, or interfering in their contests; and it is only when David was made king over the whole of Israel that they again assembled their forces to dispute the empire with him, and twice suffered defeat (2 Samuel 5:20, 25). More probably, therefore, they marched northward through their own territory, raising the whole of the military population as they went, and then, turning eastward, broke into the Israelite territory by the valley of Jezreel. It was probably the rapid decline of Saul's power which encouraged the Philistines to attempt once again to place their yoke upon the neck of Israel; and Saul, conscious that God's blessing had departed from him, in pitiable agony sought for unholy aid, but finally, with his sons, made a last brave defence, and died a soldier's death. Achish said unto David. As a vassal David was bound to accompany his lord to the acid; and Achish, supposing that David had of his own accord made war upon Judah, probably assumed that the invitation was one which he himself desired. To battle. Hebrew, "in the army."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Now
וַֽיְהִי֙ (way·hî)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

in those
הָהֵ֔ם (hā·hêm)
Article | Pronoun - third person masculine plural
Strong's 1992: They

days
בַּיָּמִ֣ים (bay·yā·mîm)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 3117: A day

the Philistines
פְלִשְׁתִּ֤ים (p̄ə·liš·tîm)
Noun - proper - masculine plural
Strong's 6430: Philistines -- inhabitants of Philistia

gathered
וַיִּקְבְּצ֨וּ (way·yiq·bə·ṣū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 6908: To gather, collect

their forces
מַֽחֲנֵיהֶם֙ (ma·ḥă·nê·hem)
Noun - common plural construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 4264: An encampment, an army

for war,
לַצָּבָ֔א (laṣ·ṣā·ḇā)
Preposition-l, Article | Noun - common singular
Strong's 6635: A mass of persons, reg, organized for, war, a campaign

to fight
לְהִלָּחֵ֖ם (lə·hil·lā·ḥêm)
Preposition-l | Verb - Nifal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 3898: To feed on, to consume, to battle

against Israel.
בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל (bə·yiś·rā·’êl)
Preposition-b | Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3478: Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc

So Achish
אָכִישׁ֙ (’ā·ḵîš)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 397: Achish -- king of Gath

said
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר (way·yō·mer)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

to
אֶל־ (’el-)
Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

David,
דָּוִ֔ד (dā·wiḏ)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 1732: David -- perhaps 'beloved one', a son of Jesse

“You must understand
יָדֹ֣עַ (yā·ḏō·a‘)
Verb - Qal - Infinitive absolute
Strong's 3045: To know

that
כִּ֤י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

you
אַתָּ֖ה (’at·tāh)
Pronoun - second person masculine singular
Strong's 859: Thou and thee, ye and you

and your men
וַאֲנָשֶֽׁיךָ׃ (wa·’ă·nā·še·ḵā)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 376: A man as an individual, a male person

will accompany me
תֵּצֵ֣א (tê·ṣê)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 3318: To go, bring, out, direct and proxim

in the army.”
בַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔ה (ḇam·ma·ḥă·neh)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - common singular
Strong's 4264: An encampment, an army


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OT History: 1 Samuel 28:1 It happened in those days that (1Sa iSam 1 Sam i sa)
1 Samuel 27:12
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