1 Samuel 29:9 Commentary and Bible Study

Achish uses extravagant praise to commend David, nevertheless he is firm with him: David and his men must leave the city at the crack of dawn. This seems to be for David’s safety which Achish is concerned about. This firmness and rejection is more favourable to David than all the friendship of the world which he had been ensnared by. He rose up early to depart in the morning. He acts out his reluctance and disappointment in not being able to fight with the Philistines but it is all a fiction. He must now return to Ziklag, and will not be present at the fight against Israel with its tragic consequences. They had gone up north to gather at Aphek, coming up from Ziklag where David and his six hundred men had taken over the town. That was down in the south in the territory of Judah. So they had had something like a fifty-mile forced march to the north to go to Aphek to assemble with the Philistines, and now they have a fifty-mile forced march south again back to Ziklag, and it all takes time.