1 Samuel · 12 verses
1 Samuel 27
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
David escapes Saul by going to a Philistine king, then earns permanent trust by ensuring that the dead cannot contradict his account.
David leaves Israel for Gathvv. 1–4
David decides that Saul will eventually catch him, so he takes six hundred men and their families into Philistine territory. Achish son of Maoch, king of Gath, receives the whole household, including David’s wives Ahinoam and Abigail. Saul hears of the flight and, at last, stops searching for him—a remarkably efficient disappearance.
A town of his ownvv. 5–7
David asks not to remain in Achish’s royal city but to be assigned an outlying town. Achish gives him Ziklag, and the narrator pauses to note that it still belongs to the kings of Judah. David’s stay in Philistine territory is then measured with delightful precision: a year and four months.
The answer Achish receivesvv. 8–12
David raids the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, taking livestock, donkeys, camels, and clothing. He leaves no survivors, because a survivor might tell Gath what David has done. When Achish asks where the raid took place, David names the Negev of Judah, Jerahmeel, or the Kenites instead. Achish, hearing only this polished account, concludes that David has become an utter stench to Israel and will serve him forever.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
1 Sam 27:1David, however, said to himself, “One of these days now I will be swept away by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop searching for me all over Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”
1 Sam 27:2So David set out with his six hundred men and went to Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath.
1 Sam 27:3David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal.
1 Sam 27:4And when Saul learned that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.
1 Sam 27:5Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let me be assigned a place in one of the outlying towns, so I can live there. For why should your servant live in the royal city with you?”
1 Sam 27:6That day Achish gave him Ziklag, and to this day it still belongs to the kings of Judah.
1 Sam 27:7And the time that David lived in Philistine territory amounted to a year and four months.
1 Sam 27:8Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these people had inhabited the land extending to Shur and Egypt.)
1 Sam 27:9Whenever David attacked a territory, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but he took the flocks and herds, the donkeys, camels, and clothing. Then he would return to Achish,
1 Sam 27:10who would ask him, “What have you raided today?” And David would reply, “The Negev of Judah,” or “The Negev of Jerahmeel,” or “The Negev of the Kenites.”
1 Sam 27:11David did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he said, “Otherwise they will report us, saying, ‘This is what David did.’” And this was David’s custom the whole time he lived in Philistine territory.
1 Sam 27:12So Achish trusted David, thinking, “Since he has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel, he will be my servant forever.”
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 89 passages were voted onto 12 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 71 Samuel 29:3Then the commanders of the Philistines asked, “What about these Hebrews?” Achish replied, “Is this not David, the servant of King Saul of Israel? He has been with me all these days, even years, and from the day he defected until today I have found no fault in him.”
- 1Isaiah 40:27–31Why do you say, O Jacob, and why do you assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God”?
- 8Joshua 13:2This is the land that remains: All the territory of the Philistines and the Geshurites,
- 81 Samuel 15:7–8Then Saul struck down the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt.
- 91 Samuel 15:3Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
- 10Judges 1:16Now the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenite, went up with the men of Judah from the City of Palms to the Wilderness of Judah in the Negev near Arad. They went to live among the people.
- 1Isaiah 51:12“I, even I, am He who comforts you. Why should you be afraid of mortal man, of a son of man who withers like grass?
- 21 Samuel 25:13And David said to his men, “Strap on your swords!” So David and all his men strapped on their swords, and about four hundred men followed David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
- 21 Samuel 21:10That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath.
- 31 Samuel 25:42–43So Abigail hurried and got on a donkey, and attended by five of her maidens, she followed David’s messengers and became his wife.
- 6Nehemiah 11:28in Ziklag; in Meconah and its villages;
- 8Joshua 13:13but the Israelites did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites. So Geshur and Maacath dwell among the Israelites to this day.
- 101 Chronicles 2:25The sons of Jerahmeel the firstborn of Hezron: Ram his firstborn, Bunah, Oren, Ozem, and Ahijah.
- 101 Chronicles 2:9The sons who were born to Hezron: Jerahmeel, Ram, and Caleb.
- 11 Samuel 28:1–2Now 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.”
- 11 Samuel 23:17saying, “Do not be afraid, for my father Saul will never lay a hand on you. And you will be king over Israel, and I will be your second-in-command. Even my father Saul knows this is true.”
Onward