person · also Abimelech
Achish
אָכִישׁ
Achish, also referred to as Abimelech, was the Philistine king of Gath who granted refuge to David when he fled from King Saul, but later dismissed him due to the suspicion of his servants.
- verses
- 21
- first named
- 1 Samuel 21:10
- last named
- Psalms 34:1
- period
- United Monarchy
- tribe
- Philistia
Description
Who was Achish?
Achish, also known as Abimelech, was the Philistine king of Gath during the time of King Saul and King David. When David fled from Saul, he sought refuge in Gath, pretending to be insane to avoid being perceived as a threat (1Sa.21.10-15). Achish's servants recognized David as the celebrated Israelite warrior, but David's act of insanity convinced Achish to dismiss him (1Sa.21.11-15).
Later, when David was again fleeing from Saul, he returned to Achish in Gath, this time with a group of 600 men (1Sa.27.1-4). Achish granted David and his men the town of Ziklag as a base (1Sa.27.5-6). David and his men raided the Geshurites, Girzites, and Amalekites, but deceived Achish into believing that they were raiding the Israelites and their allies (1Sa.27.8-12).
When the Philistines gathered their forces to fight against Israel, Achish brought David and his men with him (1Sa.28.1-2). However, the Philistine commanders objected to David's presence, fearing that he might turn against them in battle (1Sa.29.1-5). Achish, trusting in David's loyalty, defended him, but ultimately sent him back to Ziklag (1Sa.29.6-11).
After David became king, some of his servants fled to Achish in Gath (1Ki.2.39-40), indicating that David maintained a relationship with Achish even after becoming king.
Psalm 34 is attributed to David when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech (Achish), who drove him away (Psalm 1Ki.34.1). The psalm expresses David's trust in God and his deliverance from fear and trouble.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
The 10 best-attested of 11 are drawn. All 11 are listed below.
Child of
- Maochregistry1 Samuel 27:21 Kings 2:39
Stands in the same events as
Places
Where this happens
The places the claims about this person reach, drawn where the gazetteer locates them. A point is where a row puts them and never where tradition does; no line joins two points, because the rows state where and not in what order.
The pattern
Where Achish is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
21 verses across 3 of 66 books; 63 write the name nowhere. Named in 1 Samuel (18), 1 Kings (2) and Psalms (1).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 21, across 3 books. The name is written 22 times in them.
Onward
Where this page goes
Nothing in the graph stands one hop from this entity yet. These are the best-connected entities of the same type, so the page still ends somewhere. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
Chapter by chapter
Atlas's reading of each chapter this person appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
- 1 Samuel 21Achish heard that David was insane and dismissed him as a man no one needed in the house.
- 1 Samuel 27Achish received David and his six hundred men, gave him Ziklag, questioned his raids, and came to trust him as a servant forever.
- 1 Samuel 28Achish orders David and his men to march with him and appoints David his bodyguard for life.
- 1 Samuel 29Achish defends David as upright and faultless, then sends him away because the Philistine commanders object.
Sources