1 Samuel 29:6–29:11, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
1 Samuel 29:6–29:11
Achish dismisses David from the Philistine campaign
Achish swears David has been upright in his sight, and still must go
Achish calls David and says, Surely, as the LORD liveth, thou hast been upright, and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the host is good in my sight: for I have not found evil in thee since the day of thy coming unto me unto this day. Nevertheless the lords favor thee not. Wherefore now return, and go in peace, that thou displease not the lords of the Philistines.
Praise and dismissal arrive together. The Philistine king even swears by the LORD. His favor is not a verdict on David's raids or lies.
David protests, What have I done?, and rises early toward the Philistine land
David says to Achish, But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee unto this day, that I may not go fight against the enemies of my lord the king? Achish answers that he knows David is good in his sight, as an angel of God, but the princes of the Philistines have said he shall not go up with them to battle. He is to rise early, with his master's servants that have come with him, and as soon as there is light, depart. So David and his men rise up early to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. The Philistines go up to Jezreel.
The protest sustains the cover and may be more; the text will not say which. Release from the trap is given by the commanders' refusal, not by a narrated moral decision on David's part. Escape from this battle does not erase the southern raids.
How this should shape us
A compliment from a patron is not the same as a clean record. Do not force this protest to prove either treachery or loyalty. Accept a door out of an impossible bind without turning it into proof that the earlier concealment was righteous.
Teach it back
Explain 1 Samuel 29:6–29:11 in your own words, including its movement, one source-controlled detail, one uncertainty, one affected person, and one misuse the context rules out.
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The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful readers disagree?
Best judgment: The scene deliberately leaves David's intent unresolved; external dismissal removes him from the trap without narrating a moral decision by him.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
1 Samuel 29:6–29:11, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 29:6–29:11; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 29:6–29:11
Supports: One relatively early integrated/two-edition account of composition, structure, and historiographic value, retained as a contested model.
Garsiel, JHS 10.5 (2010), pp. 1–42, named structural or composition discussion covering the movement that includes 1 Samuel 29:6–29:11
Supports: Only the publisher-visible book architecture and theological scope; the paywalled body is not treated as inspected.
Goldingay, The Theology of the Book of Samuel (2024), official frontmatter and TOC: 1 Samuel 21:1[2]–2 Samuel 1:27, pp. 111–140
Supports: One literary, ethical, and political account of divine and human violence; publisher-visible scope does not establish consensus.
Gilmour, Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel (2021/2022), official abstract and TOC: relevant discussion for 1 Samuel 29:6–29:11, including 1 Samuel 12 pp. 71–81, Saul's rejection pp. 90–139, Eli's house pp. 140–150, or ark violence pp. 154–185 as applicable
Supports: A diachronic political-covenant study that keeps succession and affection visible without settling homoerotic interpretation.
Johnson, Politics and Covenant in the Divine Davidic Kinship, Cambridge PhD thesis (2023), Jonathan covenant pp. 29–69; 1 Samuel 18:1–5 pp. 41–49; 20:1–42 pp. 50–62; 23:15–18 pp. 63–65
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: 1 Samuel 29:6–29:11, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 29:6–29:11; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: 1 Samuel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 29:6–29:11
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
The Book of Samuel: Its Composition, Structure and Significance as a Historiographical Source
Moshe Garsiel
The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10.5, 2010
Supports: One relatively early integrated/two-edition account of composition, structure, and historiographic value, retained as a contested model.
Exact location: Garsiel, JHS 10.5 (2010), pp. 1–42, named structural or composition discussion covering the movement that includes 1 Samuel 29:6–29:11
Open source ↗scholarly monograph frontmatter and table of contents
The Theology of the Book of Samuel
John Goldingay
Cambridge University Press, 2024
Supports: Only the publisher-visible book architecture and theological scope; the paywalled body is not treated as inspected.
Exact location: Goldingay, The Theology of the Book of Samuel (2024), official frontmatter and TOC: 1 Samuel 21:1[2]–2 Samuel 1:27, pp. 111–140
Open source ↗scholarly monograph abstract and contents
Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel
Rachelle Gilmour
Oxford University Press, 2021 online; 2022 print
Supports: One literary, ethical, and political account of divine and human violence; publisher-visible scope does not establish consensus.
Exact location: Gilmour, Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel (2021/2022), official abstract and TOC: relevant discussion for 1 Samuel 29:6–29:11, including 1 Samuel 12 pp. 71–81, Saul's rejection pp. 90–139, Eli's house pp. 140–150, or ark violence pp. 154–185 as applicable
Open source ↗open access doctoral thesis
Politics and Covenant in the Divine Davidic Kinship
Sophia Ruth Carter Johnson
University of Cambridge, 2023
Supports: A diachronic political-covenant study that keeps succession and affection visible without settling homoerotic interpretation.
Exact location: Johnson, Politics and Covenant in the Divine Davidic Kinship, Cambridge PhD thesis (2023), Jonathan covenant pp. 29–69; 1 Samuel 18:1–5 pp. 41–49; 20:1–42 pp. 50–62; 23:15–18 pp. 63–65
Open source ↗