Note 266 — Chapter VI

1 Sam. xxx. 26-30; supra, p. 137. In order to wash David clean from the reproach of fighting with the Philistines against his people, it is observed (xxvii. 8-11) that David always marched against the tribes of the desert, that he cut down the prisoners, and then reported to Achish that he "had invaded the south of Judah." The position of Ziklag was ill-suited for attacks on the desert, and Achish had not given him any commands to fight against the children of the desert. At a later time Achish says of David: "Since his desertion I have found nothing in him," xxix. 3, 6; he will make him even the protector of his own life (1, xxviii. 2), and such deceit as is here attributed to David presupposes that Achish and all the rest of the Philistines were blind.