1 Samuel 27:12--28:2

27:12 So Achish trusted David, thinking to himself, ¹  “He is really hated ²  among his own people in ³  Israel! From now on ⁴  he will be my servant.”

The Witch of Endor

28:1 In those days the Philistines gathered their troops ⁵  for war in order to fight Israel. Achish said to David, “You should fully understand that you and your men must go with me into the battle.” ⁶  28:2 David replied to Achish, “That being the case, you will come to know what your servant can do!” Achish said to David, “Then I will make you my bodyguard ⁷  from now on.” ⁸ 

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¹ tn Heb “saying.”

² tn Heb “he really stinks.” The expression is used figuratively here to describe the rejection and ostracism that David had experienced as a result of Saul’s hatred of him.

³ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss lack the preposition “in.”

⁴ tn Heb “permanently.”

⁵ tn Heb “their camps.”

⁶ tc The translation follows the LXX (εἰς πόλεμον, eis polemon) and a Qumran ms מלחמה במלחמה ([m]lkhmh) bammilkhamah (“in the battle”) rather than the MT’s בַמַּחֲנֶה (bammakhaneh, “in the camp”; cf. NASB). While the MT reading is not impossible here, and although admittedly it is the harder reading, the variant fits the context better. The MT can be explained as a scribal error caused in part by the earlier occurrence of “camp” in this verse.

⁷ tn Heb “the guardian for my head.”

⁸ tn Heb “all the days.”