David in the Service of King Achish of Gath: Renegade to His ...

86 Y. Shemesh / Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 73-90
Achish’s head” reverberates in the Philistine commanders’ allegation that
David will appease “his master” Saul with “the heads of these men” (1 Sam.
xxix 4)—meaning themselves and Achish.
Fokkelman showed that the structure of the scene of David’s appointment
as Achish’s bodyguard in xxviii 1-2 resembles that of the scene in xxvii 8-12,
where we read that David deceived Achish about the targets of his raids.
Both scenes deal with a war (spurious or real) against Israel that is a test for
David. David follows a wily path, and Achish expresses his confidence in
David and plans (once in his thoughts, once out loud) to keep him nearby for
an unlimited term: “He will be my vassal forever” (1 Sam. xxvii 12); “I will
appoint you my bodyguard for life” (1 Sam. xxviii 2). 29
To this we may add the verbal echo between the two scenes that sharpens
the irony in the stillborn appointment: Achish’s intention to make David his
bodyguard μymyh lb “forever” (1 Sam. xxviii 2) is an ironic echo of David’s
custom of raiding and exterminating the autochthonous tribes and lying to
Achish about it μymyh lb “as long as he stayed in the territory of the Philistines”
(1 Sam. xxvii 11). In addition, David’s response to Achish’s order to
march against Saul, “You surely know what your servant will do” (1 Sam. xxviii 2)
echoes “David did this” (1 Sam. xxvii 11).
Achish’s naïveté is manifested again when he attempts to defend David
against the Philistine commanders’ suspicions: “Why, that’s David, the servant
of King Saul of Israel. [. . .] He has been with me for a year or more, and
I have found no fault in him from the day he defected until now” (1 Sam.
xxix 3). Evidently he is not sensitive to the contradiction between his description
of David as Saul’s servant and the full confidence he expresses in David’s
allegiance to himself. Achish is right, though he does not know it, when he
describes David as the servant of Saul; but of course he is dead wrong in his
belief that there has been nothing blameworthy in David’s conduct throughout
the period he has been in his service (an evaluation he repeats to David
in verse 6). As we have seen, this evaluation is based on David’s false reports
to Achish. On the other hand, certainly no fault can be found in David’s
conduct toward Saul, as David in fact tells the latter (1 Sam. xxiv 12;
xxvi 18). Were this not enough, the narrator brings Achish’s high regard of
David to the point of absurdity when the monarch, attempting to mollify
David, states, “As the Lord lives, you are an honest man” (1 Sam. xxix 6) and
“You are as acceptable to me as an angel of God” (v. 9). Calling the cunning
29) Fokkelman, The Books of Samuel, p. 566.