(3) And David dwelt with Achish at Gath.--His reception by the Philistines seems to have been most kindly. There was a wide difference between the circumstances of this and his former visit to Gath. Then he was a fugitive, almost unattended; now he was at the head of an army of trained and devoted soldiers. Such a guest might be of the greatest service to the Philistines in their perpetual wars with Saul, with whom David would now be considered to have finally broken off all relations, seeing he had sought a home and shelter among the most bitter of his foes.

27:1-7 Unbelief is a sin that easily besets even good men, when without are fightings, and within are fears; and it is a hard matter to get over them. Lord, increase our faith! We may blush to think that the word of a Philistine should go further than the word of an Israelite, and that the city of Gath should be a place of refuge for a good man, when the cities of Israel refuse him a safe abode. David gained a comfortable settlement, not only at a distance from Gath, but bordering upon Israel, where he might keep up a correspondence with his own countrymen.And David dwelt with Achish at Gath,.... The metropolis of his kingdom, called, 1 Samuel 27:5, the royal city:

he and his men, every man with his household; or family; which they brought with them, to secure them from the malice of Saul; who in their absence might have destroyed them, as being the families of traitors and fugitives, and might be the more readily received by Achish, as he might hope for some advantage front them; and besides were pledges of their fidelity to him, and of their design to continue with him:

even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife; who had been the wife of Nabal; of these See Gill on 1 Samuel 25:43.