Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 29

Aphek. —The name Aphek was a common one and was given to several strongholds in Canaan. It signifies a fort or a strong place. This Aphek was most likely situated in the Plain of Jezreel. Eusebius places it in the neighborhood of En-dor.

By a fountain which is in Jezreel. —By a fountain. The Septuagint wrongly adds “dor,” supposing the spring or fountain to be the well-known En-dor—spring of Dor—but En-dor, as we know, lay many miles away from Saul’s camp. This “fountain” has been identified by modern travelers as Ain-Jalûd, the Fountain of Goliath, because it was traditionally regarded as the scene of the old combat with the giant.

It is a large spring, flowing from under a cavern in the rock that forms the base of Gilboa. “There is every reason to regard this as the ancient fountain of Jezreel, where Saul and Jonathan pitched before their last fatal battle, and where, too, in the days of the Crusades, Saladin and the Christians successively encamped.”—Robinson, Palestine, Vol. 3, pp. 167-168.

And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands. —The orderly advance of this great military nation is thus described. The term “lords” is a different term from the expression “princes.” There were apparently five sovereign princes in the Philistine federation, of whom Achish of Gath was one. Beneath these were other chieftains, who seemingly had great control over the sovereign princes.

David and his men. —David, in return for the lands around Ziklag given him by the King of Gath, seems to have owed a kind of military service to his suzerain Achish. The difference in the arms and equipment of the Israelite warriors in the division of David, which was marching under the standard of Gath, no doubt excited questions. The general appearance of the Hebrews was, of course, well known to their hereditary Philistine foes.

These days, or these years. —An indefinite expression of time. The versions have translated it in various ways. The English Version here is literal. The Syriac version uniquely translates it as, “this time, and time, and months.” The Septuagint is not very easy to understand here, but it apparently understood the expression as signifying “two years.” Maurer would translate it as, “who has been with me always, for days, or rather for years.”

Go down. —This is a technical military expression, used constantly, on account of the necessity of the troops descending from the hill country in which they were encamped to the plain in order to fight.

Of whom they sang. —The folk-songs, which had originally excited Saul’s jealousy of the young hero David, were current among the Philistines, who seem to have been a musical people. David’s having apparently learned and practised Philistine music when in Gath, which he subsequently introduced into Jerusalem, has been already noticed.