What Does 1 Samuel 27:3 Mean?
And David settled with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his house, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb makes this more than arrival: David settles at Gath with a whole network of households.
THE MEANING
David’s dwelling includes his men with their households and his own two wives, so this is a shared relocation rather than a solitary one. Many lives now rest under Achish’s rule at Gath, where a new dwelling can hold a community without making the place their own. The verse holds the care carried by a household beside the unsettledness of where it lives.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּשֶׁב
vayyeshev
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-sh-v
Sit, remain, dwell.
“settled” in this verse is vayyeshev. English “dwelt” can sound like a static address; the shared root holds sitting, staying, and dwelling together. David does not merely arrive at Gath: he settles there with the people and households around him.
ALSO GROWS
yōshēv: One who sits or dwells.
יֹשֵׁב
The same root describes a person taking up a place, bringing bodily presence into the idea of dwelling.
mōshav: Seat, dwelling, or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This branch carries the root into the place where someone sits or settles, echoing the whole community’s new location.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved; the related form דּוֹד (dōd) means beloved and can also mean kinsman or uncle.
David’s name is linked with belovedness through דוד (dōd, beloved). Here he appears among wives and households rather than alone, placing that relational note beside the people gathered around his dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved; also kinsman or uncle in some uses.
דּוֹד
The word carries affection and kinship, fitting the verse’s attention to David’s family and the households with him.
dōdîm: Loves or caresses.
דּוֹדִים
This related form keeps the name’s association with love visible alongside the relationships named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
When danger or scarcity constricts a life, refuge can carry an entire household across a border.
And there was hunger in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the hunger was heavy in the land.And it came to be in the days when the judges judged, that there was hunger in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the field of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.When they had withdrawn, look, a messenger of the LORD appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Rise, take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word, for Herod will seek the young child to make him perish.THE THREAD
And Moses was willing to settle with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses.The verb for “dwell” is לָשֶׁבֶת (lāšeḇet, to dwell), from ישב (y-sh-v, sit, remain, dwell), the same root behind David’s “dwelt.” Moses’ stay with another household after flight makes dwelling a form of shelter and new attachment; David’s verse widens that picture by naming the households who are with him.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us