What Does 1 Samuel 27:3 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
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 a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Beth-lehem-judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.THE THREAD
And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.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.
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