1st Samuel Chapter 27 verse 7 Holy Bible
And the number of the days that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.
read chapter 27 in ASV
And David was living in the land of the Philistines for the space of a year and four months.
read chapter 27 in BBE
And the time that David abode in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.
read chapter 27 in DARBY
And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.
read chapter 27 in KJV
And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.
read chapter 27 in WBT
The number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.
read chapter 27 in WEB
And the number of the days which David hath dwelt in the field of the Philistines `is' days and four months;
read chapter 27 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - A full year. Hebrew, "days." Rashi argues in favour of its meaning some days, and Josephus says the time of David's stay in Philistia was "four months and twenty days;" but already in 1 Samuel 1:3; 1 Samuel 2:19, we have had the phrase "from days day-ward in the sense of yearly, and comp. Leviticus 25:29; Judges 17:10; also Judges 19:2, where the A.V. translates the Hebrew days four months as meaning "four months" only. Probably, as here, it is a year and four months, though the omission of the conjunction is a difficulty. So too for "after a time" (Judges 14:8) it should be "after a year" - Hebrew, after days. EXPEDITIONS OF DAVID FROM ZIKLAG (vers. 8-12).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7) A full year and four months.--Keil calls attention to the exact statement of time here as a proof of the historical character of the whole narrative. The Hebrew expression, translated "a year," is a singular one: yamim--literally, days--a collective term, used in Leviticus 25:29, 1Samuel 1:3; 1Samuel 2:19, &c., to signify a term or period of days which amounted to a full year. This year and four months were among the darkest days of David's life. He was sorely tried, it is true; but he had adopted the very course his bitterest foes would have wished him to select. In open arms, apparently leagued with the deadliest foes of Israel, like an Italian condottiere or captain of free lances of the Middle Ages, he had taken service and accepted the wages of that very Philistine city whose champion he once had slain in the morning of his career. At last his enemies at the court of Saul had reason when they spoke of him as a traitor. From the curt recital in this chapter, which deals with the saddest portion of David's career, we shall see that while he apparently continued to make common cause with the enemies of his race, he still used his power to help, and not to injure, his countrymen; but the price he paid for his patriotism was a life of falsehood, stained, too, with deeds of fierce cruelty, shocking even in these rough, half-barbarous times.
