Rashi on Tanakh1 Samuel 27

Rashi

Read 1 Samuel 27 in the Bible

1 Samuel 27:1

Now I might perish one day. Perhaps he will ambush me and suddenly attack me.1Dovid did not trust Shaul and was convinced that he was laying a trap for him by asking him to remain.—Metzudas Dovid

1 Samuel 27:5

Why should your servant remain… And be a burden to you.2Probably, Dovid did not want to live with idolaters and therefore asked in a diplomatic fashion, e.g., ‘Why should your servant be a burden to you,’ to settle in a separate city.

1 Samuel 27:7

Days and four months. The minimum [number] of days is two. It is impossible to explain this word, 'יָמִים' as a year3As we find יָמִים to mean ‘year’ in Bereishis 41:1. because Dovid did not go to Achish until Shmuel had died, and Shaul only reigned after Shmuel's death4Therefore יָמִים is to be taken literally, i.e., days. four months, as we learned in Seder Olam. Also [this can be deduced from the following:] the number of Eili's years [forty years which he judged Yisroel],5Above 4:18. and the twenty years that the Ark was in Kiryas Ye'arim6Above 7:2. total sixty years. Subtract from that Shmuel's fifty-two years, plus one year from his conception, with these four months, plus the seven years which Dovid reigned in Chevron7II Shmuel 2:5. before he brought the Ark from Kiryas Ye'arim. This [calculation] discloses that Shaul reigned after Shmuel's death but four months.

1 Samuel 27:8

Dovid…would go up. This is the present tense, i.e., he was always accustomed doing this.
In the direction of Shur. From the entrance of Shur.

1 Samuel 27:10

Where did you raid. The 'ל' is interchangeable with a 'נ' [so the word אֶל=אָן which means 'where'], as in "he prepared a large chamber [נִשְׁכָּה],"8Nechemyoh 13:7. in the Book of Ezra, meaning the equivalent of לִשְׁכָּה [=chamber].

Rashi on Tanakh — Rashi. Metsudah Publications / Judaica Press · CC BY