Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

Achish was the name (or possibly the title) of two kings of Gath (in the territory of the Philistines). The first of these kings gave aid to David when he was fleeing from Saul, who was attempting to kill David so that Saul could remain on the throne as king of Israel.

As indicated in 1 Samuel 27; the first Achish (who, as noted in Psalm 34; was apparently also known as Abimelech) assigned David a city (Ziklag) to live in, from which David conducted raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, killing all the inhabitants (so that no one could report what he had done to Achish). Achish had such great confidence in David that Achish wanted to take David and his men along with him in his warfare against Israel, but the other Philistine commanders would not allow it.

The second Achish (as noted in 1 Kings 2) was the king to whom the servants of Shime-i fled. Shime-i pursued them, in violation of his promise to Solomon that he would remain in Jerusalem after Solomon had mercifully spared Shime-i's life, although David on his deathbed had told Solomon to have him executed (1 Kings 2:8-9) for having cursed David when David fled from his son Absalom (2 Samuel 16). This resulted in Shime-i's execution by Solomon.

July 14 2023 • 3 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report