David thought to himself, There’s no way that Saul is actually going to give up trying to kill me. I will have to leave Israel if I ever want to live without constant fear of death.
So David loaded up the wives, and his men their families, and they all traveled down to Gath and swore allegiance to King Achish. Achish gave David Ziklag to rule. Using it as a base, for the next year and a half, David and his men made frequent raids against Geshurites, Girzites, Amalekites, Shurites, and other peoples all the way into Egypt. But when he would send tribute from the spoils to Achish, he always told the king that the booty came from various Hebrew towns and clans. See, he figured Achish would never find out, because David and his men made sure to kill every human being–from the oldest to the youngest–in any town they raided so there was no survivors to tell Achish the truth. And since Achish was growing richer because of David, he never inquired too closely as to where the livestock and goods came from.
