Bible Strands
1 Samuel 21:13
So he changed his behavior before them and feigned madness in their hands; he scratched on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down his beard.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David acts before the servants of Achish, king of Gath, immediately after fleeing Saul and arriving in hostile territory. He performs a deliberate deception to avoid execution.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיִּתְהֹלֵל (va/i.yit.ho.Lel) literally means "he pretended to be mad." It describes David’s calculated performance of feigning insanity to manipulate his captors' perception.
The thread — This event is explicitly memorialized in Psalm 34:1, where David references his feigned madness before Abimelech. The tension between survival deception and divine trust also appears in Proverbs 29:25 and Ecclesiastes 7:7.
Why it lands — The text records David's pragmatic survival tactic without moral commentary. It requires the reader to observe how fear drives strategic deception while the narrative frame leaves ultimate judgment to the surrounding context.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 29:25 The fear of man is a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is set securely on high.
- Ecclesiastes 7:7 Surely extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
- Psalms 34:1 Of David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, so that the king drove him away. I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.