1 Samuel 29:1

Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek,.... Not the city in the tribe of Judah of that name, Joshua 15:53; where the Philistines had a camp in the time of Samuel, 1 Samuel

Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek: and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel. Aphek (Joshua 12:8) - in the tribe of Issachar, and in the plain of Esdraelon.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 29 David marching with the Philistines, is disallowed by their princes: Achish pleadeth for him and against his will dismisseth him, . He expostulateth with Achish, , his answer, ,10. David departeth, . Aphek; either, that in the tribe of Asher, , or rather another town of that name in Issachar, though not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture; this being the case of many places, to be but once named.

1 Samuel 29:1 Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek: and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which [is] in Jezreel.Ver. 1. To Aphek.] Which was contiguous to Shunem. Which is in Jezreel.] This also was near to mount Gilboa. Chronology and topography are the two eyes of history.

(1) Aphek.—The name Aphek was a common one, and was given to several “places of arms” in Canaan. It signifies a fort or a strong place. This Aphek was most likely situated in the Plain of Jezreel. Eusebius places it in the neighbourhood of En-dor. By a fountain which is in Jezreel.—“By a fountain.” The LXX. wrongly adds “dor,” supposing the spring or fountain to be the well-known En-dor—spring of Dor—but En-dor, we know, lay many miles away from the camp of Saul. This “fountain” has been identified by modern travellers as Ain-Jalûd, the Fountain of Goliath, because it was traditionally regarded as the scene of the old combat with the giant. It is a large spring which flows from under the cavern in the rock which forms the base of Gilboa. “There is every reason to regard this as the ancient fountain of Jezreel, where Saul and Jonathan pitched before their last fatal battle, and where, too, in the days of the Crusades, Saladin and the Christians successively encamped.”—Robinson, Palestine, 3:167, 8.

CHAPTER XXIX The Philistines gather their armies together against Israel, and encamp at Aphek; while the Israelites encamp at Jezreel, 1. The lords of the Philistines refuse to let David go to battle with them, lest he should betray them, 2-5. Achish expresses his confidence in David; but begs him to return, 6-10. David and his men return, 11. NOTES ON CHAP. XXIX Verse 1. To Aphek] This was a place in the valley of Jezreel, between Mounts Tabor and Gilboa. Pitched by a fountain] To be near a fountain, or copious spring of water, was a point of great importance to an army in countries such as these, where water was so very scarce. It is supposed, as William of Tyre says, that it was at this same fountain that Saladin pitched his camp, while Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, pitched his by another fountain between Nazareth and Sephoris; each being anxious to secure that without which it was impossible for their armies to subsist.

Ch. 1 Samuel 29:1-5. The Philistine lords’ distrust of David 1. Now the Philistines, &c. The narrative of 1 Samuel 28:1-2 is resumed, with a further description of the positions of the armies before the battle. Aphek] This cannot be the Aphek of 1 Samuel 4:1, in the neighbourhood of Bethhoron, for in that case there would be no reason to account for Saul’s army being already encamped at Jezreel. Possibly it is to be identified with Fϋleh, about two miles to the W. of Shunem: or, as Lieut. Conder thinks, with Fukϋa, 6 miles S.E. of Jezreel. In the latter case, the Philistines had shifted their camp from Shunem, and turned the strong position of Jezreel on the side where it is most assailable: but this seems less probable, and does not agree with the account of the flight of the Israelites to Mount Gilboa (1 Samuel 31:1). a fountain which is in Jezreel] “The fountain in Jezreel” was probably the present Ain Jβlϋd, less than two miles E.S.E. of Zerξn. “It is a very large fountain, flowing out from under a sort of cavern in the wall of conglomerate rock, which here forms the base of Gilboa. It spreads out at once into a fine limpid pool, forty or fifty feet in diameter. A stream sufficient to turn a mill flows off eastwards down the valley.” Robinson, Bibl. Res. II. 323. It may have been the identical “spring of Harod” at which Gideon tested his men (Judges 7:1 ff.). The modern name of Jezreel is Zerξn: the feeble initial j (y) having been dropped, and the termination el changed to ξn, as in Beitξn for Bethel. Jezreel was a strong and central position. It stood upon the brow of a steep rocky descent of at least 100 feet to the N.E., at the opening of the middle branch of the three eastern forks of the plain of Esdraelon, commanding the broad and fertile valley which slopes eastward to the Jordan, and all the extent of the great plain reaching westward to the long blue ridge of Carmel. See Robinson, Bibl. Res. II. 318 ff. Jezreel was the favourite residence of Ahab (1 Kings 21:1 ff.); there Jezebel established a temple of Astarte with 400 priests (1 Kings 18:19); here was enacted the tragedy of Naboth’s judicial murder (1 Kings 21:13); and here Jezebel met with her end (2 Kings 9:30 ff.).

A fountain - Probably, the fine spring Ain-Jalud. It is impossible to say what the special circumstances were which led to the struggle between Israel and the Philistines taking place so far north as the plain of Jezreel.

1. Aphek — Supposed by some to be the modern el Afuleh, a little to the northwest of Shunem, but it has not been identified with certainty. More likely it is the same as the Aphek of chap.