1 Samuel 27:11

And David said, &c. The tribes which David really plundered must evidently have lived in the neighbourhood of the southern boundary of Judah, so that he could represent his expeditions as made against his own countrymen and their allies, not, as was the fact, against allies of the Philistines. David's falsehoods are not of course to be judged by the Christian standard of morality.

to bringtidings to Gath Rather, to bring them to Gath, as prisoners. Such barbarity was nothing strange at the time, and David did not rise above the practice of his contemporaries.

tell on us "On" used as we now use "of" is common in Shakespeare: e.g. Macbeth, A. i. Sc. 3:

"Or have we eaten onthe insane root

That takes the reason prisoner?"

and so will be his manner, &c. Render, "and so was his manner all the while he dwelt in the country of the Philistines." A full stop must be placed after David, and the following words taken as a remark of the historian. Cp. 1 Samuel 27:7.