Achish, King of Gath

Achish was the Philistine king of Gath who twice gave refuge to David while he fled from Saul. On David's first visit, alone and unprepared, David feigned madness before Achish's court to escape suspicion, scratching on gates and drooling into his beard until Achish dismissed him as harmless. Later, once David commanded his own band of six hundred men, Achish welcomed him as a vassal and granted him the town of Ziklag, trusting David's raids against Israel's enemies even though David was secretly raiding other groups entirely. Achish's misplaced trust in David - so complete that other Philistine commanders had to intervene to keep David out of the battle against Saul at Gilboa - illustrates the strange providence by which God protected David even inside enemy territory.