1 Samuel 30

On the third day, David and his men arrived back at Ziklag. Meanwhile, the Amalekites had raided the dry southern country, and Ziklag with it. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it down.

1And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;

NoteZiklag was a town in the far south that the Philistine king Achish had given David to live in while David was in exile from Saul; David and his men had just come back from a three-day march after the Philistines refused to let them join their army. The Amalekites were a roaming people of the southern deserts, long-standing raiders of Israel's southern settlements. "The dry southern country" translates the Negev, the arid region south of Judah's farmland, where people lived by herding and small-scale farming and raiding parties could move quickly.

2They had taken the women there captive, young and old. They killed no one, but carried them off and went on their way.

2And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.

3So David and his men came to the city and found it burned down. Their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive.

3So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.

4Then David and the men with him cried out loud and wept until they had no strength left to weep.

4Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.

5David's own two wives had been taken captive: Ahinoam from Jezreel, and Abigail, the widow of Nabal from Carmel.

5And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

NoteBoth marriages happened earlier in David's outlaw years. The Carmel here is a village in the hill country south of Hebron, not the coastal Mount Carmel in the north.

6David was in great trouble, because the men were talking about stoning him. Every one of them was bitter over losing his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.

6And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.

NoteStoning was the way a community, rather than an individual, put someone to death: everyone threw stones, so no single person was the killer. The men talking about it means they were close to executing David as the leader who had left the town undefended.

7David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, "Please bring me the ephod." So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.

7And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.

NoteThe ephod was a priestly garment. The kind meant here seems to have held the Urim and Thummim, sacred objects the priest used to put a question to God and get an answer of the yes-or-no kind. Abiathar was the sole survivor of the priests of Nob whom Saul had massacred, and he had fled to David with the ephod.

8David asked the LORD, "Should I chase this raiding party? Will I catch them?" The LORD answered him, "Chase them. You will certainly catch them, and you will get everything back."

8And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.

9So David set out with the six hundred men who were with him. They came to the brook Besor, where some of them stayed behind.

9So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed.

NoteThe brook Besor was a wadi, a streambed in the dry south that runs with water after rain and is empty much of the year. Crossing it meant getting down one steep bank and up the other, which is why exhausted men could not manage it.

10David kept up the chase with four hundred men. Two hundred stayed behind, because they were too worn out to cross the brook Besor.

10But David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.

11Out in the open country David's men found an Egyptian and brought him to David. They gave him bread, and he ate, and they gave him water to drink.

11And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water;

12They also gave him a piece of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins. After he ate, his strength came back to him. He had had no food or water for three days and three nights.

12And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.

NoteFigs pressed into a solid cake and clusters of dried raisins were standard traveling food in this region: compact, long-lasting, and very high in sugar, which is why they revive a starving man quickly.

13David asked him, "Who do you belong to? Where are you from?" He said, "I am a young man from Egypt, the slave of an Amalekite. My master left me behind three days ago, when I got sick.

13And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days agone I fell sick.

NoteDavid's first question is not "who is your family" but "whose property are you": he assumes from the man's condition that he is someone's slave, and the answer confirms it.

14We raided the southern country of the Cherethites, and the land that belongs to Judah, and the southern country of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag down."

14We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.

NoteThe Cherethites were a people settled along the southern coast, closely associated with the Philistines and probably of the same origin overseas; David later drew part of his bodyguard from them. "The southern country of Caleb" is the district around Hebron held by the clan descended from Caleb. The Egyptian is naming three separate raiding grounds, so the raid swept across territory belonging to several different peoples.

15David said to him, "Can you lead me down to this raiding party?" He said, "Swear to me by God that you will not kill me, and that you will not hand me over to my master. Then I will lead you to them."

15And David said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this company? And he said, Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company.

NoteAn oath sworn "by God" called on God to punish the swearer if he broke his word. It was the strongest guarantee available, and a slave with no legal standing had nothing else to bargain with.

16So he led David down, and there they were, spread out all over the ground, eating and drinking and celebrating. They were celebrating the huge amount of goods they had taken from Philistine land and from Judah.

16And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah.

17David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not one man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who got on camels and fled.

17And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.

NoteThe Hebrew word rendered "twilight" can mean either dawn or dusk, so it is unclear whether the fight ran from evening through the following day or from before sunrise until the next evening. Either way it lasted far longer than a single skirmish. Camels could outrun men on foot across open desert, which is how the four hundred got away.

18David got back everything the Amalekites had carried off, and he rescued his two wives.

18And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives.

19Nothing at all was missing, small or great, sons or daughters, or any of the goods the raiders had taken for themselves. David brought it all back.

19And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all.

20David also took all the flocks and herds. His men drove these animals ahead of the rest of the livestock, and they said, "This is David's plunder."

20And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David’s spoil.

NoteThe Hebrew of this verse is obscure and translators differ over who drove what and who spoke. The general sense is that the recaptured livestock, plus animals the Amalekites had plundered elsewhere, were herded home and counted as David's own share of the spoil, the portion a commander took by right.

21Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too worn out to follow him, the ones he had left at the brook Besor. They came out to meet David and the men with him. When David got near them, he greeted them.

21And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besor: and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with him: and when David came near to the people, he saluted them.

22But all the evil and worthless men among those who had gone with David said, "They did not go with us, so we will not give them any of the goods we got back. Each man may take his wife and children and go."

22Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will not give them ought of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away, and depart.

Note"Men of Belial" in the King James is not a proper name for a devil; belial is a Hebrew word meaning worthlessness or good-for-nothing, so the phrase means lawless, useless men. Their proposal is that the plunder belongs only to the fighters, and that the men left behind get back their own families and nothing else.

23But David said, "My brothers, you must not do that with what the LORD has given us. He kept us safe, and he handed over to us the raiding party that came against us.

23Then said David, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the LORD hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand.

24Who would listen to you about this? The share of the man who goes down to the battle is the same as the share of the man who stays with the supplies. They will share alike."

24For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike.

NoteStaying "with the supplies" means guarding the baggage, the packs, food and gear an army left at a base camp while it fought. It was a real assignment, not idleness, and the argument is over whether it earns a share.

25And that is how it has been from that day on. David made it a rule and a law for Israel, and it still stands today.

25And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day.

NoteA "statute and a law" here means a fixed customary rule for how plunder was divided, treated afterwards as settled precedent. "To this day" is the narrator speaking to readers of his own time, long after David.

26When David got back to Ziklag, he sent part of the goods to the elders of Judah, who were his friends. He said, "Here is a gift for you from what was taken from the LORD's enemies."

26And when David came to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, Behold a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of the LORD;

NoteElders were the senior heads of families who governed a town and settled its disputes; there was no other local authority. Judah was David's own tribe, and these were the districts he had lived among as a fugitive.

27He sent gifts to those in Bethel, to those in Ramoth in the southern country, and to those in Jattir,

27To them which were in Bethel, and to them which were in south Ramoth, and to them which were in Jattir,

NoteThe list that follows names towns and settlements across the southern edge of Judah, the country David and his men had ranged through while on the run from Saul. Several of these places are otherwise unknown, and some of the names differ between ancient copies of the text.

28and to those in Aroer, to those in Siphmoth, and to those in Eshtemoa,

28And to them which were in Aroer, and to them which were in Siphmoth, and to them which were in Eshtemoa,

29and to those in Rachal, to those in the towns of the Jerahmeelites, and to those in the towns of the Kenites,

29And to them which were in Rachal, and to them which were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to them which were in the cities of the Kenites,

NoteThe Jerahmeelites and the Kenites were clans living on Judah's southern margins rather than being counted as part of Judah proper. The Kenites were associated with Moses' wife's family and had long-standing friendly ties to Israel; David had earlier claimed to the Philistines that he was raiding these very groups, when in fact he had been protecting them.

30and to those in Hormah, to those in Chorashan, and to those in Athach,

30And to them which were in Hormah, and to them which were in Chorashan, and to them which were in Athach,

31and to those in Hebron, and to all the places where David and his men had gone about.

31And to them which were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt.

NoteHebron was the chief town of the southern hill country and the burial place of Israel's ancestors; David would shortly be made king there. "Where David and his men were wont to haunt" in the King James simply means the places they used to move about in, "haunt" in 1611 meant to frequent, with no suggestion of ghosts.