1 Samuel 30:20

20 And they took all the flocks and herds, and driving them in front of him, said, These are David's.

1 Samuel 30:20 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 30:20

And David took all the flocks, and the herds
Which they had taken from the land of the Philistines, or which belonged to the Amalekites properly:

[which] they drave before those [other] cattle;
which had been carried from Ziklag; first went the spoil taken from other places, and then those taken from David and his men, or what was found at Ziklag. Abarbinel supposes the meaning to be this, that the herds were driven before the flocks, that the oxen were led out first, and then the sheep followed, as being the weaker sort, and more easily to be driven, and carried off; but the former sense seems best:

and said, this [is] David's spoil;
either the whole of it, it being owing to him that it was got or brought back; or this may respect some peculiar part of it made a present of to him; or it may design what the Amalekites had taken from others, which was at the disposal of David, as distinguished from what was taken from Ziklag, and was restored, or to be restored to the proper owners: it may be taken in the first and more general sense, as being the song, or the burden of the song, sung by David's men as they returned with the spoil, giving him all the honour of it, of whom, but a little before, they talked of stoning.

1 Samuel 30:20 In-Context

18 And David got back everything the Amalekites had taken; and he got back his two wives.

19 There was no loss of anything, small or great, sons or daughters or goods or anything which they had taken away: David got it all back.

20 And they took all the flocks and herds, and driving them in front of him, said, These are David's.

21 And David came to the two hundred men, who because of weariness had not gone with him, but were waiting at the stream Besor: and they went out, meeting David and the people who were with him; and when they came near them, they said, How are you?

22 Then the bad and good-for-nothing men among those who went with David said, Because they did not go with us, we will give them nothing of the goods which we have got back, but only to every man his wife and children, so that he may take them and go.