1 Samuel 30:24

24 Who is going to give any attention to you in this question? for an equal part will be given to him who went to the fight and to him who was waiting by the goods: they are all to have the same.

1 Samuel 30:24 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 30:24

For who will hearken unto you in fit is matter?
No wise and just man will take on your side of the question, and join with you in excluding your brethren from a share in the spoil:

but as his part [is] that goeth down to the battle, so [shall] his part
[be] that tarrieth by the stuff;
as these two hundred men did; they were placed to abide by and watch the carriages, the bag and baggage the rest had left there, that they might be the lighter, and make their pursuit more swiftly: besides, they guarded the pass here, and were also exposed to danger; for if the four hundred had been cut off, and the enemy had returned, they must all have perished; and therefore as they had their post assigned them, and were liable to danger, it was but just and reasonable they should have the share in the spoil; especially since it was not want of will in them they did not go with them, but weakness of body:

they shall part alike;
this was David's determination and decision, and it was an equitable one: something similar to this was directed by the Lord in the war of Midian, ( Numbers 31:25 ) and was practised in the times of Abraham, ( Genesis 14:24 ) ; and is agreeable to the light of nature, and what has been practised by the Heathens, particularly the Romans, as Polybius ^F21 relates; who tells us, that every man brought booty into the camp, when the tribunes divided it equally to them all; not only to those which remained in battle, but to those that guarded the tents and the baggage, to the sick, and to those that were appointed to any service, see ( Psalms 68:12 ) ; and so the Turkish historian says ^F23, that the Pisidians, who lived on spoil, gave a part not contemptible to those that abode at home with their wives.

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 Hist. l. 10. p. 365.
F23 Chalcocondyl. de reb. Turc. l. 5. p. 161.

1 Samuel 30:24 In-Context

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.

23 Then David said, You are not to do this, my brothers, after what the Lord has given us, who has kept us safe and given up the band which came against us into our hands.

24 Who is going to give any attention to you in this question? for an equal part will be given to him who went to the fight and to him who was waiting by the goods: they are all to have the same.

25 And so he made it a rule and an order for Israel from that day till now.

26 And when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the goods to the responsible men of Judah, and to his friends, saying, Here is an offering for you from the goods of those who were fighting against the Lord;