9
So David set off with six hundred men. They came to the Besor ravine, where some stayed behind.
10
David and four hundred men continued the pursuit, while two hundred men stayed there, too exhausted to cross the Besor ravine.
11
They found an Egyptian in the countryside and brought him to David. They gave him bread, and he ate, and they gave him water to drink.
12
They also gave him a piece of fig cake and two raisin cakes. He ate and regained his strength because he hadn't eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and nights.
13
Then David asked him, "Whose slave are you? Where do you come from?" "I'm an Egyptian servant boy," he said, "and the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me when I got sick three days ago.
14
We had raided the arid southern plain belonging to the Cherethites, the territory belonging to Judah, and the southern plain of Caleb. We also burned Ziklag down."
15
"Can you guide me to this raiding party?" David asked him. "Make a pledge to me by God that you won't kill me or hand me over to my master," the boy said, "and I will guide you to the raiding party."
16
So the boy led David to them, and he found them scattered all over the countryside, eating, drinking, and celebrating over the large amount of plunder they had taken from Philistine and Judean territory.
17
David attacked them from twilight until evening of the next day. He killed them all. No one escaped except four hundred young men who got on camels and fled.
18
David rescued everything that the Amalekites had taken, including his own two wives.
19
Nothing was missing from the plunder or anything that they had taken, neither old nor young, son nor daughter. David brought everything back.