1 Samuel 30:1-11

David's Victory over the Amalekites

1 Then it happened when David and his men came to 1Ziklag on the third day, that 2the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on 3Ziklag, and had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire;
2 and they took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, 4without killing anyone, and carried them off and went their way.
3 When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.
4 Then David and the people who were with him 5lifted their voices and wept until * there was no strength in them to weep.
5 Now 6David's two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite.
6 Moreover David was greatly distressed because 7the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But 8David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.
7 Then 9David said to 10Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, "Please bring me the ephod." So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.
8 11David inquired of the LORD, saying, "12Shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them?" And He said to him, "Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, 13and you will surely rescue all."
9 So David went, 14he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those left behind remained.
10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for 15two hundred who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor remained behind.
11 Now they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David, and gave him bread and he ate, and they provided him water to drink.

1 Samuel 30:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST SAMUEL 30

This chapter relates the condition Ziklag was in when David and his men came to it, the city burnt, and their families carried captive by the Amalekites, which occasioned not only a general lamentation, but mutiny and murmuring in David's men, 1Sa 30:1-6; the inquiry David made of the Lord what he should do, who is bid to pursue the enemy; and being directed by a lad where they were, fell upon them, and routed them, and brought back the captives with a great spoil, 1Sa 30:7-20; the distribution of the spoil, both to those that went with him, and to those who through faintness were left behind, 1Sa 30:21-25; and the presents of it he sent to several places in the tribe of Judah, who had been kind to him when he dwelt among them, 1Sa 30:26-31.

Cross References 15

  • 1. 1 Samuel 29:4, 11
  • 2. 1 Samuel 15:7; 1 Samuel 27:8-10
  • 3. 1 Samuel 27:6, 8
  • 4. 1 Samuel 27:11
  • 5. Numbers 14:1
  • 6. 1 Samuel 25:42, 43; 2 Samuel 2:2
  • 7. Exodus 17:4; John 8:59
  • 8. 1 Samuel 23:16; Psalms 18:2; Psalms 27:14; Psalms 31:24; Psalms 71:4, 5; Romans 4:20
  • 9. 1 Samuel 23:6, 9
  • 10. 1 Samuel 22:20-23
  • 11. 1 Samuel 23:2, 4; Psalms 50:15; Psalms 91:15
  • 12. Exodus 15:9
  • 13. 1 Samuel 30:18
  • 14. 1 Samuel 27:2
  • 15. 1 Samuel 30:9, 21

Footnotes 5

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