1 Samuel 30:1-20

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.

12 They gave him a piece of fig cake and two clusters of raisins, and he ate; ¹⁶then his spirit revived. For he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

13 David said to him, "To whom do you belong? And where are you from?" And he said, "I am a young man of Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago.

14 "We made a raid on ¹⁷the Negev of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on ¹⁸the Negev of Caleb, and ¹⁹we burned Ziklag with fire."

15 Then David said to him, "Will you bring me down to this band?" And he said, "Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this band."

16 When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread over all the land, ²⁰eating and drinking and dancing because of ²¹all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

17 David slaughtered them ²²from the twilight until the evening of the next day; and not a man of them escaped, except * four hundred young men who rode on ²³camels and fled.

18 So David ²⁴recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and rescued his two wives.

19 But nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken for themselves; ²⁵David brought it all back.

20 So David had captured all the sheep and the cattle which the people drove ahead of the other livestock, and they said, "²⁶This is David's spoil."

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1 Samuel 30:1-20 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 26

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
16. Judges 15:19
17. 1 Samuel 30:1, 16; 2 Samuel 8:18; 1 Kings 1:38, 44; Ezekiel 25:16; Zephaniah 2:5
18. Joshua 14:13; Joshua 15:13; Joshua 21:12
19. 1 Samuel 30:1
20. Luke 12:19; Luke 17:27
21. 1 Samuel 30:14
22. 1 Samuel 11:11
23. Judges 7:12; 1 Samuel 15:3
24. Genesis 14:16
25. 1 Samuel 30:8
26. 1 Samuel 30:26-31

Footnotes 16

[a]. I.e. South country
[b]. Lit "smote"
[c]. Lit "they did not kill"
[d]. Lit "wife"
[e]. Lit "bitter in soul"
[f]. Lit "returned to him"
[g]. I.e. South country
[h]. I.e. South country
[i]. Lit "left"
[j]. Lit "keeping a pilgrim-feast"
[k]. Lit "smote"
[l]. Lit "even until"
[m]. Lit "their"
[n]. Lit "David rescued"
[o]. Lit "taken"
[p]. Lit "those livestock"