1 Samuel 30:11-21

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; ¹then 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 ²the Negev of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on ³the Negev of Caleb, and ⁴we 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, ⁵eating and drinking and dancing because of ⁶all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

17 David slaughtered them ⁷from the twilight until the evening of the next day; and not a man of them escaped, except * four hundred young men who rode on ⁸camels and fled.

18 So David ⁹recovered 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; ¹⁰David 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, "¹¹This is David's spoil."

The Spoils Are Divided

21 When ¹²David came to the two hundred men who were too exhausted to follow * David, who had also been left at the brook Besor, and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him, then David approached the people and greeted * them.

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1 Samuel 30:11-21 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 12

1. Judges 15:19
2. 1 Samuel 30:1, 16; 2 Samuel 8:18; 1 Kings 1:38, 44; Ezekiel 25:16; Zephaniah 2:5
3. Joshua 14:13; Joshua 15:13; Joshua 21:12
4. 1 Samuel 30:1
5. Luke 12:19; Luke 17:27
6. 1 Samuel 30:14
7. 1 Samuel 11:11
8. Judges 7:12; 1 Samuel 15:3
9. Genesis 14:16
10. 1 Samuel 30:8
11. 1 Samuel 30:26-31
12. 1 Samuel 30:10

Footnotes 11

[a]. Lit "returned to him"
[b]. I.e. South country
[c]. I.e. South country
[d]. Lit "left"
[e]. Lit "keeping a pilgrim-feast"
[f]. Lit "smote"
[g]. Lit "even until"
[h]. Lit "their"
[i]. Lit "David rescued"
[j]. Lit "taken"
[k]. Lit "those livestock"