1 Samuel 30:3

3 When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned down, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.

1 Samuel 30:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 30:3

So David and his men came to the city
Or however to the place where it had stood, and where it now lay in ruins:

and, behold, [it was] burnt with fire;
the whole city was laid in ashes:

and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken
captives;
as it appeared afterwards; for upon their first coming they knew not but they were all destroyed; and which they might reasonably suppose from their former treatment of them, unless there were any left upon the spot which could inform them how things were, which does not appear, and which must make their distress the greater.

1 Samuel 30:3 In-Context

1 Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negeb and on Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag, burned it down,

2 and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great; they killed none of them, but carried them off, and went their way.

3 When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned down, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.

4 Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept, until they had no more strength to weep.

5 David's two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel.