1 Samuel 30:2-12

2 And they had taken the women captives that were therein, from the youngest to the oldest; they did not kill any but carried them away and went on their way.

3 So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives.

4 Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep.

5 And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail, who had been the wife of Nabal of Carmel.

6 And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was bitter, each one for his sons and for his daughters; but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.

7 And David said to Abiathar, the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring the ephod here to me. And Abiathar brought the ephod to David.

8 And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue; for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail recover all.

9 So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where some stayed behind.

10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred stayed behind, who were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.

11 And they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David and gave him bread to eat and water to drink,

12 and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two bunches of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him, for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.

1 Samuel 30:2-12 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.