1 Samuel 30:4-14

4 Then David and his men cried loudly until they didn't have the strength to cry anymore.

5 The Amalekites also captured David's two wives, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail (who had been Nabal's wife) from Carmel.

6 David was in great distress because the people in their bitterness said he should be stoned. (They were thinking of their sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.)

7 David told the priest Abiathar, Ahimelech's son, "Please bring me the priestly ephod." So Abiathar brought David the ephod.

8 Then David asked the LORD, "Should I pursue these troops? Will I catch up with them?" "Pursue them," the LORD told him. "You will certainly catch up with them and rescue the captives."

9 So David and his 600 men went to the Besor Valley, where some were left behind.

10 David and 400 men went in pursuit, while 200 men who were too exhausted to cross the Besor Valley stayed behind.

11 David's men found an Egyptian in the open country and took him to David. They gave him food to eat and water to drink.

12 They gave him a slice of fig cake and two bunches of raisins. After he had eaten, he revived. (He hadn't eaten any food or drunk any water for three whole days.)

13 David asked him, "To whom do you belong? Where do you come from?" "I'm an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite," the young man answered. "My master left me behind because I got sick three days ago.

14 We raided the portion of the Negev where the Cherethites live, the territory of Judah, the portion of the Negev where Caleb settled, and we burned down Ziklag."

1 Samuel 30:4-14 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.