1 Samuel 30:7-17

7 David said to Avyatar the cohen, the son of Achimelekh, "Please bring the ritual vest here to me."Avyatar brought the vest to David.

8 Then David consulted ADONAI. He asked, "Should I go in pursuit of these raiders? Will I catch up with them?" And [ADONAI] answered him, "Go in pursuit, because you will overtake them and recover everyone and everything."

9 So David went, he and the six hundred men with him. They came to Vadi B'sor, where those who were to stay behind waited.

10 Then David continued in pursuit with four hundred men, while two hundred too exhausted to cross Vadi B'sor stayed behind.

11 They found an Egyptian in the countryside and brought him to David. They gave him some bread to eat and water to drink;

12 they also gave him a lump of dried figs and two bunches of raisins. After eating, he revived; because he hadn't eaten anything or drunk any water for three days and nights.

13 David asked him, "To whom do you belong, and where are you from?" He answered, "I'm an Egyptian boy, the slave of an 'Amaleki. My master abandoned me three days ago, because I got sick.

14 We raided the Negev of the K'reti, the Negev of Y'hudah and the Negev of Kalev; and we burned down Ziklag."

15 David asked him, "Will you lead me down to this raiding party?" He said, "If you will swear by God to me that you won't kill me or hand me back to my master, I will lead you down to the raiders."

16 He led them down, and there they were, spread out all over the ground, eating, drinking and celebrating how much spoil they had taken from the territory of the P'lishtim and the territory of Y'hudah.

17 David attacked them from dawn until the evening of the next day. Not one of them escaped, except for 400 young men who jumped on camels and got away.

1 Samuel 30:7-17 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.