1 Samuel 30:17-20

17 David slaughtered them 1from the twilight until the evening of the next day; and not a man of them escaped, except * four hundred young men who rode on 2camels and fled.
18 So David 3recovered 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; 4David 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, "5This is David's spoil."

1 Samuel 30:17-20 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.

Cross References 5

  • 1. 1 Samuel 11:11
  • 2. Judges 7:12; 1 Samuel 15:3
  • 3. Genesis 14:16
  • 4. 1 Samuel 30:8
  • 5. 1 Samuel 30:26-31

Footnotes 6

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