1 Samuel 30:17

17 et percussit eos David a vespere usque ad vesperam alterius diei et non evasit ex eis quisquam nisi quadringenti viri adulescentes qui ascenderant camelos et fugerant

1 Samuel 30:17 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 30:17

And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening
of the next day
As there are two twilights, the twilight of the morning, and the twilight of the evening; this is differently understood some take it for the twilight of the morning, and that it was night when David came to them, and let them alone till they were drunk and asleep, and then early in the morning fell upon them, and smote them until the evening; so Josephus F19 relates it; but others take it to be the twilight of the evening, and that he fell upon them that night, and continued the slaughter of them to the evening of the next day, with which agrees the Targum; nay, some take the next day, or the morrow, to be that which followed after the two evenings; so that this slaughter was carried on to the third day:

and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men that
rode upon camels, and fled;
that sort of camels called dromedaries, according to Josephus F20, and which were very swift, and much used by the Arabians, near whom these people dwelt, see ( Isaiah 60:6 ) ( Jeremiah 2:23 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F19 Antiqu. l. 6. c. 4. sect. 6.
F20 Ibid.

1 Samuel 30:17 In-Context

15 dixitque ei David potes me ducere ad istum cuneum qui ait iura mihi per Deum quod non occidas me et non tradas me in manu domini mei et ducam te ad cuneum istum
16 qui cum duxisset eum ecce illi discumbebant super faciem universae terrae comedentes et bibentes et quasi festum celebrantes diem pro cuncta praeda et spoliis quae ceperant de terra Philisthim et de terra Iuda
17 et percussit eos David a vespere usque ad vesperam alterius diei et non evasit ex eis quisquam nisi quadringenti viri adulescentes qui ascenderant camelos et fugerant
18 eruit ergo David omnia quae tulerant Amalechitae et duas uxores suas eruit
19 nec defuit quicquam a parvo usque ad magnum tam de filiis quam de filiabus et de spoliis et quaecumque rapuerant omnia reduxit David
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.