1 Samuel 30:3

3 When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned down and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.

1 Samuel 30:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 30:3

So David and his men came to the city
Or however to the place where it had stood, and where it now lay in ruins:

and, behold, [it was] burnt with fire;
the whole city was laid in ashes:

and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken
captives;
as it appeared afterwards; for upon their first coming they knew not but they were all destroyed; and which they might reasonably suppose from their former treatment of them, unless there were any left upon the spot which could inform them how things were, which does not appear, and which must make their distress the greater.

1 Samuel 30:3 In-Context

1 On the third day David and his men arrived in Ziklag, and the Amalekites had raided the Negev, attacked Ziklag, and burned it down.

2 They had taken captive the women and all who were there, both young and old. They had not killed anyone, but had carried them off as they went on their way.

3 When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned down and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.

4 So David and the troops with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no strength left to weep.

5 David’s two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel, had been taken captive.