1 Samuel 30:23

23 "Brothers!" David said. "Don't act that way with the things the LORD has given us. He has protected us and handed over to us the raiding party that had attacked us.

1 Samuel 30:23 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 30:23

Then said David, ye shall not do so, my brethren
Though he saw through their wickedness, and disapproved of the bad sentiments they had embraced, yet he deals gently with them, calling them brethren, being of the same nation and religion, and his fellow soldiers; yet at the same time keeps up and maintains his dignity and authority as a general, and declares it should not be as they willed, and gives his reasons for it, that it was not fit they should do as they pleased:

with that which the Lord hath given us;
what they had was given them, and therefore, as they had freely received, they should freely give; and what was given them, was not given to them only, but to the whole body, by the Lord:

who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us
into our hand;
it was not by their own power and might that they got the victory over the enemy, and the spoil into their hands, but it was through the Lord only; and therefore, as they should not assume the honour of the victory to themselves, so neither should they claim the spoil as wholly belonging to them.

1 Samuel 30:23 In-Context

21 David reached the two hundred men who were too exhausted to follow him and had stayed behind at the Besor ravine. They came out to greet him and the troops who were with him. When David approached them, he asked how they were doing.

22 But then all the evil and despicable individuals who had accompanied David said, "We won't share any of the plunder we rescued with them because they didn't go with us. Each of them can take his wife and children and go—but that's it."

23 "Brothers!" David said. "Don't act that way with the things the LORD has given us. He has protected us and handed over to us the raiding party that had attacked us.

24 How could anyone agree with you on this plan? The share of those who went into battle and the share of those who stayed with the supplies will be divided equally."

25 So from that day forward, David made that a regulation and a law in Israel, which remains in place even now.