And David took all the flocks, and the herds
Which they had taken from the land of the Philistines, or which
belonged to the Amalekites properly:
[which] they drave before those [other] cattle;
which had been carried from Ziklag; first went the spoil taken
from other places, and then those taken from David and his men,
or what was found at Ziklag. Abarbinel supposes the meaning to be
this, that the herds were driven before the flocks, that the oxen
were led out first, and then the sheep followed, as being the
weaker sort, and more easily to be driven, and carried off; but
the former sense seems best:
and said, this [is] David's spoil;
either the whole of it, it being owing to him that it was got or
brought back; or this may respect some peculiar part of it made a
present of to him; or it may design what the Amalekites had taken
from others, which was at the disposal of David, as distinguished
from what was taken from Ziklag, and was restored, or to be
restored to the proper owners: it may be taken in the first and
more general sense, as being the song, or the burden of the song,
sung by David's men as they returned with the spoil, giving him
all the honour of it, of whom, but a little before, they talked
of stoning.
