1 Samuel 30:9-19

9 So David set out, and ¹the six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.

10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men. ²Two hundred stayed behind, who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor.

11 They found an Egyptian in the open country and brought him to David. And they gave him bread and he ate. They gave him water to drink,

12 and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, ³his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

13 And David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from? ” He said, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago.

14 ⁴We had made a raid against the Negeb of ⁵the Cherethites and against that which belongs to Judah and against the Negeb of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire. ”

15 And David said to him, “Will you take me down to this band? ” And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this ⁶band. ”

David Defeats the Amalekites

16 And when he had taken him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

17 And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who mounted camels and fled.

18 ⁷David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives.

19 Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken. ⁸David brought back all.

1 Samuel 30:9-19 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

• 1. 30:9 See ch. 23:13
• 2. 30:10 ver. 21
• 3. 30:12 Judg. 15:19; [ch. 14:27]
• 4. 30:14 ver. 1
• 5. 30:14 2 Sam. 8:18; 15:18; 20:7, 23; 1 Kgs. 1:38, 44; 1 Chr. 18:17; [Ezek. 25:16; Zeph. 2:5]
• 6. 30:15 [ch. 25:3]
• 7. 30:18 ver. 8
• 8. 30:19 [See ver. 18 above]