1 Samuel 30:20

20 He also recovered all the flocks and herds; his men drove all the livestock in front of them and said, "This belongs to David!"

1 Samuel 30:20 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 30:20

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.

1 Samuel 30:20 In-Context

18 David rescued everyone and everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives;

19 nothing at all was missing. David got back all his men's sons and daughters, and all the loot the Amalekites had taken.

20 He also recovered all the flocks and herds; his men drove all the livestock in front of them and said, "This belongs to David!"

21 Then David went back to the two hundred men who had been too weak to go with him and had stayed behind at Besor Brook. They came forward to meet David and his men, and David went up to them and greeted them warmly.

22 But some mean and worthless men who had gone with David said, "They didn't go with us, and so we won't give them any of the loot. They can take their wives and children and go away."

Footnotes

• [a]. [Probable text] his men . . . front of them; [Hebrew unclear.]