Shmuel Alef 30:15

15 And Dovid said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this gedood? And he said, Swear unto me by Elohim, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hands of my adon, and I will lead thee down to this gedood.

Shmuel Alef 30:15 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 30:15

And David said unto him, canst thou me down to this company?
&c.] That is, show him, or direct him where they were:

and he said, swear unto me by God;
the Targum is, by the Word of the Lord; but it is highly probable this man had no notion of Jehovah, and his Word, or of the true God; only that there was a God, and that an oath taken by him was solemn, sacred, and inviolable, and might be trusted to and depended on:

that thou wilt neither kill me;
for he found now he was in the hands of those whose city he had been concerned in plundering and burning, and so might fear his life was in danger:

nor deliver me into the hands of my master;
who had been a cruel one to him, and therefore would gladly be clear of him; and if he had nothing else against him, his late usage of him was sufficient to raise his resentment of him:

and I will bring thee down to this company;
or show him where they were, having heard them say where they would stop, and make merry, and divide their spoil; and perhaps his master might tell him they would be at such a place at such a time, where, if he was better, he might come to them; the Vulgate Latin version adds, "and David swore to him": which, though not expressed in the original text, was no doubt done by him; and the Syriac and Arabic versions begin ( 1 Samuel 30:16 ) thus, "when David had sworn to him".

Shmuel Alef 30:15 In-Context

13 And Dovid said unto him, To whom belongest thou? And from where art thou? And he said, I am a na’ar Mitzri, eved to an Amaleki; and my adon left me, because yamim sheloshah ago I fell sick.

14 We made a raid upon the south of the Kereti, and upon the territory of Yehudah, and upon the south of Kalev; and we burned Tziklag with eish.

15 And Dovid said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this gedood? And he said, Swear unto me by Elohim, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hands of my adon, and I will lead thee down to this gedood.

16 And when he had led him down, hinei, they were spread out over the surface of kol ha’aretz, eating and drinking, and revelling, because of all the great plunder that they had taken from Eretz Pelishtim, and from Eretz Yehudah.

17 And Dovid struck them from the neshef (twilight, evening) even unto the erev of the next day; and there escaped not an ish of them, except four hundred na’ar, which rode off upon gemalim, and fled.