Shmuel Alef 30:17

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.

Shmuel Alef 30:17 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 30:17

And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening
of the next day
As there are two twilights, the twilight of the morning, and the twilight of the evening; this is differently understood some take it for the twilight of the morning, and that it was night when David came to them, and let them alone till they were drunk and asleep, and then early in the morning fell upon them, and smote them until the evening; so Josephus ^F19 relates it; but others take it to be the twilight of the evening, and that he fell upon them that night, and continued the slaughter of them to the evening of the next day, with which agrees the Targum; nay, some take the next day, or the morrow, to be that which followed after the two evenings; so that this slaughter was carried on to the third day:

and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men that
rode upon camels, and fled;
that sort of camels called dromedaries, according to Josephus ^F20, and which were very swift, and much used by the Arabians, near whom these people dwelt, see ( Isaiah 60:6 ) ( Jeremiah 2:23 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 Antiqu. l. 6. c. 4. sect. 6.
F20 Ibid.

Shmuel Alef 30:17 In-Context

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.

18 And Dovid recovered all that Amalek had carried away; and Dovid saved his two nashim.

19 And there was nothing of them missing, lacking neither katon nor gadol, neither banim nor banot, neither plunder, nor anything that they had taken for them; Dovid recovered all.