1 Samuel 30:11-21

11 David's men found an Egyptian in the open country and took him to David. They gave him food to eat and water to drink.

12 They gave him a slice of fig cake and two bunches of raisins. After he had eaten, he revived. (He hadn't eaten any food or drunk any water for three whole days.)

13 David asked him, "To whom do you belong? Where do you come from?" "I'm an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite," the young man answered. "My master left me behind because I got sick three days ago.

14 We raided the portion of the Negev where the Cherethites live, the territory of Judah, the portion of the Negev where Caleb settled, and we burned down Ziklag."

15 "Will you lead me to these troops?" David asked him. He answered, "Take an oath in front of God that you won't kill me or hand me over to my master, and I'll lead you to these troops."

16 The Egyptian led him [to them]. They were spread out all over the land, eating, and drinking. They were celebrating because they had taken so much loot from Philistine territory and from the land of Judah.

17 From dawn until evening the next day, David attacked them. No one escaped except 400 young men who rode away on camels.

18 David rescued everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives.

19 Nothing was missing--young or old, sons or daughters, the loot or anything else they had taken with them. David brought back everything.

20 He took all the sheep and the cattle. His men drove the animals ahead of him and said, "This is David's loot."

21 David came to the 200 men who had been too exhausted to go with him and had stayed in the Besor Valley. They came to meet David and the people with him. As David approached the men, he greeted them.

1 Samuel 30:11-21 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.