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1 Samuel 30:1-31 — David Destroys the Amalekites

1Sam.30.1-31

¹Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day , the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, ²and had taken captive the women and all who were in it, from small to great. They did not kill anyone, but carried them off and went on their way. ³When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. ⁴Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until there was no strength in them to weep. ⁵David's two wives had also been taken captive: Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. ⁶David was greatly distressed, because the people spoke of stoning him, for the soul of all the people was bitter, each man for his sons and for his daughters. But David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God. ⁷Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Please bring the ephod to me.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. ⁸And David inquired of Yahweh, saying, “Shall I pursue after this raiding band? Will I overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and you will surely rescue the captives.” ⁹So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed. ¹⁰But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred stayed behind, who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor. ¹¹They found an Egyptian man in the field and brought him to David. They gave him bread and he ate, and they gave him water to drink. ¹²They gave him a piece of a cake of pressed figs and two clusters of raisins. When he had eaten, his spirit returned to him, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. ¹³Then David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” He said, "I am a young Egyptian man, a slave to an Amalekite man, and my master abandoned me because I fell sick three days ago. ¹⁴We made a raid on the Negev of the Cherethites, and on what belongs to Judah, and on the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire." ¹⁵David said to him, “Will you lead me down to this raiding band?” He said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me, and that you will not hand me over into the hand of my master, and I will lead you down to this band.” ¹⁶So the Egyptian led David down, and behold, they were spread out over the surface of all the land, eating and drinking and celebrating, because of all the great plunder that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. ¹⁷David struck them down from the twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. ¹⁸David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives. ¹⁹Nothing was missing for them, from small to great, sons and daughters, plunder, or anything that they had taken for themselves; David brought it all back. ²⁰David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove ahead of the other livestock, and they said, “This is David's plunder.” ²¹Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow David, whom they had left behind at the brook Besor. They went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. When David approached the people, he greeted them. ²²Then every wicked and worthless man among the men who had gone with David answered and said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the plunder that we have recovered, except to each man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart.” ²³But David said, "You shall not do so, my brothers, with what Yahweh has given us. He has protected us and handed over the raiding band that came against us into our hand. ²⁴And who will listen to you in this matter? For as the share of the one who goes down into the battle, so shall be the share of the one who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike." ²⁵And so it was from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day. ²⁶When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, “Behold, a gift for you from the plunder of the enemies of Yahweh.” ²⁷He sent it to those who were in Bethel, to those in Ramoth Negev, to those in Jattir, ²⁸to those in Aroer, to those in Siphmoth, to those in Eshtemoa, ²⁹to those in Racal, to those in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, to those in the cities of the Kenites, ³⁰to those in Hormah, to those in Bor-ashan, to those in Athach, ³¹to those in Hebron , and to all the places where David himself and his men had roamed.

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4/11/2026

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