1 Samuel 30

¹And it came to pass when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had raided the Negeb and Ziklag; they had attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire.

²And they took captive the women who were in it, from young to old — they had killed no one — and they led them and went on their way.

³So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive.

⁴And David and the people who were with him lifted their voice and wept until there was no more strength in them to weep.

⁵Now David's two wives had been taken captive: Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

⁶And David was in great distress, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was bitter, each man over his sons and his daughters; but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

⁷Then David said to Abiathar the priest, son of Ahimelech, 'Please bring me the ephod.' And Abiathar brought the ephod to David.

⁸And David inquired of the Lord, saying: 'Shall I pursue after this raiding band? Shall I overtake them?' And he said to him: 'Pursue, for you shall surely overtake, and you shall surely rescue.'

⁹So David set out, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and they came as far as the Wadi Besor, where those who stayed behind stood.

¹⁰And David pursued, he and four hundred men, while two hundred men stood still, who were too exhausted to cross the Wadi Besor.

¹¹And they found an Egyptian man in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him food to eat and water to drink.

¹²And they gave him a slice of fig cake and two clusters of raisins, and he ate, and his spirit revived; for he had eaten no bread and drunk no water three days and three nights.

¹³And David said to him, 'Who are you, and where are you from?' And he said, 'I am a young Egyptian man, a slave of an Amalekite; my master left me behind, because I fell ill three days ago.'

¹⁴'We raided the Negeb of the Cherethites, and that which belongs to Judah, and the Negeb of Caleb; and Ziklag we burned with fire.'

¹⁵And David said to him, 'Will you bring me down to this raiding party?' And he said, 'Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or hand me over to my master, and I will bring you down to this raiding party.'

¹⁶And he brought him down, and behold, they were spread out over all the land, eating and drinking and celebrating on account of all the great plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

¹⁷And David struck them from twilight until the evening of the next day, and not one of them escaped except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled.

¹⁸And David recovered all that Amalek had taken; and David rescued his two wives.

¹⁹Nothing was missing from them, from young to old, from sons to daughters, from spoil to everything they had taken for themselves — David brought back everything.

²⁰And David took all the flocks and the cattle; they drove them before that livestock, and they said: 'This is David's spoil.'

²¹And David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow David — those who had stayed behind at the Wadi Besor — and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David drew near to the people, he asked after their welfare.

²²Then every bad and worthless man among those who had gone with David answered and said: 'Because they did not go with me, we will not give them anything from the spoil that we have rescued, except each man his wife and his children; let them lead them and go.'

²³But David said, 'You must not do this, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us. He has kept us safe, and has given into our hands the raiding band that came against us.'

²⁴'And who will listen to you about this matter? For as the share of the one who goes down to battle, so shall be the share of the one who stays by the equipment; they shall share alike.'

²⁵And so it has been from that day forward: he set it as a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.

²⁶And David came to Ziklag and sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, 'Here is a gift for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord.'

²⁷to those in Bethel, and to those in Ramoth of the Negeb, and to those in Jattir,

²⁸and to those who were in Aroer, and to those who were in Siphmoth, and to those who were in Eshtemoa,

²⁹and to those in Racal, and to those in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to those in the cities of the Kenites,

³⁰and to those who were in Hormah, and to those who were in Bor-ashan, and to those who were in Athach,

³¹and to those in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men had wandered.