1 Samuel 30:1-21 ▼

1 It happened, when David and his men had come to Ziklag on the third day, that Amalek had made a raid on the Negev, and on Ziklag, and had struck Ziklag, and burned it with fire,

2 and had taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They did not kill any, but carried them off, and went their way.

3 When David and his men came to the city, look, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captive.

4 Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.

5 David's two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelite, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

6 David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.

7 David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, |Please bring me here the ephod.| Abiathar brought the ephod to David.

8 David inquired of the LORD, saying, |If I pursue after this troop, shall I overtake them?| He answered him, |Pursue; for you shall surely overtake them, and shall without fail recover all.|

9 So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the Wadi Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.

10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind, who were so faint that they couldn't cross the Wadi Besor.

11 They found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he ate; and they gave him water to drink.

12 They gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins. When he had eaten, his spirit came again to him; for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.

13 David asked him, |To whom do you belong? Where are you from?| He said, |I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick.

14 We made a raid on the Negev of the Kerethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on the Negev of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.|

15 David said to him, |Will you bring me down to this troop?| He said, |Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me, nor deliver me up into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this troop.| And he swore to him.

16 When he had brought him down, look, they were spread around over all the ground, eating, drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah.

17 David struck them from the twilight even to the evening of the next day and he put them to death. Not a man of them escaped from there, except four hundred young men, who rode on camels and fled.

18 He recovered all that the Amalekites had taken; and David rescued his two wives.

19 There was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them. David brought back all.

20 He took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before those other livestock, and said, |This is David's spoil.|

21 David came to the two hundred men, who were so faint that they could not follow David, whom he also had made to stay at the Wadi Besor; and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people, he greeted them.