1-samuel - Chapter 30

1Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made an attack on the South and on Ziklag, and had overcome Ziklag and put it on fire; 2And had made the women and all who were there, small and great, prisoners: they had not put any of them to death, but had taken them all away. 3And when David and his men came to the town, they saw that it had been burned down, and their wives and their sons and daughters had been made prisoners. 4Then David and the people who were with him gave themselves up to weeping till they were able to go on weeping no longer. 5And David's two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the wife of Nabal of Carmel, had been made prisoners. 6And David was greatly troubled; for the people were talking of stoning him, because their hearts were bitter, every man sorrowing for his sons and his daughters: but David made himself strong in the Lord his God. 7And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, Come here to me with the ephod. And Abiathar took the ephod to David. 8Then David, questioning the Lord, said, Am I to go after this band? will I be able to overtake them? And in answer he said, Go after them, for you will certainly overtake them, and get back everything. 9So David went, and his six hundred men went with him, and they came to the stream Besor. 10And David, with four hundred men, went on: but two hundred of them were overcome with weariness, and not able to go across the stream. 11And in the fields they saw an Egyptian whom they took to David, and they gave him bread, and he had a meal, and they gave him water for drink; 12And they gave him part of a cake of figs and some dry grapes; and after the food, his spirit came back to him, for he had had no food or drink for three days and nights. 13And David said to him, Whose man are you and where do you come from? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master went on without me because three days back I became ill. 14We made an attack on the south part of the country of the Cherethites, and on the land which is Judah's, and on the south of Caleb; and we put Ziklag on fire. 15And David said to him, Will you take me down to this band? And he said, If you give me your oath that you will not put me to death or give me up to my master, I will take you to them. 16And when he had taken him down, they saw them all, seated about on all sides, feasting and drinking among all the mass of goods which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and the land of Judah. 17And David went on fighting them from evening till the evening of the day after; and not one of them got away but only four hundred young men who went in flight on camels. 18And David got back everything the Amalekites had taken; and he got back his two wives. 19There was no loss of anything, small or great, sons or daughters or goods or anything which they had taken away: David got it all back. 20And they took all the flocks and herds, and driving them in front of him, said, These are David's. 21And David came to the two hundred men, who because of weariness had not gone with him, but were waiting at the stream Besor: and they went out, meeting David and the people who were with him; and when they came near them, they said, How are you? 22Then the bad and good-for-nothing men among those who went with David said, Because they did not go with us, we will give them nothing of the goods which we have got back, but only to every man his wife and children, so that he may take them and go. 23Then David said, You are not to do this, my brothers, after what the Lord has given us, who has kept us safe and given up the band which came against us into our hands. 24Who is going to give any attention to you in this question? for an equal part will be given to him who went to the fight and to him who was waiting by the goods: they are all to have the same. 25And so he made it a rule and an order for Israel from that day till now. 26And when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the goods to the responsible men of Judah, and to his friends, saying, Here is an offering for you from the goods of those who were fighting against the Lord; 27He sent to those who were in Beth-el, and in Ramah of the South, and in Jattir; 28And to those in Arara and Eshtemoa 29and Carmel and in the towns of the Jerahmeelites, and in the towns of the Kenites; 30And to those who were in Hormah and in Bor-ashan and in Athach; 31And in Hebron, and to all the places where David and his men had been living.