David’s Victory over the Amalekites

1 Then it happened when David and his men came to aZiklag on the third day, that bthe Amalekites had made a raid on the 1Negev and on cZiklag, and had 2overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire;

2 and they took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, 1awithout killing anyone, and carried them off and went their way.

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

4 Then David and the people who were with him alifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep.

5 Now aDavid’s two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the 1widow of Nabal the Carmelite.

6 Moreover David was greatly distressed because athe people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were 1embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But bDavid strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

7 Then aDavid said to bAbiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Please bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.

8 aDavid inquired of the Lord, saying, “bShall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them?” And He said to him, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, cand you will surely rescue all.”

9 So David went, ahe and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those left behind remained.

10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for atwo hundred who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor remained behind.

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

12 They gave him a piece of fig cake and two clusters of raisins, and he ate; athen his spirit 1revived. For he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

13 David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?” And he said, “I am a young man of Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago.

14 “We made a raid on athe 1Negev of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on bthe 1Negev of Caleb, and cwe burned Ziklag with fire.”

15 Then David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this band?” And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this band.”

16 When he had brought him down, behold, they were 1spread over all the land, aeating and drinking and 2dancing because of ball the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

17 David 1slaughtered them afrom the twilight 2until the evening of 3the next day; and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on bcamels and fled.

18 So David arecovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and 1rescued his two wives.

19 But nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken for themselves; aDavid brought it all back.

20 So David had 1captured all the sheep and the cattle which the people drove ahead of 2the other livestock, and they said, “aThis is David’s spoil.”

The Spoils Are Divided

21 When aDavid came to the two hundred men who were too exhausted to follow David, who had also been left at the brook Besor, and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him, then David approached the people and greeted them.

22 Then all the wicked and worthless men among those who went with David said, “Because they did not go with 1us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart.”

23 Then David said, “You must not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us, who has kept us and delivered into our hand the band that came against us.

24 “And who will listen to you in this matter? For aas his share is who goes down to the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike.”

25 So it has been from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.

26 Now when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, “Behold, aa 1gift for you from the spoil of bthe enemies of the Lord:

27 to those who were in aBethel, and to those who were in bRamoth of the 1Negev, and to those who were in cJattir,

28 and to those who were in aAroer, and to those who were in Siphmoth, and to those who were in bEshtemoa,

29 and to those who were in Racal, and to those who were in the cities of athe Jerahmeelites, and to those who were in the cities of bthe Kenites,

30 and to those who were in aHormah, and to those who were in bBor-ashan, and to those who were in Athach,

31 and to those who were in aHebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were accustomed to bgo.”