1 Samuel 30:1–20

David Strikes Down the Amalekites

¹Then 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 struck Ziklag and burned it with fire;

²and they took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great—^athey did not put anyone to death—and carried them off and went their way.

³Then 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.

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

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

⁶Moreover David was greatly distressed because ^athe people said to stone him, for all the people were ¹embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But ^bDavid strengthened himself in Yahweh his God.

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

^8aAnd David asked of Yahweh, 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 deliver all.”

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

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

¹¹Then 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.

¹²And 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.

¹³And 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 slave of an Amalekite; and my master forsook me 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 ²Negev of Caleb, and ^cwe burned Ziklag with fire.”

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

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

¹⁷Then David struck them ^adown from the twilight ¹until the evening of ²the next day; and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on ^bcamels and fled.

¹⁸So David ^adelivered all that the Amalekites had taken and ¹delivered his two wives.

¹⁹Indeed 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.

²⁰And David took all the sheep and the cattle which the people drove ahead of ¹the other livestock, and they said, “^aThis is David’s spoil.”