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.”