descended upon his base at Ziklag, laid it waste and captured all the women and children, presumably for future ransom or sale into slavery (30:1–2). The only mitigating factors in this catastrophe were the absence of dead bodies and the likelihood that the Amalekites did not have too much of a head start. But when calamity strikes, we are too numbed to think coolly about what to do next. David and his men were devastated and ‘wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep’ (30:4).