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1 Samuel 30

30
David Defeats the Amalekites
1#1Sa 15:7; 29:11Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had raided the south as far as Ziklag. They had struck Ziklag and burned it with fire. 2#1Sa 27:11They had taken as captives all the women who were there. They did not kill anyone, but carried them off and went on their way.
3David and his men came to the city, and they found it burned with fire, and their wives, their sons, and their daughters taken captive. 4#Nu 14:1So David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no strength in them to weep. 5#1Sa 25:42–43; 2Sa 2:2Now David’s two wives were taken captive, Ahin­oam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 6#Ex 17:4; Nu 14:10David was greatly distressed, for the people talked of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in spirit, each over his sons and daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
7#1Sa 22:20–21And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Please bring the ephod to me.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. 8#1Sa 23:2; 23:4David inquired at the Lord, saying, “Should I pursue after this raiding party? Will I overtake them?”
And He answered him, “Pursue them, for you will surely overtake them and will surely recover all.”
9So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him. And they came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind remained. 10#1Sa 30:21But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred who were too exhausted to cross over the brook Besor remained behind.
11They found an Egyptian in the field and took him to David. He gave him bread and he ate, and they made him drink water. 12#Jdg 15:19; 1Sa 14:27And they gave him a part of a cake of figs and two cakes of raisins. When he had eaten, his spirit came back to him, for he had not eaten bread or drunk any water for three days and nights.
13Then David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?”
And he said, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite. And my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick. 14#2Sa 8:18; 1Ki 1:38We raided the south of the Kerethites, the south of Judah, and the south of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag with fire.”
15David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this raiding party?”
And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hand of my master, and I will bring you down to this raiding party.”
16When he brought him down, they were spread out over all the land, eating, drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17#1Sa 11:11David struck them from twilight until the evening of the next day, and no man escaped except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. 18So David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives. 19#1Sa 30:8Now there was nothing missing, from the smallest thing to the greatest, neither sons, nor daughters, or plunder, or anything which they had taken. David brought back all of it. 20#1Sa 30:26And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before the other livestock. And they said, “This is David’s spoil.”
21#1Sa 30:10Then David came to the two hundred men, who were too exhausted to follow David, whom they left at the brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people, he greeted them. 22Then all the wicked and worthless ones from the men who went with David answered and said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them anything from the spoil that we have rescued, except to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart.”
23Then David said, “You will not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us, for He has preserved us, and has delivered into our hand the raiding party that came against us. 24#Nu 31:27; Jos 22:8And who will listen to you in this matter? Indeed as the share is of the one going down to battle, so will be the share of the one staying with the equipment. They will share equally.” 25So it was so from that day forward, that he set it as a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.
26#1Sa 25:27When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, “Here is a gift to you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord”: 27#Jos 15:48; 19:8to those who were in Bethel, in Ramoth of the Negev, and in Jattir; 28#Jos 13:16; 15:50to those who were in Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa, 29#Jdg 1:16; 1Sa 27:10and in Rakal; to those who were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites; 30#Jdg 1:17; Jos 19:4to those who were in Hormah, Bor Ashan, Athak 31#2Sa 2:1and in Hebron; and to those who were in all the other places where David and his men had roamed.

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1 Samuel 30: MEV

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