The Amalekites Raid Ziklag
1 When David and his men had come to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had raided the South and Ziklag, and had struck Ziklag and burned it down 2 and had taken the women and all who were in it captive, both small and great. They did not kill any, but carried them off and went their way. 3 When David and his men came to the city, it was burned down and their wives, their sons, and their daughters were taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him raised their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. 5 David’s two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 6 David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all of the people were grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters; but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
David Destroys the Amalekites
7 David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Please bring the ephod here to me.”
Abiathar brought the ephod to David. 8 David inquired of the Lord, saying, “If I pursue after this troop, will I overtake them?”
He answered him, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake them and will, without fail, recover everything”
9 So David went, he and the 600 men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.
10 But David pursued, he and 400 men, for 200 stayed behind, who were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.
11 They found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David and gave him bread, and he ate, and they gave him water to drink. 12 They gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. When he had eaten, his spirit was revived, for he had eaten no bread and had drunk no water for three days and three nights. 13 David asked him, “To whom do you belong? Where are you from?”
He said, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me, because three days ago I got sick. 14 We raided the South of the Cherethites and that which belongs to Judah and on the South of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag down.”
15 David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this troop?”
He said, “Swear to me by the Lord that you will not kill me and not deliver me up into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this troop.”
16 When he had brought him down, they were spread around over all the ground, eating, drinking, and dancing, because of all the great plunder that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 David struck them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not one of them escaped from there, except 400 young men who rode on camels and fled.
18 David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken and David rescued his two wives. 19 There was nothing missing from them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither plunder, nor anything that they had taken from them. David brought everything back. 20 David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before those other livestock and said, “This is David’s plunder.”
The Spoils are Divided
21 David came to the 200 men who were too exhausted to follow David, and who had been left at the brook Besor, and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. When David came near to the people, he greeted them. 22 Then all the wicked and worthless men, of those who went with David, answered and said, “Because they didn’t go with us, we will not give them anything from the plunder that we have recovered, except to every man his wife and his children, that he may lead them away and depart.”
23 Then David said, “Do not do so, my brothers, with that which the Lord has given to us, who has preserved us, and delivered the troop that came against us into our hand. 24 Who will listen to you in this matter? For the share of one who goes down to battle shall be the same as the one who stays with the supplies. They shall share equally.” 25 It was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.
26 When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, “A present for you from the plunder of the Lord’s enemies.” 27 He sent it to those who were in Bethel, to those who were in Ramoth of the South, to those who were in Jattir, 28 to those who were in Aroer, to those who were in Siphmoth, to those who were in Eshtemoa, 29 to those who were in Racal, to those who were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, to those who were in the cities of the Kenites, 30 to those who were in Hormah, to those who were in Borashan, to those who were in Athach, 31 to those who were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men used to stay.