1 And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
The LORD said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines. 23:2
30:1-61 And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
When David returned to Ziklag, he found that it had been burned (with fire) by the Amalekites. [1]
2 And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.
3 So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.
The Amalekites didn't kill anyone [2], but they took everyone captive, including David's wives, Abigail and Ahinoam.
4 Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
5 And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
David and the people that were with him wept until they couldn't weep anymore.
6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
Then the people decided to stone David to death!
30:7-87 And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.
David said to the priest Abiathar, Ahimelesh's son [3],
Bring me the ephod.And Abiathar brought the ephod to David.
8And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.
David asked God (via ephod),
Should I pursue and overtake the Amalekites?
God answered,
Pursue them. You'll overtake them and get all your stuff back.
30:9-319 So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed.
So David and 400 of his men took off after the Amalekites.
10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.
11 And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water;
12 And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.
13 And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days agone I fell sick.
14 We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.
As they were pursuing the Amalekites, they came across an Egyptian slave.
They fed him bread, figs, raisins, and water. When he finished eating, David asked him,
Who do you belong to, and where are you going?
The slave answered:
I am an Egyptian slave of an Amalekite. My owner abandoned me because I was sick.We invaded several places and burned Ziklag (with fire).
15 And David said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this company? And he said, Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company.
David asked the slave to bring him to the Amalekites.
The slave agreed to do so, if David promised not to kill him.
16 And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah.
The slave brought David to the Amalekites, who were busy celebrating all the spoil they'd gotten from the Philistines and the Israelites.
17 And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.
When David saw them, he smote them from dawn to dusk, until there wasn't anyone left to kill (except for the usual 400 [4], who escaped on camels).
18 And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives.
19 And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all.
20 And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David's spoil.
After the slaughter, David recovered all of the stuff that the Amalekites took, including his two wives.
David declared that all of it belonged to him, saying,
This is David's spoil.
21 And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besor: and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with him: and when David came near to the people, he saluted them.
22 Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will not give them ought of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away, and depart.
Some of the 400 men that slaughtered the Amalekites (men of Belial) didn't want to share with the 200 who were too tired to slaughter Amalekites.
23 Then said David, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the LORD hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand.
24 For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike.
25And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day.
26 And when David came to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, Behold a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of the LORD;
27 To them which were in Bethel, and to them which were in south Ramoth, and to them which were in Jattir,
28 And to them which were in Aroer, and to them which were in Siphmoth, and to them which were in Eshtemoa,
29 And to them which were in Rachal, and to them which were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to them which were in the cities of the Kenites,
30 And to them which were in Hormah, and to them which were in Chorashan, and to them which were in Athach,
31 And to them which were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt.
But David said 200 slackers would get as much of the spoil as the 400 men who participated in the slaughter.
And ever since then, it's been a statute of Israel: Everyone shares in war booty, even those who didn't do the killing.
The Amalekites were a tough tribe. Twice they were "utterly destroyed" first by Saul (1 Sam 15:7-8) and then by David (1 Sam 27:9-11). Yet here they are, just a few years later, fighting the Philistines.
Believers like to say that the Amalekites were so evil that God had to kill them all, even their women and children. Yet here the Amalekites behave far better than the Israelites by not killing their captives. (Compare these verses with God's command to Saul in 1 Sam 15:3.)
The author of 1 Samuel must have liked the number 400. Here are some examples:
