1 Samuel 30
David And His Men Rescue Their Company from Amalekite Attack
While David and his men were away from their home base of Ziklag, the Amalekites took the opportunity to plunder the city and to kidnap the people. But with strength from God and help from an Egyptian slave, David and his warriors moved quickly to rescue and recover all.
Ziklag Was Attacked and Burned
Amalekites
Vs. 1 - The Amalekites had raided the Negev and attacked and burned Ziklag.
While David and his men were to the north trying to join the Philistine army, their own city of Ziklag was unguarded. The opportunistic Amalekites took advantage of the defenseless city, attacked it and burned it with fire. - David Guzik
Kidnapped
Vs. 2 - They also had kidnapped the women and everyone in it from youngest to oldest. They had killed no one but had carried them off as they went on their way.
To kidnap rather than to kill was an interesting decision. Did the Amelekites not think that David and his men would come for their people and possessions? Did they feel they had much more time or a much larger number of troops?
Extremely Difficult Position
Vs. 6 - David was in an extremely difficult position because the troops talked about stoning him, for they were all very bitter over the loss of their sons and daughters.
“An extremely difficult position” was a great description of David’s whole life at this point.
Strength in The Lord
The Ephod
Vs. 7 - David said to the priest Abiathar son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the ephod.”
The shock of losing everything - wives, families and possessions - drove David to total dependence on God. It was the kind of dependence that seems to have been lacking during his sixteen months in Philistia. - Don Fleming
David obtained an answer through the Urim and Thummim, which the high priest carried in the breast pocket of his ephod (1 Samuel 23:2; 1 Samuel 23:4; 1 Samuel 23:9). God no longer responded to Saul’s prayers (1 Samuel 28:15), but He did answer David’s. - Thomas Constable
Pursue Them
Vs. 6 - But David found strength in the Lord his God.
Vs. 8 - The Lord replied to him, “Pursue them, for you will certainly overtake them and rescue the people.”
If David had been seeking God or consulting the priest’s ephod during his time in Ziklag, the author did not record it. All we see during this season is an exhausted and desperate David who resorted to defection and deception to save himself and his men. But here, as David wept over his city in ruins amidst murmurs of mutiny among his men, he looked again for strength and guidance from his God.
At this point, David had nothing more to support him. No one in Israel could help him. The Philistines didn’t want him. His family was gone; all he owned was gone. Even his friends turned against him (the people spoke of stoning him). Every support was gone, except the LORD. That is a good place to be in, not a bad place. It took a lot to bring David to this place, but now he is here – God is his only strength. - David Guzik
Two Hundred
Vs. 10 - two hundred stopped because they were too exhausted
A third of David’s warriors were too exhausted to continue farther because of (1) their fifty-five-mile journey from Aphek to Ziklag over three days, (2) the emotional pain of seeing Ziklag destroyed and their families gone, and (3) the fifteen-mile trek from Ziklag to the Wadi Besor. - Bryan E. Beyer
What else could go wrong here? The odds were already against them, and now David’s army lost 200 men. But isn’t this how God seems to work in the world? After relying on his own cunning and contriving for the last year and a half, David was forced here to trust the promise of God that, despite the odds and obstacles, He would rescue his people.
An Egyptian
Vs. 11 - David’s men found an Egyptian in the open country and brought him to David.
Vs. 15 - David then asked him, “Will you lead me to these raiders?” He said, “Swear to me by God that you won’t kill me or turn me over to my master, and I will lead you to them.”
God had answered David through the ephod, but He guided him through an abandoned slave. It is so typical of biblical narrative that someone completely unexpected and seemingly insignificant is used by God to provide clarity for and to elicit compassion from His people.
This poor unfortunate youth, who had to drop out of the ranks of the Amalekites because of sickness, and was left by his heartless master to perish by the roadside, is the divinely-appointed means to the fulfillment of the God-given promise. The means are in His hand as well as the end. - James Smith
David Recovered Everything
Vs. 18-19 - David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken; he also rescued his two wives. Nothing of theirs was missing from the youngest to the oldest, including the sons and daughters, and all the plunder the Amalekites had taken. David got everything back.
After an exhausting pursuit and subsequent battle, David and his company recovered all they had lost. That they found the strength to fight and their people preserved must have felt nothing short of miraculous.
David Established This Policy
The rest of the chapter describes the distribution of plunder from this battle. The amount of space the writer devoted to this revelation shows that he intended to stress it. - Thomas Constable
What The Lord Has Given
Vs. 23 - But David said, “My brothers, you must not do this with what the Lord has given us. He protected us and handed over to us the raiders who came against us.
David’s response to his soldiers reveals the full grasp he had on the source of their victory. God had provided for them, and this seems to have renewed in David the assurance that he had not been forgotten or forsaken. His decision to share the wealth of plunder with not only all of his men but also multiple influential elders of Israel seems to indicate a renewed vision of the throne God would eventually establish for him. His time of waiting and running had been long and exhausting, but it was not without purpose. God had been preparing His king.
Still Continues
Vs. 25 - David established this policy as a law and an ordinance for Israel and it still continues today.
David saw that God had given them this victory; the spoil was not essentially what the combat soldiers had won but what the Lord had given His people, along with protection. Yahweh was the real deliverer of Israel. Again, this illustrates David’s perception of God’s relation to Israel and to himself, which was so different from Saul’s view. His generous policy of dividing the spoils of war so the non-combatants would receive a portion was in harmony with the Mosaic Law (Numbers 31:27). - Thomas Constable
David Sent Gifts
Vs. 26 - he sent some of the plunder to his friends, the elders of Judah
David also distributed some of the war plunder to the elders of Judah. He evidently did so because he viewed the booty as coming from the enemies of all Judah, even the enemies of the Lord. He may have also done this to curry favor with the elders. They later anointed David king over the house of Judah (2 Samuel 2:4; 2 Samuel 5:1-3). - Thomas Constable
