1Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag; they had struck Ziklag and burned it with fire.
2They had taken captive the women who were in it, from small to great; they killed no one but drove them off and went on their way.
3When David and his men came to the city, there it was, burned with fire, and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive.
4Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no strength left to weep.
5David’s two wives had been taken captive—Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite.
6David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the life of all the people was bitter, each man over his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God.
7Then David said to Abiathar the priest, son of Ahimelech, “Please bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.
8And David inquired of Yahweh, saying, “Shall I pursue this raiding band? Will I overtake it?” And he said to him, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake and will surely rescue.”
9So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the Wadi Besor; and those who were left behind stayed.
10But David pursued, he and four hundred men; two hundred men stayed behind, who were too exhausted to cross the Wadi Besor.
11They found an Egyptian man in the open field and took him to David. They gave him bread, and he ate, and they gave him water to drink.
12They gave him a piece of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins. He ate, and his spirit returned to him, for he had eaten no bread and drunk no water for three days and three nights.
13David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” He said, “I am an Egyptian young man, servant of an Amalekite man, and my master abandoned me because I fell sick three days ago.
14We raided the Negev of the Cherethites, and the territory of Judah, and the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.”
15David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this raiding band?” He said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or hand me over to my master, and I will bring you down to this band.”
16When he had brought him down, there they were, spread out over the whole surface of the land, eating and drinking and celebrating over all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.
17And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled.
18So David rescued all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives.
19Nothing of theirs was missing, from small to great, sons and daughters, spoil, or anything they had taken for themselves; David brought back everything.
20David took all the flocks and the herds; they drove them ahead of the other livestock and said, “This is David’s spoil.”
21Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow David, whom they had made stay behind at the Wadi Besor. They came out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him, and David approached the people and greeted them.
22But every wicked and worthless man among the men who had gone with David answered and said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil we rescued, except each man his wife and his children; let them take them and go.”
23But David said, “You shall not do so, my brothers, with what Yahweh has given us. He has protected us and given the raiding band that came against us into our hand.
24Who would listen to you in this matter? For as the share of the one who goes down into the battle, so shall be the share of the one who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike.”
25And so it has been from that day onward; he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.
26When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, “Here is a blessing for you from the spoil of the enemies of Yahweh”—
27to those in Bethel, to those in Ramoth of the Negev, to those in Jattir,
28to those in Aroer, to those in Siphmoth, to those in Eshtemoa,
29to those in Racal, to those in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, to those in the cities of the Kenites,
30to those in Hormah, to those in Bor-ashan, to those in Athach,
31and to those in Hebron, and to all the places where David had roamed, he and his men.
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