1 Samuelchapter 30
31 verses · Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
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.
Introduction
Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition, History, 1 Samuel Overview.
This chapter was kept by a people who argued, as soldiers always do, over how plunder should be shared. David comes home to find his town in ashes and his own men turning against him. Listen for what he does first, and for the question he asks that he had not asked in many months. Watch the part a stranger found in a field plays in the pursuit. Listen at the end to the dispute over the spoil and the ruling that settles it, for it became a law in Israel. The last lines look toward a crown.
Context
- Who
- Israelites arguing about how spoil should be divided
- What
- An account of the Amalekite raid on Ziklag, David's pursuit and recovery of everything taken, and his ruling on the spoil.
- Where
- Ziklag in the Negev, the brook Besor to the south, and the Amalekite camp beyond it.
- When
- The third day after David left Aphek, while the battle of Gilboa was fought in the north; on the common reckoning about 1010 BC.
- Why
- To show David seeking the LORD again, and to record the origin of Israel's statute on sharing plunder.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to David, who is still a vassal captain at Ziklag and is days away from the throne of Judah, and to the six hundred men whose families have been carried off.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The time is the three days of the march home from Aphek and the pursuit that followed, which run alongside the battle at Gilboa. The site places it about 1010 BC.
The place is the far south. Ziklag stands in the Negev, and the Brook of Besor is a seasonal wadi below it.
The occasion is a raid on an undefended town while its men were away at the Philistine muster.
A first hearer knew why the raiders killed no one. Captives were worth money in the slave markets of the coast and corpses were not, so the commercial calculation at verse 2 is the only reason the families are alive to be recovered. Roland de Vaux and the background commentators describe the practice.
A first hearer also knew how bitter the argument at verse 22 was. Leaving two hundred exhausted men with the baggage was standard practice, and what a commander did with the spoil afterward was the disputed question. David's ruling at verse 24 settles it, and verse 25 records that it became a statute and an ordinance for Israel.
The gifts at verses 26 to 31 would have read as politics of the plainest kind. A Judahite captain is sending plunder to the towns that will crown him within weeks.
Significance
Israelites who had served in a militia knew exactly what the baggage-guard argument cost, and they knew whose rule they were living under when spoil was divided.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
The chapter also shows a man finding his footing. He had gone sixteen months without asking God anything, and he asks here and is answered in the same verse.
Both halves of the answer at verse 8 are carried out inside a dozen verses, which is what makes this chapter the plainest case in the book of the enquiry Saul could not obtain.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The commentators read the recovery at Ziklag as the chapter where a rule of law is settled, and Rashi traces that rule back to Abraham. On the share given to the men who stayed with the baggage he reads the Hebrew as pointing backwards rather than forwards (Rashi on I Samuel 30:25:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY). Abraham had already made the statute, since he divided the spoil between the men who went to war and the men who guarded the equipment. Rashi cites Bereishis 14:24 and Breishis Raboh for it (same ref). On the two hundred men left at the brook he glosses the verb as refraining, and takes the word for Aramaic (Rashi on I Samuel 30:9:1 and 30:10:1, same edition). On the people David pursued he places them south of the Philistines, and notes that Tzephanyoh 2:5 calls the Philistines by that same name (Rashi on I Samuel 30:14:1, same edition). On the timing of the defeat he hands on a tradition about this enemy. The Amalekites were accustomed to be defeated on the second day of a battle, and he points to Shemos 17:9 for it (Rashi on I Samuel 30:17:1, same edition). On the flocks recovered he specifies that the raiders had taken them from the south of Judah and of Caleb (Rashi on I Samuel 30:20:1, same edition). On the men David sent gifts to he glosses the word as his friends (Rashi on I Samuel 30:26:1, same edition). Radak stands as a citation at I Samuel 30:1:1, 30:2:1, 30:6:1, 30:8:1, 30:12:1, 30:15:1, 30:21:1 and 30:24:1. Metzudat David stands at 30:11:1, 30:13:1, 30:16:1, 30:19:1, 30:22:1, 30:23:1 and 30:27:1, and Malbim at 30:5:1 and 30:18:1. The corpus holds no English version of them.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-three of them Midrash and seven Talmud, each a locator without text. The Amalekite raid on Ziklag draws Sifrei Devarim 203:4, Sifrei Devarim 203:7 and Vayikra Rabbah 21:3. David strengthening himself in the LORD his God draws Shemot Rabbah 19:1. His inquiry by the ephod draws the largest cluster of the chapter, because the rabbis read it beside the inquiry at Keilah. It draws Yoma 73a:17, Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 7:3:8, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 7:9, Midrash Aggadah, Exodus 28:20:2 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 27:20:2. It also draws Midrash Tehillim 79:1, Seder Olam Rabbah 13:1, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 776:12 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 845:1. The Egyptian slave found in the field draws Yoma 83b:9, Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 8:5:2, Ein Yaakov, Yoma 8:16, Kohelet Rabbah 7:11:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 965:5. His oath to David draws Ein Yaakov, Yoma 7:9. The battle from twilight to evening draws Bava Batra 123b:3, Berakhot 3b:23, Bereshit Rabbah 78:15, Eikhah Rabbah 4:15 and Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 30. The same verse draws Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 8:22, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 8:20 and Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 1:13. The spoil driven back draws Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 2:5:2. The two hundred at the brook draw Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 44:18:2, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 47:27:7 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 150:2. The wicked men who would deny them a share draw Bereshit Rabbah 43:9 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 3:1, and David's answer draws Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 76:6. The statute of the equal share draws Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 14:24:2, Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 31:26:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 14:24:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 31:27:1. The gifts sent to the elders of Judah draw Midrash Tehillim 15:4 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Berakhot 1:8. The rabbis teach in these places, and this site reports them as their teaching rather than as a rule of the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Samuel 30:9:1, 30:10:1, 30:14:1, 30:17:1, 30:20:1, 30:25:1 and 30:26:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Bereshit Rabbah, Breishis Raboh on the statute of the equal share, as Rashi cites it at I Samuel 30:25:1; the corpus carries the locators Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 14:24:2 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 14:24:1; Radak, Radak on I Samuel 30:1:1, 30:2:1, 30:6:1, 30:8:1, 30:12:1, 30:15:1, 30:21:1 and 30:24:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Samuel 30:11:1, 30:13:1, 30:16:1, 30:19:1, 30:22:1, 30:23:1 and 30:27:1, cited only; Malbim, Malbim on I Samuel 30:5:1 and 30:18:1, cited only.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Ziklag burned; David strengthens himself in Jehovah
1 Samuel 30:1-2
the Amalekites had invaded the south: Ziklag burns while David and his six hundred are three days' march away, still shut out of the Philistine muster he had marched to join. The raiders take every woman and child alive and kill no one, which is calculation rather than mercy, since captives carry a price that corpses do not. Amalek strikes here as the war Saul left unfinished at chapter fifteen, when he spared the king and the best of the flocks that the ban had named for destruction.
1 Samuel 30:1
“On the third day - This indicates that Aphek was three days’ march from Ziklag, say about 50 miles, which agrees very well with the probable situation of Aphek (1Sa 4:1 note). From Ziklag to Shunem would not be less than 80 or 90 miles. The Amalekites, in retaliation of David’s raids 1Sa 27:8-9, invaded “the south” of Judah Jos 15:21; but owing to the absence of all the men with David there was no resistance, and consequently the women and children were carried off as prey, and uninjured.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Samuel 30:1
“The cruelty of Saul's pity (as it proved) in sparing the Amalekites; if he had utterly destroyed them, as he ought to have done, these would not have been in being to do this mischief. How David was corrected for being so forward to go with the Philistines against Israel.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 30:1
“Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag--While the strength of the Philistine forces was poured out of their country into the plain of Esdraelon, the Amalekite marauders seized the opportunity of the defenseless state of Philistia to invade the southern territory.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown trace the sparing to the war customs of the East. The fighting men of a captured city were put to death, and every fighting man of Ziklag was away with David. Only the women, the young and the old remained.
1 Samuel 30:2
“But their apparent clemency did not arise from humane considerations. It is traceable to the ancient war usages of the East, where the men of war, on the capture of a city, were unsparingly put to death, but there were no warriors in Ziklag at the time.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Samuel 30:3-4
it was burned with fire: David's men come home to ash and an empty town, and the narrator gives their grief its own sentence: they wept until they had no more power to weep. Every wife, son and daughter in the company is gone in one stroke, David's own house among them, so the chapter's worst verse belongs to every man equally before it belongs to their captain.
1 Samuel 30:3
“David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire--The language implies that the smoke of the conflagration was still visible, and the sacking very recent.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Matthew Henry says the bravest men lose nothing by weeping for their families. He adds that attacking Israel while its fighting men were away was the old policy of the Amalekites, as when they cut off the weary at Deuteronomy 25:18. The Vulgate says their tears failed them.
1 Samuel 30:4
“Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice,.... In doleful shrieks, and loud lamentations: and wept, until they had no more power to weep; till nature was quite exhausted, and no moisture left; so the Vulgate Latin version, "till tears failed in them"; they could shed no more.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 30:4
“Note, It is no disparagement to the boldest and bravest spirits to lament the calamities of relations and friends. This trouble came upon them when they were absent. It was the ancient policy of Amalek to take Israel at an advantage.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 30:5-6
David’s two wives were taken captives: Ahinoam and Abigail are named among the captives, and the men who owe David their lives now speak of stoning him, the same word Israel used against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Verse six turns the chapter and, on the older writers' reading, turns David's exile: with every human prop gone, he encouraged himself in the LORD his God, a phrase that occurs nowhere else in Scripture in exactly this form. Henry reads the timing as no accident, coming just before David's rise to the throne begins.
1 Samuel 30:5
“And David's two wives were taken captives,.... Which is observed as one cause of his particular distress, and another follows in 1Sa 30:6, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite: that is, who had been his wife; for he was now dead, 1Sa 25:39, and was so before she was married to David; both these came with him to Gath, and were left at Ziklag when he went with Achish, and here they were taken; see 1Sa 25:42.”
John Gill gives the grievance of the people: David had taken them away with Achish and left Ziklag with no defense, after raiding the Amalekites at 27:8. John Wesley hears a covenant claim in the words his God. David rests on the LORD who had kept him through every earlier danger.
1 Samuel 30:6
“The people spake of stoning him - David had done much to civilize those men; but we find by this of what an unruly and ferocious spirit they were; and yet they strongly felt the ties of natural affection, they “grieved every man for his sons and for his daughters.” David encouraged himself in the Lord - He found he could place very little confidence in his men; and, as he was conscious that this evil had not happened either through his neglect or folly, he saw he might the more confidently expect succor from his Maker.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 30:6
“And David was greatly distressed,.... Partly for the loss of his two wives, and partly because of the mutiny and murmuring of his men: for the people spake of stoning him; as the Israelites did of Moses and Aaron, Num 14:10; the reason of this was, because, as they judged, it was owing to David that they went along with Achish, and left the city defenceless, and because he had provoked the Amalekites by his inroad upon them, who took this opportunity of avenging themselves.”
1 Samuel 30:6
“Encouraged himself - That is, in this that the all-wise, and all-powerful Lord, was his God by covenant and special promise, and fatherly affection, as he had shewed himself to be in the whole course of his providence towards him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 30:6
“Great faith must expect such severe exercises. But it is observable that David was reduced to this extremity just before his accession to the throne. At this very time, perhaps, the stroke was struck which opened the door to his advancement.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
An Egyptian slave found fainting in the field
1 Samuel 30:7-8
bring me hither the ephod: David calls for the ephod and enquires at the LORD before he moves, the pattern that runs through both books at 23:2, 23:4, 23:9 and on into the next reign. Two chapters back Saul went to Endor because the LORD answered him not when he enquired; here Abiathar brings the ephod and the answer comes at once, pursue and thou shalt surely overtake them. Wesley reads the swiftness of the answer as God meeting a need that could not wait, against the slower word Saul once had at Keilah's gates.
1 Samuel 30:7
“Abiathar had continued to abide with David, ever since he joined him at Keilah 1Sa 23:6. On inquiry of the Lord by the ephod, see Jdg 1:1 note. The answers were evidently given by the Word of the Lord in the mouth of the high priest (compare Joh 11:51).”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 30:7
“The ephod - And put it upon thyself, that thou mayst inquire of God according to his ordinance, David was sensible of his former error in neglecting to ask counsel of God by the ephod, when he came to Achish, and when he went out with Achish to the Battle; and his necessity now brings him to his duty, and his duty meets with success.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Matthew Henry suspects David had let his inquiring lapse while he lived among the Philistines, and so the ephod is the first thing he calls for. The answer goes past both questions. The LORD promises that David will rescue the captives as well.
1 Samuel 30:8
“He answered - Before, God answered more slowly and gradually, chap. xxiii, 11, 12, but now he answers speedily, and fully at once, because the business required haste. So gracious is our God, that he considers even the degree of our necessities, and accommodates himself to them.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 30:8
“Perhaps he was ashamed to own his religion so far among the uncircumcised; but now he begins to apprehend that this trouble is brought upon him to correct him for that oversight, and therefore the first thing he does is to call for the ephod.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 30:9-10
came to the brook Besor: Two hundred of the six hundred are too spent to cross the brook and stay with the baggage, a detail the narrator keeps for its own sake, since the men left behind will matter again at verse twenty-one. David presses on with four hundred, the same number who first gathered to him in the cave of Adullam, an army built from the discontented now doing the discontented's work.
1 Samuel 30:9
“So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him,.... Encouraged by the oracle of the Lord: and came to the brook Besor; which Adrichomius (q) places in the tribe of Simeon; it is thought to be near Gaza.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 30:9
“The brook Besor - This had its source in the mountain of Idumea, and fell into the Mediterranean Sea beyond Gaza. Some suppose it to have been the same with the river of the wilderness, or the river of Egypt. The sense of this and the following verse is, that when they came to the brook Besor, there were found two hundred out of his six hundred men so spent with fatigue that they could proceed no farther. The baggage or stuff was left there, 1Sa 30:24, and they were appointed to guard it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The two hundred had marched three days from Aphek to a burned Ziklag, then set out again at once. John Wesley calls four hundred men a small force. David goes on in reliance on the answer of verse 8.
1 Samuel 30:10
“Four hundred - A small number for such an attempt: but David was strong in faith, giving God the glory of his power and faithfulness.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 30:11-13
an Egyptian in the field: An Amalekite master leaves a sick servant to die in the open, three days without bread or water, and David's men feed him before they question him. The contrast is plain without being stated: Amalek abandons what it no longer needs, and David's camp gives bread first and asks its questions after. The Egyptian's own account at verse fourteen supplies the geography no other verse gives for this raid.
1 Samuel 30:11
“The poor and the feeble, the blind and the lame, are called and come because the weak and the despised in this world are often quicker to hear the voice of God, as in this world they have nothing to delight them.The Egyptian servant of the Amalekites is a good example of this. When the Amalekites were plundering and moving about, he was left behind on the road sick and fainting from hunger and thirst.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 36patristic
John Wesley and John Gill read three days and three nights as one full day and parts of two others, matching the words of the Egyptian in verse 13. Albert Barnes uses the figure to date when the Amalekites raided Ziklag. That many days had passed since they burned it.
1 Samuel 30:12
“And they gave him a piece of cake of figs,.... That were dried and pressed together, and made into cakes: and two clusters of raisins; or dried grapes, as the Targum: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him; he seemed to be quite dispirited, almost lifeless, but upon eating some food he was refreshed, and his spirits revived, and he was capable of conversing: for he had eaten no bread, nor drank any water, three days and three nights; that is, one whole day, and part of two days, as appears from 1Sa 30:13.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 30:12
“Three days and nights - One whole day and part of two others, as appears from the next verse, where he saith, three days ago I fell sick, but in the Hebrew it is, this is the third day since I fell sick.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 30:12
“Those are unworthy the name of Israelites who shut up the bowels of their compassion from persons in distress. It was also prudently done to relieve this Egyptian; for, though despicable, he was capable of doing them service: so it proved, though they were not certain of this when they relieved him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John Wesley sees providence in the man's nation. As an Egyptian he stood outside the sentence on Amalek and could be spared. Adam Clarke and Charles Spurgeon both observe that the slave his master left to die became the guide who led David to that master.
1 Samuel 30:13
“My master left me, because three days agone I fell sick - This was very inhuman: though they had booty enough, and no doubt asses sufficient to carry the invalids, yet they left this poor man to perish; and God visited it upon them, as he made this very person the means of their destruction, by the information which he was enabled to give to David and his men.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 30:13
“Egypt - God by his providence so ordering it, that he was not one of that cursed race of the Amalekites, who were to be utterly destroyed, but an Egyptian, who might be spared. Left me - In this place and condition: which was barbarous inhumanity: for he ought, and easily might have carried him away with the prey which they had taken.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Samuel 30:14-16
the south of the Cherethites: The servant names the whole sweep of the raid, the Cherethite south, Judah's own coast, and Caleb's territory, before he leads David down to a camp spread abroad on all the earth, eating and drinking and dancing over spoil taken from two nations. An oath sworn to a foreign slave to save his own guide's plan, a picture the commentators read as ordinary shrewdness rather than any special virtue, though it serves David well.
1 Samuel 30:14
“Cherethites - That is, the Philistines. Caleb - This is added by way of explication: that part of the south of Judah which belongs to Caleb's posterity.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 30:14
“Upon the south of the Cherethites - Calmet and others maintain, that the כרתי kerethi, which, without the points, might be read Creti, were not only at this time Philistines, but that they were aborigines of Crete, from which they had their name Cherethites or Cretans, and are those of whom Zephaniah speaks, Zep 2:5: Wo to the inhabitants of the sea-coasts, the nation of the Cherethites. And by Ezekiel, Eze 25:16: Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and will cut off the Cherethim.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 30:14
“The countries which David had pretended to Achish to have made an incursion upon ( ch. xxvii. 10 ) they really had invaded and laid waste. What was then false now proved too true.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown leave open whether the Egyptian held some belief in one God or was binding David by the God of Israel. Adam Clarke notes that the Vulgate, Syriac and Arabic add that David swore to him. With that oath the man leads David to the raiders.
1 Samuel 30:15
“Swear unto me by God--Whether there was still among these idolatrous tribes a lingering belief in one God, or this Egyptian wished to bind David by the God whom the Hebrews worshipped, the solemn sanction of an oath was mutually recognized.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 30:15
“This he promised David to inform him of upon condition he would spare his life and protect him from his master, who, if he could hear of him again (he thought), would add cruelty to cruelty.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 30:15
“Swear unto me - At the conclusion of this verse, the Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic add, that David swore to him. This is not expressed in the Hebrew, but is necessarily implied.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nothing lacking, small or great: all recovered
The plunder came from the land of the Philistines as well as Judah, so the raiders had struck David's hosts and his own people alike. Matthew Henry notes that their feasting left them open to surprise. The promise of verse 8 is about to be kept.
1 Samuel 30:16
“The promise made in answer to the devout inquiries of David (1Sa 30:8) was fulfilled. The marauders were surprised and panic-stricken. A great slaughter ensued--the people as well as the booty taken from Ziklag was recovered, besides a great amount of spoil which they had collected in a wide, freebooting excursion.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 30:16
“Justly did Providence make this poor servant, that was thus basely abused, instrumental towards the destruction of a whole army of Amalekites and his master among the rest; for God hears the cry of oppressed servants.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 30:16
“Out of the land of the Philistines - That these Amalekites were enemies to the Philistines is evident, but it certainly does not follow from this that those whom David destroyed were enemies also. This, I think, has been too hastily assumed by Dr. Chandler and others, in order the better to vindicate the character of David.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 30:17-20
smote them from the twilight: The fight runs a full day and night, and four hundred young men escape only because they were mounted on camels. Saul's charge at chapter fifteen had named camel among the beasts to be destroyed with Amalek entire; the animals that carried Saul's spared enemy away here carry this generation's raiders to safety, a continuity the older writers note without pressing it further. David recovers every wife, son and daughter named lost at verse three, and the flocks and herds taken from the Amalekites become, in his own words, David's spoil before any division is settled.
1 Samuel 30:17
“Twilight - The word signifies both the morning and evening twilight. But the latter seems here intended, partly because their eating, and drinking, and dancing, was more proper work for the evening, than the morning; and partly, because the evening was more convenient for David, that the fewness of his forces might not be discovered by the day-light.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 30:17
“There escaped not a man of them - It is well known to every careful reader of the Bible, that the Amalekites were a proscribed people, even by God himself, and that in extirpating them it has been supposed David fulfilled the express will of God. But all this depends on whether he had an express commission to do so, received from God himself, as Saul had.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Samuel 30:17
“Thus is the triumphing of the wicked short, and wrath comes on them, as on Belshazzar, when they are in the midst of their jollity. The spoil was recovered and brought off, and nothing was lost, but a great deal gotten.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew Henry observes that the Amalekites kept everything they had taken with care, thinking they kept it for themselves. David recovered it all for its owners. John Gill notes that his two wives are named as David's own special concern.
1 Samuel 30:18
“And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away,.... The wives and children of the Israelites, and their goods, excepting the provisions they had eaten: and David rescued his two wives; which is particularly observed, because a special concern of his.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 30:18
“Providence had so ordered it that the Amalekites carefully preserved all that they had taken, concluding that they kept it for themselves, though really they preserved it for the right owners, so that there was nothing lacking to them; so it proved, when they concluded all was gone: so much better is God oftentimes to us than our own fears.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The list answers the losses of verses 2 and 3 item by item, young and old, sons and daughters. It keeps the promise of verse 8 in full. Bede read the rescue as the Lord bringing deceived souls back to the unity of the church.
1 Samuel 30:19
“Therefore David rescued everything, etc. By conquering or correcting or avenging, or exposing the wicked doctrine of the heresies' founders, the Lord rescues the souls they had deceived and brings them back to the unity of Catholic peace.”
Bede · written before 735 · Commentary on Samuelpatristic
Matthew Henry points out that the men who spoke of stoning David in verse 6 now shout his name over the herds. Albert Barnes takes this plunder as David's share as captain. He used it for the gifts to the elders of Judah in verses 26 to 31.
1 Samuel 30:20
“And David took all the flocks - He and his men not only recovered all their own property, but they recovered all the spoil which these Amalekites had taken from the south of Judah, the Cherethites, and the south of Caleb. When this was separated from the rest, it was given to David, and called David’s spoil.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 30:20
“This drove was put in the van of the triumph, with this proclamation, " This is David's spoil. This we may thank him for." Those who lately spoke of stoning him now caressed him and cried him up, because they got by him more than they had then lost. Thus are the world and its sentiments governed by interest.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Alike shall be the share; spoil sent to the elders of Judah
1 Samuel 30:21-22
the two hundred men: David comes back to the two hundred left at Besor and salutes them first, before any word of dividing the spoil is spoken. It is the men who fought, not their captain, who call the exhausted two hundred wicked and men of Belial and propose to send them home with wives and children only, no share of what was recovered. The same word, sons of Belial, closes David's last words at 2 Sam 23:6, thorns fit only for burning, and here it is spoken by men who have just been rescued from becoming captives themselves.
1 Samuel 30:21
“THOSE who associate themselves with a leader must share his fortunes. Six hundred men had left their abodes in Judea. Unable to endure the tyranny of Saul, they had linked themselves with David and made him to be a captain over them. They were, some of them, the best of men, and some of them were the worst—in this, resembling our congregations. Some of them were choice spirits whom David would have sought, but others were undesirable persons from whom he might gladly have been free.”
Adam Clarke says the Hebrew phrase behind worthless men describes the harsh, the idle and the profane. Matthew Henry answers the proposal from its own terms. Wives and children returned with no share of the plunder would leave the two hundred little to live on.
1 Samuel 30:22
“What joy could they have of their families if they had nothing to maintain them with? Was this to do as they would be done by? Those are men of Belial indeed who delight in putting hardships upon their brethren, and care not who is starved, so they may be fed to the full.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 30:23-25
Ye shall not do so, my brethren: David answers by naming the victory the LORD's rather than the four hundred's own, the same instinct that will govern his mighty men's roll call in the last chapters of the second book. His ruling, that the part of the man who tarries by the stuff equals the part of the man who goes down to the battle, echoes the division Moses set over the Midianite spoil in Numbers thirty-one and the arrangement Joshua's altar-builders claimed at Joshua twenty-two. It stands afterward as statute and ordinance for Israel, one of the few laws in Scripture credited to David by name rather than to Moses.
1 Samuel 30:23
“That which the Lord hath given us - He very properly attributes this victory to God; the numbers of the Amalekites being so much greater than his own. Indeed, as many fled away on camels as were in the whole host of David.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Wesley gives the reason for the rule. The men who stayed with the supplies faced danger too, stood as a reserve for the troops who went to battle, and held the post David gave them. He adds that the Romans kept the same practice, as Polybius records.
1 Samuel 30:24
“Part alike - A prudent and equitable constitution, and therefore practiced by the Romans, as Polybius and others note. The reason of it is manifest; because they were exposed to hazards, as well as their brethren: and were a reserve to whom they might retreat in case of a defeat; and they were now in actual service, and in the station in which their general had placed them.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Adam Clarke takes to this very day as a sign that the book was written long after David made the statute for Israel. Matthew Henry states the rule behind it. Those who help others get back what was taken gain no claim to it as their own plunder.
1 Samuel 30:25
“He made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel - Nothing could be more just and proper than this law: he who stays at home to defend house and property, has an equal right to the booty taken by those who go out to the war. There was a practice of this kind among the Israelites long before this time; see Num 31:27; Jos 22:8; and the note on this latter verse. Unto this day - This is another indication that this book was composed long after the facts it commemorates. See the hypothesis in the preface.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 30:25
“If we help others to recover their right, we must not think that this alienates the property and makes it ours. God appointed that the spoil of Midian should be divided between the soldiers and the whole congregation, Num. xxxi. The case here was somewhat different, but governed by the same general rule--that we are members one of another.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 30:26-31
unto the elders of Judah: David sends the spoil of the enemies of the LORD to town after town across Judah's south, a list of names running from Bethel to Hebron that reads like a map of every place that sheltered him through the outlaw years. Clarke calls the gesture plain gratitude to the men who gave him shelter and protection when he had none; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the same gifts as the seed of the following that would soon bring the men of Judah to anoint him. Two chapters later that anointing happens at Hebron, one of the very towns named on this list.
1 Samuel 30:26
“Unto the elders of Judah - These were the persons among whom he sojourned during his exile, and who had given him shelter and protection. Gratitude required these presents.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 30:26
“Several places are here named to which he sent of these presents, all of them in or near the tribe of Judah. The first place named is Bethel, which signifies the house of God; that place shall be first served for its name's sake; or perhaps it means not the city so called, but the place where the ark was, which was therefore the house of God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Samuel 30:26
“It was the dictate of an amiable and grateful heart; and the effect of this well-timed liberality was to bring a large accession of numbers to his camp (1Ch 12:22).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Albert Barnes places this Bethel in the far south as the Bethuel of 1 Chronicles 4:30, near Ziklag, while Adam Clarke took it for the Bethel of Ephraim. Ramoth Negev is named to set it apart from Ramoth Gilead. Barnes puts Jattir about ten miles south of Hebron.
Albert Barnes notes that Zabdi the Shiphmite, over David's wine cellars in 1 Chronicles 27:27, likely came from Siphmoth. He reads it as proof that David kept faith with the friends of these years. John Gill identifies Eshtemoa as a Levite city of Judah.
1 Samuel 30:28
“And to them which were in Aroer,.... Not Aroer in the tribe of Gad beyond Jordan, where David is never said to be, but some city of this name in the tribe of Judah; the Greek version of Jos 15:22, instead of Adadah, has Arouel: and to them which were in Siphmoth; which very probably was in the tribe of Judah, though nowhere else mentioned: and to them which were in Eshtemoa; a Levitical city given to the Levites by the children of Judah, Jos 21:14.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 30:28
“In Aroer - Situated beyond Jordan, on the banks of the river Arnon, in the tribe of God. Siphmoth - Supposed to be the same with Shepham, Num 34:10, on the eastern border of the promised land. Eshtemoa - Another city in the tribe of Judah. See Jos 15:50.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Jerahmeelites and the Kenites are peoples David claimed to have raided when he reported to Achish at 27:10, as John Gill notes. The gifts show that he had been their friend all along. Adam Clarke notes that Racal is named nowhere else in the Bible.
1 Samuel 30:29
“And to them which were in Rachal,.... Another city of the tribe of Judah, but nowhere else spoken of: and to them which were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites: which lay to the south of Judah, 1Sa 27:10, and to them which were in the cities of the Kenites; who dwelt in the wilderness of Judah, in the south of Arad, Jdg 1:16.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 30:29
“Them which were in Rachal - We know not where this place was; it is mentioned nowhere else in the Bible. Calmet conjectures that Hachilah, 1Sa 23:19, may be the same place; here we know David did conceal himself for some time, till the Ziphites endeavored to betray him to Saul. The cities of the Jerahmeelites - See before, 1Sa 27:10 (note). And - the cities of the Kenites - A very small tract on the southern coast of the Dead Sea.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Adam Clarke explains the name Hormah from Numbers 21:1-3, where Israel devoted the towns of Arad to destruction. Albert Barnes connects Bor-ashan with Ashan of Joshua 15:42, a town of Judah given to the priests. John Gill notes that Athach appears nowhere else.
1 Samuel 30:30
“Hormah - The general name of those cities which belonged to Arad, king of Canaan; and were devoted to destruction by the Hebrews, and thence called Hormah. See Num 21:1-3. In Chor-ashan - Probably the same as Ashan in the tribe of Judah: see Jos 15:42 (note). It was afterwards ceded to Simeon, Jos 19:7. To them which were in Athach - Probably the same as Ether, Jos 19:7.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Samuel 30:30
“And to them which were in Hormah,.... This was a city also in the tribe of Judah; of which see Jos 15:30, and to them which were in Chorashan; or the lake of Ashan, which was in the same tribe, see Jos 15:42, and to them which were in Athach; nowhere else mentioned; the Greek version has Nombe instead of it, which some take to be the same with Nob; but that was in the tribe of Benjamin.”
Matthew Henry notes that Keilah and Ziph receive nothing. Both had been ready to hand David over to Saul, and Henry thinks the largest share went to Hebron, the place David had in view for his base. Albert Barnes adds that Hebron was a city of refuge, twenty miles south of Jerusalem.
1 Samuel 30:31
“And to them which were in Hebron,.... A noted city in the tribe of Judah, in the mountainous part of it, and a city of refuge, and where David was afterwards anointed, first king over Judah, and then over Israel, 2Sa 2:4, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt; where they had their walks, and went to and fro when persecuted by Saul; all such places, and the inhabitants of them, David had a grateful remembrance of, who sheltered and relieved him in the times of his distress.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Samuel 30:31
“Hebron - Now El-Khulil (see Gen 23:2). Hebron was a city of refuge Jos 20:7, and one of the cities of the Kohathites Jos 21:11. It lies twenty miles south of Jerusalem.”
1 Samuel 30:31
“He was fit to be a king who thus showed the bounty and liberality of a king. Munificence recommends a man more than magnificence. The Ziphites had none of his presents, nor the men of Keilah; and thus he showed that, though he was such a saint as not to revenge affronts, yet he was not such a fool as not to take notice of them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, a raid, a pursuit and a recovery, closing with a ruling that became a standing statute and a list of towns, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing missing, small or great | Verse 3 lists what was lost, the wives and the sons and the daughters. Verse 19 answers it item by item, that nothing was missing, young or old, son or daughter, or any of the plunder. The chapter frames the recovery by repeating the loss in the same terms. The store's exposition note on verses 17 to 20 marks the exact answer to verse 3.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Samuel 30:19. | 1 Samuel 30:2, 1 Samuel 30:3, 1 Samuel 30:19 |
| The ephod called for, and the answer given in the same breath | At verse 7 David calls for the ephod and at verse 8 he puts two questions to the LORD and is answered in full. The store's exposition note on verses 7 to 8 sets the scene against chapter 28, where Saul went to En-dor because the LORD would not answer him. John Wesley reads the speed of the answer as God meeting a need that could not wait.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on 1 Samuel 30:8. | 1 Samuel 30:7, 1 Samuel 30:8, 1 Samuel 28:6 |
| Six hundred, four hundred, two hundred | Verse 9 sets out with six hundred, verse 10 leaves two hundred at the Brook of Besor, and four hundred cross. The store's exposition note on verses 9 to 10 records that the four hundred are the same number who first gathered to David at Adullam. The two hundred are kept on the page for one reason, and verse 21 is where they matter.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel, cited in the store's exposition note on verses 9 to 10. | 1 Samuel 30:9, 1 Samuel 30:10, 1 Samuel 30:21, 1 Samuel 22:2 |
| Bread given before a question is asked | An Amalekite master leaves a sick slave to die in the field at verse 13, and David's men give him water and food at verse 11 before they ask him anything. The store's exposition note on verses 11 to 13 marks the comparison without stating it. The man who is fed then supplies the geography of the raid and leads the pursuit to the camp.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Samuel 30:12. | 1 Samuel 30:11, 1 Samuel 30:12, 1 Samuel 30:13 |
| The towns named one by one | Verses 27 to 31 list the places that received a share of the spoil, from Bethel to Hebron. The store's exposition note on verses 26 to 31 reads the list as a map of every place that sheltered David through the outlaw years. Two chapters later he is anointed at Hebron, the last town on this list.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Samuel 30:26. | 1 Samuel 30:27, 1 Samuel 30:31, 2 Samuel 2:4 |
The historical value
14 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter gives an unusually full picture of a desert raid. Verse 2 records that the raiders killed no one and took the whole population alive. The store's exposition note on verses 1 to 2 reads that as calculation rather than mercy, since captives carry a price. Verse 16 shows the raiding party spread out over the land, eating and drinking over the plunder of two nations, which is how such a band was caught.
The Egyptian slave of verses 11 to 15 is the chapter's witness. He gives the sweep of the raid at verse 14, the Negev of the Cherethites, the territory of Judah and the Negev of Caleb, and he names Ziklag. The store's exposition note on verses 14 to 16 records that his account supplies the geography no other verse gives for this raid.
The list at verses 27 to 31 is a gazetteer of the Judean south. Several of its names stand in the settlement lists of Joshua 15 and 19, and the last of them, Hebron, is where David is anointed king over Judah two chapters later.
Adam Clarke, quoted in the store's pool on verse 25, reads the phrase unto this day as an indication that the book was composed long after the facts it records.
The debated concept
What happened at verse 6 is read as the chapter's hinge by the older writers, and how far to press it divides them. The store's exposition note on verses 5 to 6 records the older writers' reading, that the verse turns David's whole exile. Every human prop is gone, and he strengthens himself in the LORD his God. Matthew Henry reads the timing as deliberate rather than accidental, coming just before the rise to the throne begins. The text states the fact in four words and gives no account of the means.
Where the statute of verse 25 came from is the second question. Adam Clarke points to Numbers 31:27 and Joshua 22:8 and holds that the practice existed among the Israelites long before this. Matthew Henry, quoted in the store's pool on verse 25, points to the division of the Midianite spoil at Numbers 31 and notes that the case here differs while the rule is the same. The store's exposition note on verses 23 to 25 records that this is one of the few laws in Scripture credited to David by name rather than to Moses.
The third question is what to make of the oath David swears to the Egyptian at verse 15. The store's exposition note on verses 14 to 16 records that the commentators read it as ordinary shrewdness rather than any special virtue, though it serves David well. The text records the oath and the result and passes no judgment.
The divine connection
Verse 8 is the chapter's centre. The question is put and the answer comes back in the same verse, pursue, you will overtake, you will rescue. All three clauses are carried out, at verse 17, at verse 18 and at verse 19. A reader can check the promise against the outcome inside a dozen verses, which is what makes this chapter the plainest example in the book of the enquiry that Saul could not obtain.
Verse 6 is the second line, and the phrase it carries is the one the older writers dwell on. David found strength in the LORD his God at the moment his own men were speaking of stoning him. The store's exposition note on verses 5 to 6 records that the form of words occurs nowhere else in Scripture in exactly this shape. The claim here is about the wording, which a reader can check, rather than about anything the text does not say.
The chapter also carries the war on Amalek forward. The store's exposition note on verses 1 to 2 records that Amalek strikes here as the war Saul left unfinished at chapter 15, when he spared the king and the best of the flocks. The note on verses 17 to 20 records that the camels which carry four hundred raiders to safety are among the beasts chapter 15 had named for destruction.
How the rest of Scripture reads this chapter
The New Testament does not cite 1 Samuel 30. Within the Old Testament the statute of verse 25 stands in a line with two earlier divisions. At Numbers 31:25 to 31 Moses divides the Midianite spoil between the men who fought and the rest of the congregation. At Joshua 22:8 the eastern tribes are sent home to share the plunder with their brothers. The chapter is also told from the other side at 1 Chronicles 12:20 to 22, which records the men of Manasseh who joined David at Ziklag and helped him against the raiding band.
Keep studying
Studies1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Samuel 30:25; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Samuel 30:26; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel, cited in the store's exposition note on verses 9 to 10 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Samuel 30:6.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Bede, Commentary on Samuel; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3079: “A Searching Question” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. G. Blaikie, The First Book of Samuel (Expositor's Bible).