Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
1 Samuel 30:7-20
David And His Men Pursue The Amalekites And Destroy Them, Recovering All That They Had Lost And More In Abundance (1 Samuel 30:7).
The Amalekites, aware that any opposition to what they had done was safely out of the way taking part on one side or another in the Philistine invasion of Israel, were no doubt quite relaxed and thus not as careful as they might have been, both in respect of getting their captives to Egypt as quickly as possible, and of ensuring that they put as great a distance as possible between them and any pursuers. Indeed they were so confident that there would be no pursuers that they found time to stop for a period of celebration at the multiplicity of their spoils. They were totally confident that by the time the invasion was over and David returned they themselves would have split into their separate tribes and have been long gone. What they did not allow for was the intervention of YHWH.
Thus when David consulted YHWH through the ephod he received the message that there was yet time to recover all the womenfolk and children, together with all their spoils. As a result, greatly encouraged, he set out with all haste with his partly exhausted men (who had already just endured a three day march), and was able to overtake the Amalekites while they were celebrating, (and had no doubt got themselves into a drunken state), and give them a thorough trouncing, so thorough indeed that the only ones who were able to make their escape were four camel units of young men. The remainder of the tribe were mercilessly slaughtered. It should be noted that this was simply carrying out the requirements of YHWH with respect to these merciless brigands, brigands who were a constant threat towards all civilised people. They were the terrorists of their day. Thus while Saul was facing disaster because of his prior disobedience in respect of the Amalekites, David was obeying YHWH with respect to them. He was being obedient to God's commandments
Analysis.
a And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “I pray you, bring me here the ephod. And Abiathar brought there the ephod to David (1 Samuel 30:7).
b And David enquired of YHWH, saying, “If I pursue after this troop, will I overtake them?” And he answered him, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and will without fail recover all” (1 Samuel 30:8).
c So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed. But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred stayed behind, who were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor (1 Samuel 30:9).
d And 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, 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 (1 Samuel 30:11).
e And David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And from where are you?” And he said, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick” (1 Samuel 30:13).
f “We made a raid upon the Negeb of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on the Negeb of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire” (1 Samuel 30:14).
e And David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this band?” And he said, “Swear to me by God, that you will neither kill me, nor deliver me up into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this band” (1 Samuel 30:15).
d And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the ground, 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 (1 Samuel 30:16).
c And David smote them from the twilight even to the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, who rode on camels and fled (1 Samuel 30:17).
b And David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them, David brought back all (1 Samuel 30:18).
a And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before those other cattle, and said, “This is David's spoil” (1 Samuel 30:20).
‘ And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “I pray you, bring me here the ephod. And Abiathar brought there the ephod to David.'
Having had time to consider the situation in which they found themselves David called for Abiathar the High Priest so that he could consult YHWH. And he called on him to bring the ephod, which incorporated the breastpouch in which were the Urim and Thummim. For while Saul could obtain no answer through the Urim (demonstrating that Saul had set up a rival High Priest (Zadok) and had provided parallel vestments for him), David was able to do so. This was the difference between the two men. One was rejected by YHWH and out of touch, the other was in constant touch with YHWH (compare 1 Samuel 23:9).
‘ And David enquired of YHWH, saying, “If I pursue after this troop, will I overtake them?” And he answered him, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and will without fail recover all.” '
Once Abiathar had brought the ephod David then submitted his questions. If it is correct that the Urim and Thummim could only answer ‘yes', ‘no' or ‘no answer' he must clearly have asked two questions. Firstly whether they would overtake the Amalekites, and then whether they would recover all, these being then interpreted in depth by Abiathar. But what matters is that either way David obtained YHWH's answer, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and will without fail recover all.”
‘ So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.'
Immediately on receiving the answer David summoned his men and set off after the Amalekites, not resting until they came to the Wadi Besor, where they no doubt stopped to refresh themselves. We do not know the identity of the Wadi Besor but we can presume that they must have travelled a good number of miles. We are given minimum information about what happened there, but we must probably see that David rapidly summed up the situation, recognised that a number of his men, through no fault of their own, were too exhausted to travel quickly enough and were thus holding them up, and that they were also being slowed down by the baggage that they had necessarily brought with them for a trip into the desert, and decided to reorganise his men into four active units of the most fit, and leave two units behind to recover themselves and guard the baggage (1 Samuel 30:24), while he and the four slimmed down units proceeded forward at all speed. (We may possibly see that the six units were under the command of ‘the first three' and ‘the second three', although that is only surmise (2 Samuel 23:8)). It is far more likely that David as a good general quickly summed up the situation, than that the exhausted men themselves, who had their pride to consider, drew back from crossing the wadi.
‘ But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred stayed behind, who were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.'
Now aware that they must be catching up with the Amalekite raiders David and his four reorganised units sped onwards, less encumbered by baggage, leaving behind them the two units made up of the men who had found crossing the Wadi Besor a step too far. These last would provide the base to which the remainder could return when their provisions ran out, or when victory had been accomplished.
‘ And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him food, and he ate, and they gave him water to drink.'
David's scouts then came across an Egyptian in the countryside, in the last stages of exhaustion and unable to communicate, and brought him to David, who arranged for him to receive the basic food and water which he clearly needed in his exhausted state. This discovery was of huge importance, for it was to identify who their enemies were, and where they had taken refuge. It was evidence that YHWH was aiding their search.
‘ 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.'
The food that they gave him was energy producing food (as they would know by experience), easily digestible, with the result that he soon showed signs of coming back to full consciousness and eventually sat up. Their hope, of course, was that he might be able to give them some information about who had passed that way.
“Three days and three nights” is a phrase that, in spite of its seeming preciseness, can in fact simply indicate a day, two part days and two nights, e.g. in our terminology Monday to Wednesday, or Tuesday to Thursday, etc (compare 1 Samuel 30:13 - ‘three days ago'). A part day could be spoken of as ‘a day and a night' because the day was seen as including the night. It was simply a way of speaking. This was certainly so later among the Jews. (We can compare how Jesus was to be in the grave ‘three days and three nights' (Matthew 12:40) and was yet raised again on ‘the third day').
‘ And David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And from where are you?” And he said, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick.” '
Seeing that the young man was now able to speak David immediately questioned him, asking him who he was and where he had come from. His answer must have quickened all their hearts, for he revealed that he was an Egyptian and that he had indeed been the slave of one of the men who had attacked Ziklag. But he had fallen sick and so had callously been left behind to die by his master, seemingly without any provision for his welfare. As a slave he was simply seen as dispensable. That had been a day or so before.
“ We made a raid upon the Negeb of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, even on the Negeb of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.”
He also identified the nature of the expedition that his master had been on. They had raided the Negeb of the Cherethites (like the Pelethites, the Cherethites were a section of the Philistines, compare 2 Samuel 15:18; Ezekiel 25:16; Zephaniah 2:5) and the Negeb of Caleb which belonged to Judah (Caleb was a sub-clan of Judah - Joshua 21:11), and had then burned Ziklag with fire. This last was probably as a specific reprisal against David, because of what he had previously done to them, carried out when his back was turned and the opportunity had thus arisen. (With regard to the descriptions of the places attacked compare with them 1 Samuel 30:16 - ‘the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah').
The Negeb was the large area of half barren land, half pastureland which lay between Israel/Judah (and Philistia) proper and the Sinai desert. It had low rainfall but many oases (for the Negeb of Caleb compare Judges 1:15), and was suitable for pasturing flocks, and when irrigated through careful conservation of water from the Judean hills, could also be successfully cultivated. It was at this time seemingly occupied by the Calebites and other Judean sub-clans, by the Kenites and the Jerahmeelites, semi-independent allies of Judah, and by the Cherethites (Philistines).
‘ And David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this band?” And he said, “Swear to me by God, that you will neither kill me, nor deliver me up into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this band.” '
Then David asked the Egyptian if he would lead them to where he knew the Amalekites would go, and the young man replied that if they would swear on oath that they would not kill him or hand him over to his master (whom he clearly hated and feared), then he would show them.
“This band.” The word is the regular one which indicates a band of roving plunderers, compare 1 Samuel 30:8 and 1 Samuel 30:23. See also Psalms 18:29.
‘ And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the ground, 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.'
True to his word the young man led them to the Amalekite encampment which would be at a well known oasis. And there they found the Amalekites rapturously celebrating their victories, gloating in their success and over the number of valuable slaves that they had taken, and quite content that there would be no pursuit, because all knew that David and his men were far away fighting against Saul and Israel. It had all been so easy, and they had brought back with them huge spoils, as well as the many slaves for the Egyptians to buy, both from the land of the Philistines (the Negeb of the Cherethites) and the land of Judah (the Negeb of Caleb). They were expecting no trouble and had thus decided to have a rest stage at this oasis, no doubt in order to divide the spoil and go their separate ways Thus as twilight came on they were almost certainly in a very drunken state.
‘ And David smote them from the twilight even to the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, who rode on camels and fled.'
They soon, however, discovered their error, for, waiting until twilight, David launched his attack catching them totally unprepared. They must have wondered who or what had hit them, and would certainly have had no idea of their numbers. They would be totally disoriented. (After all, in their view this was what they did, not what people did to them). The size of the Amalekite band comes out in that even so it took a full night and day before David's men could finally stop the slaughter, for they were determined to search out and kill every last man wherever they hid themselves, so that no other roving band would ever dare to do the same thing again. It was in accordance with YHWH's curse (Exodus 17:14; Numbers 24:20; Deuteronomy 25:19). The only ones who escaped were four camel units of young men who fled on their camels, which again emphasises how large the band had been. When they fled they no doubt assumed that they were being attacked by a much larger force. The surprise had been complete.
‘ And David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives.'
The fighting finally over David took stock and discovered that they had recovered everything that had been stolen from them, and more besides, and that that very importantly included David's two wives, the future queens of Israel, and founders of his dynasty. YHWH was watching over David.
‘ And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them, David brought back all.'
Indeed it is emphasised by the writer that nothing of what had been taken was lacking. As YHWH had promised (1 Samuel 30:8) they had recovered everything, including their sons and their daughters whose delight and joy must have been beyond imagining. One moment they had been in a state of darkest despair and hopelessness, awaiting only life-long slavery, and the next they had realised that they were in process of being rescued and would soon be back in their fathers' arms. They would no doubt have recognised the war cries of David's men.
This preservation of captives was in fact common among such raiding tribesmen. One of the purposes of their raids was in fact in order to obtain slaves for sale. They had not been spared because of any idea of morality. The thought had been cynical and commercial. David's concern, in contrast, was in order to prevent further raids. he was not looking for slaves.
‘ And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before those cattle, and said, “This is David's spoil.” '
The idea here is presumably that ‘those cattle' represented the cattle of their own which had been recovered, while ‘all the flocks and herds' were those over and above what had been stolen from them, and were thus ‘David's' and evidences of his triumph.
The stress is on the size of the spoil and in the fact that it now belonged to David. something which was proudly and distinctly made clear by his men as they drove them before them and declared ‘This is David's spoil'. This is in striking contrast with YHWH's requirement to Saul when he slew the Amalekites, that no spoil should be taken because it was ‘devoted to YHWH'. But the circumstances were very different. That had been a solemn religious and sacred expedition, specifically carried out by YHWH's anointed at His command, having in view the need to deal with the Amalekites as a people as a whole, as under YHWH's curse because of their general behaviour towards Israel and others. All had had to see in those circumstances that Saul was not seeking any benefit for himself but was acting as YHWH's judge and avenger. It was an act of sacred judgment being carried out as a direct result of YHWH's command. Here on the other hand it was aggrieved and retaliatory parties who were recovering their own spoil, along with the extra which was to be returned to its presumed erstwhile owners (1 Samuel 30:26), but which meanwhile could be seen as ‘David's spoil'. It was not an act of judicial and sacred judgment.