1 Samuel 30:23-25

Ye shall not do so, my brethren He uses his authority to overrule their intention; but manages the matter with all sweetness, though they were such wicked and unreasonable men, calling them brethren; not only as being of the same nation and religion with him, but as his fellow- soldiers. With that which the Lord hath given us As much as to say, When God hath been so good to us, we ought not to be unkind to our brethren, nor what he hath freely imparted, ought we churlishly and injuriously to withhold from them. For who will hearken unto you? No disinterested person, he tells them, would be of their opinion, if the matter were referred to them. They shall part alike A prudent and equitable constitution, and therefore practised 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. And it was so from that day forward This law, concerning the division of the spoil taken from an enemy, seems to have continued to the time of the Maccabees, as appears from the second book of their history, 2Ma 8:28; 2Ma 8:30.