1 Samuel 30 - Introduction
_THE AMALEKITES, IN DAVID'S ABSENCE, PLUNDER AND BURN ZIKLAG: DAVID, HAVING CONSULTED THE LORD, PURSUES, OVERTAKES THEM, AND RECOVERS THE SPOIL._ _Before Christ 1055._... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE AMALEKITES, IN DAVID'S ABSENCE, PLUNDER AND BURN ZIKLAG: DAVID, HAVING CONSULTED THE LORD, PURSUES, OVERTAKES THEM, AND RECOVERS THE SPOIL._ _Before Christ 1055._... [ Continue Reading ]
THE AMALEKITES HAD INVADED THE SOUTH— These Amalekites appear to have been clans of straggling freebooters, who rambled from place to place, and were common enemies of mankind; like the Arabian _Hordes,_ living upon rapine and plunder wherever they came. It may seem strange, David having killed all... [ Continue Reading ]
_1 SAMUEL 30:8_.— We may just note here, what we have frequently observed, how much the insertion of particles in our version flattens the sense. Every reader of taste will discern it in the last clause of this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHERE THOSE THAT WERE LEFT BEHIND, STAYED— The sense is clearer than the expression. Of the six hundred men who accompanied David, two hundred, worn out with fatigue, (the same as had care of the baggage, 1 Samuel 30:24.) continued by the brook _Besor,_ while the other four hundred crossed the brook... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY FOUND AN EGYPTIAN, &C.— Surely the leaving such a slave, sick with fatigue in his master's service in an enemy's country, utterly destitute of all the necessaries of life in the midst of unpurchased plenty, is one of the strongest instances of inhumanity that was ever heard of! This is a tr... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY GAVE HIM A PIECE OF A CAKE OF FIGS, &C.— The eastern people are well known to carry with them in their journies several accommodations, and _provisions_ in particular of various kinds, for, properly speaking, they have no inns. They did so anciently. Those who travel on foot with expedition... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON THE SOUTH OF THE CHERETHITES— It is plain, from this relation, that the Cherethites were Philistines, see 1 Samuel 30:16 and that the Amalekites were enemies to the Philistines; and therefore, however David might have asked beside the intentions of his benefactor, yet he certainly did not act a... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL BRING THEE DOWN TO THIS COMPANY— Houbigant adds after these words, _and David sware to him;_ following the Syriac and Arabic. The words might certainly be understood, if they are not expressed.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DAVID SMOTE THEM, &C.— The number of Amalekites that fled, was equal to that of all David's forces; and out of self-preservation, he was obliged to put as many of them to the sword as he could, to prevent being surrounded and destroyed by so superior a number. A partial victory, instead of being... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DAVID TOOK ALL THE STOCKS AND THE HERDS, &C.— To crown his success, David and his men not only recovered every man his wife and children, and every thing they had lost; but all the plunder which the enemy had taken elsewhere; vast flocks and herds of cattle, which they now separated from their o... [ Continue Reading ]
YE SHALL NOT DO SO, MY BRETHREN— David pronounced, in contrariety to the inhuman resolutions of some evil men who attended him, that they who went down to battle, and they who stayed behind to guard the goods and provisions of the army, should share alike in the enemy's spoil; well knowing that ther... [ Continue Reading ]