1 Samuel Chapter 30    

¹It came to pass when David and his men had come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag, and had struck Ziklag and burned it with fire.
  ²And they took captive the women and all who were in it, both young and old. They did not put any to death, but carried them off and went their way.
 

³When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and 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 more strength in them to weep.
  ⁵And David’s two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
  ⁶David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him because all the people were bitter of soul, each man for his sons and for his daughters, but David found strength in Yahweh his God.
 

⁷David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Please bring the ephod here to me.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.
  ⁸And David asked of Yahweh, saying, “Should I pursue after this troop? Will I overtake them?” And he answered him, “Pursue, for you will overtake, yes, overtake, and will rescue, yes, rescue.”
 

⁹So David went, he and the 600 men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.
  ¹⁰But David pursued, he and 400 men; for 200 stayed behind who were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.
 

¹¹And they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David, and they gave him bread, and he ate, and they gave him water to drink.
  ¹²They gave him a slice of pressed figs and two clusters of raisins. And he ate, and his spirit returned to him, for he had eaten no bread nor drunk any water for three days and three nights.
 

¹³And David asked him, “To whom do you belong? Where are you from?” He said, “I am a young servant from Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my lord left me because three days ago I fell sick.
  ¹⁴We made a raid on the Negev of the Cherethites, and on what belongs to Judah, and on the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.”
 

¹⁵And David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this troop?” He said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me over into the hand of my lord, and I will bring you down to this troop.”
 

¹⁶And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread out over all the land, eating, drinking, and celebrating because of all the large amount of spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.
  ¹⁷And David struck them from the evening breeze to the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped from there except 400 young servants who rode on camels and fled.
 

¹⁸So David rescued all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives as well.
  ¹⁹There was nothing of theirs missing; neither young nor old, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they had taken for themselves. David brought back everything.
  ²⁰And David took all the flocks and the herds, and they drove them ahead of the other livestock and they said, “This is David’s spoil.”
 

²¹David came to the 200 men who were so faint that they could not follow David—who were made to stay at the brook Besor—they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. When David came near to the people, he greeted them.
  ²²Then all the wicked men, men of Belial, of those who went with David, answered and said, “Because they did not go with me, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered except to each man his wife and his children so that he may lead them away and depart.”
 

²³Then David said, “You must not do this, my brothers, with what Yahweh has given to us! He has protected us and gave the troop that came against us into our hand.
  ²⁴Who will listen to you in this matter? For as is the share of the one who goes down to the battle, so is the share of the one who remains by the supplies; they will share alike.”
  ²⁵And it was so from that day forward that he made it a law and an ordinance for Israel to this day.
 

²⁶When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoil to his friends, to the elders of Judah, saying, “Behold, a blessing for you from the spoil of the enemies of Yahweh.”
  ²⁷He sent it to those who were in Bethel, and to those who were in Ramoth of the Negev, and to those who were in Jattir,
  ²⁸and to those who were in Aroer, and to those who were in Siphmoth, and to those who were in Eshtemoa,
  ²⁹and to those who were in Racal, and to those who were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to those who were in the cities of the Kenites,
  ³⁰and to those who were in Hormah, and to those who were in Borashan, and to those who were in Athach,
  ³¹and to those who were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men used to go.