Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 30:1
And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
Ch. 1Sa 30:1-6. Sack of Ziklag in David’s absence
1. on the third day ] After leaving the Philistine army. Evidently he had not accompanied them far beyond the frontier. See note on 1Sa 29:2.
the Amalekites ] Possibly they had got information of David’s absence, and took the opportunity to make reprisals for his raids on them (1Sa 27:8).
the south, and Ziklag ] The Negeb or “south country” is the technical name for the district between the hills of Judah and the actual desert. It is a series of rolling hills, clad with scanty herbage here and there. In places there is fine upland pasture, but not a tree nor a shrub to relieve its bareness. See Tristram, Land of Israel, pp. 360 373. In this district Ziklag was situated.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 Davids 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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Sa 30:1-31
When David and his men were come to Ziklag.
David in three situations
at Ziklag in his distress, on his way to the Amalekites, and among the Amalekites.
I. David in his distress. See in it the frequent benefit, of affliction to the people of God. In this instance it did immediately two things for David.
1. It restored him to his spiritual courage and strength. Look ones more to chap. 27. We find there his heart failing him; and, like a frightened deer, he runs away from Judah into the land of the Philistines. Now when did this happen? You will say, Doubtless when Saul was close behind him ready to take his life; but no; it was at, a time when it seemed least likely to happen–when David had humbled Saul to the dust by his magnanimity. David says in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul, and there goes the once bold champion of Israel, timid and crouching, to seek the protection of a heathen king. See here what man is; see what even a servant of God is, when left to himself. He can fall down without a blow. Now, come again to the chapter before us. Here is this same David, the frightened runaway, calm and fearless, and where? In a situation of the utmost distress and danger; with his home burnt, his family in the hands of his enemies, and with six hundred half frantic men around him threatening to take his life. O, how God sometimes glorifies his grace in our world! What time I am afraid, not, in a quiet hour, no, in a fearful hour–what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
2. Davids affliction restored him also to a holy caution and self-distrust. It led him, though he feared nothing else, to fear himself. He seeks now counsel of the Lord. We should have expected him to have done this before in his fear when he fled into the land of the Philistines, or when he followed the army of Achish against Israel, but he did not do it. David enquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue this troop? shall I overtake them? This is what the Scripture means by acknowledging God in our ways. And thus the affliction of David was a benefit to him–it restored him to his spiritual courage and strength, it led him to seek counsel of the Lord and submit his ways to Him. In His peoples case, the Lord turns even these bitter things to a blessed account. So does He love His people, that He cannot even smite them without blessing them. His very judgments become mercies. Thus we find David, in Psalm, of coupling together mercy and judgment, and saying He will rejoice in both and sing of both.
II. Let us now look at David in another situation–on his way to the Amalekites. We shall see that he met in it with discouragement and also encouragement, a mixture of both.
1. The discouragement he encountered at the outset. We know not the number of these Amalekites, but it is clear that it was great, for these that escaped, verse 17 says, were four hundred, and they are spoken of as a remnant, a small part of the whole. These soldiers, these fugitives and exiles, can not only weep as though their hearts would break for their wives and children, but the moment there is a prospect of recovering them, they are so eager in the pursuit, that one-third of their number speedily sink down in exhaustion. They came, we read, to the brook Besor, and there they were so faint that they could not go over. But how will this operate on David? Will not his old fears now return? Shall we not see him halting and hesitating and perhaps turning back? No; a man never hesitates or turns back in the path of duty, who is making the Lord his strength.
2. Davids encouragement. And let me say that in your journey go heaven, or in setting about any good work on that journey, you must calculate on meeting with both these things, with both discouragements and encouragements. Your path will not be a uniform one. Davids discouragement was the loss of two hundred men, apparently a formidable loss; it turned out nothing. His encouragement was what? It came from one man one sick man, a man scarcely alive; and he did all that David wanted. The case was this. One of the Amalekites in going from Ziklag, had a slave ill, an Egyptian. He abandons him, leaves him in a field to die. Three days afterwards Davids men come up and find him: they kindly give him food and restore him. Can you tell us, asks David, where we may find the Amalekites? I can, the man says, and in a little time he brings him within sight of their camp. Here, you observe, was help for David from one who could not help himself; and, as it turned out, effectual help; and help, observe, too, from the very host of his enemies. Anything will serve the Lord when the Lord has to overthrow his enemies or help His people, He needs not move heaven or earth, he needs not create powerful instruments to do it; anything in his mighty hand will do it–a castaway thing, a despised, abandoned thing.
III. But look now at David in a third situation–at the camp of the Amalekites. When he came upon them, he found them in a state of riot and disorder. Peace and safely are fearful words in a pleasure taking, prosperous mans mouth; then often sudden destruction cometh, and he shall not escape. Belshazzar revelled joyously and fearlessly in the banquet he had made; but in that night, the very night of his festivity, was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain. And mark–it was the great spoil these Amalekites had taken which so rejoiced them. They were exulting in their spoil at, the very moment when they were about to lose their spoil and their lives together. Is there a man here whose chief joy is in the spoil he has taken? the acquisitions he has made? his honours or his wealth? Let such a man see that he and they may be separated in an hour. Tomorrow they may be in other hands, and he in another world. David, we read, smote these Amalekites, smote them from the twilight, of one day even unto the evening of the next. Their destruction was complete or nearly so. You remember who these men were. They were a nation condemned by God to be exterminated in consequence of their determined hatred to Him and His people. David know this. He was not therefore indulging his own revenge, but obeying the Lords command, in smiting them. But observe–though these men were Gods enemies, He had just before employed them in His work. There is a servant of His to be chastened; they shall be the rod in His hand to chasten him. We will go and plunder Ziklag, they say; He lets them go, and while they are accomplishing their ends, He makes them accomplish His; He overrules their plundering incursion to bring back the wandering David to Himself. It is a solemn thought, but it is a glorious one, that wicked men and wicked spirits, that hell with its legions as well as heaven with its glorious hosts, are doing every hour Jehovahs work. This must not reconcile us to sin, but it goes far to quiet the mind when sickened and distressed with the sin, the wrong and outrage, with which the world is filled. Another incident in this history we must notice–this victory over these Amalekites was attended with a recovery of all that David had lost. Twice this is mentioned and particularly mentioned. It is not only we who are safe in Gods hands if we are his, all that belongs to us is safe there. It is safe no where else. When we give it up to him, He remembers that we have done so, and takes it as His charge. There is an hour coming when God will let us see that He has taken good care of all that is ours as well as of us, such care as we had scarcely thought of. The health we have lost in His service, the property we may have expended in His cause, the earthly gain or earthly love or honour we have sacrificed for His cake–we shall hear of them again in heaven. O what a recompence for them awaits us there! (C. Bradley, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXX
While David is absent with the army of Achish, the Amalekites
invade Ziklag, and burn it with fire, and carry away captive
David’s wives, and those of his men, 1, 2.
David and his men return; and, finding the desolate state of
their city, are greatly affected, 3-5.
The men mutiny, and threaten to stone David, who encourages
himself in the Lord, 6.
David inquires of the Lord, and is directed to pursue the
Amalekites, with the promise that he shall recover all, 7, 8.
He and his men begin the pursuit, but two hundred, through
fatigue are obliged to stay behind at the brook Besor, 9, 10.
They find a sick Egyptian, who directs them in their pursuit,
11-15.
David finds the Amalekites secure, feasting on the spoils they
had taken; he attacks and destroys the whole host, except four
hundred, who escape on camels, 16, 17.
The Israelites recover their wives, their families, and all
their goods, 18-20.
They come to the two hundred who were so faint as not to be
able to pursue the enemy, with whom they divide the spoil; and
this becomes a statute in Israel, 21-25.
David sends part of the spoil which he had taken to different
Jewish cities, which had suffered by the incursion of the
Amalekites; and where David and his anew had been accustomed
to resort, 26-31.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXX
Verse 1. On the third day] This was the third day after he had left the Philistine army at Aphek. Calmet supposes that Aphek was distant from Ziklag more than thirty leagues.
The Amalekites had invaded] These were, doubtless, a travelling predatory horde, who, availing themselves of the war between the Philistines and the Israelites, plundered several unprotected towns, and among them Ziklag. It is likely they had not heard of what David did to some of their tribes, else they would have avenged themselves by slaying all they found in Ziklag.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
On the third day, to wit, after Davids departure from Achish; for Ziklag was at a great distance from the camp and place of fight, as appears from 2Sa 1:2; and Davids men being all footmen, could make but slow marches.
The Amalekites; the remainders of that people who lived near those parts where David had destroyed their brethren, 1Sa 27:8,9.
The south, to wit, the southern part of Judah, and the adjacent parts. See below, 1Sa 30:14.
Smitten Ziklag, i.e. sacked and spoiled it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Amalekites had invaded the south,and Ziklag, and smitten ZiklagWhile the strength of thePhilistine forces was poured out of their country into the plain ofEsdraelon, the Amalekite marauders seized the opportunity of thedefenseless state of Philistia to invade the southern territory. Ofcourse, David’s town suffered from the ravages of these nomadplunderers, in revenge for his recent raid upon their territory.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag, on the third day,…. Either from their departure from thence, when they went out with Achish, or rather from the time of their leaving Achish, and the camp of the Philistines; so long they were upon their march homewards, see 2Sa 1:1; and no wonder, if it was the distance of eighty eight miles, [See comments on 1Sa 29:11];
that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag; the southern parts of the land of the Philistines, and of Judah, as appears from
1Sa 30:14; taking the opportunity of the Philistines being gone into the land of Israel, and particularly of David’s absence from Ziklag, to whom they bore a grudge for his invasion, destruction, and spoil of them not long ago, see 1Sa 27:8;
and smitten Ziklag, and burnt it with fire; not that they smote the inhabitants of it, there were no men in it, and the women and children they carried captive; but they demolished the buildings in it, pulled down the houses after they had rifled them, and burnt them with fire, that David and his men might dwell there no more.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
During David’s absence the Amalekites had invaded the south country, smitten Ziklag and burnt it down, and carried off the women and children whom they found there; whereat not only were David and his men plunged into great grief on their return upon the third day but David especially was involved in very great trouble, inasmuch as the people wanted to stone him. But he strengthened himself in the Lord his God (1Sa 30:1-6).
1Sa 30:1-5 1Sa 30:1-4 form one period, which is expanded by the introduction of several circumstantial clauses. The apodosis to “It came to pass, when,” etc. (1Sa 30:1), does not follow till 1Sa 30:4, “Then David and the people,” etc. But this is formally attached to 1Sa 30:3, “so David and his men came,” with which the protasis commenced in 1Sa 30:1 is resumed in an altered form. “ It came to pass, when David and his men came to Ziklag … the Amalekites had invaded … and had carried off the wives … and had gone their way, and David and his men came into the town (for ‘when David and his men came,’ etc.), and behold it was burned … . Then David and the people with him lifted up their voice.” “ On the third day:” after David’s dismission by Achish, not after David’s departure from Ziklag. David had at any rate gone with Achish beyond Gath, and had not been sent back till the whole of the princes of the Philistines had united their armies (1Sa 29:2.), so that he must have been absent from Ziklag more than two days, or two days and a half. This is placed beyond all doubt by 1Sa 30:11., since the Amalekites are there described as having gone off with their booty three days before David followed them, and therefore they had taken Ziklag and burned it three days before David’s return. These foes had therefore taken advantage of the absence of David and his warriors, to avenge themselves for David’s invasions and plunderings (1Sa 27:8). Of those who were carried off, “ the women ” alone expressly mentioned in 1Sa 30:2, although the female population and all the children had been removed, as we may see from the expression “ small and great ” (1Sa 30:3, 1Sa 30:6). The lxx were therefore correct, so far as the sense is concerned, in introducing the words before . “ They had killed no one, but (only) carried away.” , to carry away captive, as in Isa 20:4. Among those who had been carried off were David’s two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail (vid., 1Sa 25:42-43; 1Sa 27:3).
1Sa 30:6-10 David was greatly distressed in consequence; “ for the people thought (‘said,’ sc., in their hearts) to stone him,” because they sought the occasion of their calamity in his connection with Achish, with which many of his adherents may very probably have been dissatisfied. “ For the soul of the whole people was embittered (i.e., all the people were embittered in their souls) because of their sons and daughters,” who had been carried away into slavery. “ But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God,” i.e., sought consolation and strength in prayer and believing confidence in the Lord (1Sa 30:7.). This strength he manifested in the resolution to follow the foes and rescue their booty from them. To this end he had the ephod brought by the high priest Abiathar (cf. 1Sa 23:9), and inquired by means of the Urim of the Lord, “ Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake it? ” These questions were answered in the affirmative; and the promise was added, “ and thou wilt rescue.” So David pursued the enemy with his six hundred men as far as the brook Besor, where the rest, i.e., two hundred, remained standing (stayed behind). The words , which are appended in the form of a circumstantial clause, are to be connected, so far as the facts are concerned, with what follows: whilst the others remained behind, David pursued the enemy still farther with four hundred men. By the word the historian has somewhat anticipated the matter, and therefore regards it as necessary to define the expression still further in 1Sa 30:10. We are precluded from changing the text, as Thenius suggests, by the circumstance that all the early translators read it in this manner, and have endeavoured to make the expression intelligible by paraphrasing it. These two hundred men were too tired to cross the brook and go any farther. ( , which only occurs here and in 1Sa 30:21, signifies, in Syriac, to be weary or exhausted.) As Ziklag was burnt down, of course they found no provisions there, and were consequently obliged to set out in pursuit of the foe without being able to provide themselves with the necessary supplies. The brook Besor is supposed to be the Wady Sheriah, which enters the sea below Ashkelon (see v. Raumer, Pal. p. 52).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Ziklag Burnt. | B. C. 1055. |
1 And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; 2 And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. 3 So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. 4 Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 5 And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 6 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.
Here we have, I. The descent which the Amalekites made upon Ziklag in David’s absence, and the desolations they made there. They surprised the city when it was left unguarded, plundered it, burnt it, and carried all the women and children captives, 1Sa 30:1; 1Sa 30:2. They intended, by this to revenge the like havoc that David had lately made of them and their country, ch. xxvii. 8. He that had made so many enemies ought not to have left his own concerns so naked and defenceless. Those that make bold with others must expect that others will make as bold with them and provide accordingly. Now observe in this, 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. 2. How David was corrected for being so forward to go with the Philistines against Israel. God showed him that he had better have staid at home and looked after his own business. When we go abroad in the way of our duty we may comfortably hope that God will take care of our families in our absence, but not otherwise. 3. How wonderfully God inclined the hearts of these Amalekites to carry the women and children away captives, and not to kill them. When David invaded them he put all to the sword (ch. xxvii. 9), and no reason can be given why they did not retaliate upon this city, but that God restrained them; for he has all hearts in his hands, and says to the fury of the most cruel men, Hitherto thou shalt come, and no further. Whether they spared them to lead them in triumph, or to sell them, or to use them for slaves, God’s hand must be acknowledged, who designed to make use of the Amalekites for the correction, not for the destruction, of the house of David.
II. The confusion and consternation that David and his men were in when they found their houses in ashes and their wives and children gone into captivity. Three days’ march they had from the camp of the Philistines to Ziklag, and now that they came thither weary, but hoping to find rest in their houses and joy in their families, behold a black and dismal scene was presented to them (v. 3), which made them all weep (David himself not excepted), though they were men of war, till they had no more power to weep, v. 4. The mention of David’s wives, Ahinoam and Abigail, and their being carried captive, intimates that this circumstance went nearer his heart than any thing else. Note, It is no disparagement to the boldest and bravest spirits to lament the calamities of relations and friends. Observe, 1. This trouble came upon them when they were absent. It was the ancient policy of Amalek to take Israel at an advantage. 2. It met them at their return, and, for aught that appears, their own eyes gave them the first intelligence of it. Note, When we go abroad we cannot foresee what evil tidings may meet us when we come home again. The going out may be very cheerful, and yet the coming in be very doleful. Boast not thyself therefore of to-morrow, nor of to-night either, for thou knowest not what a day, or a piece of a day, may bring forth, Prov. xxvii. 1. If, when we come off a journey, we find our tabernacles in peace, and not laid waste as David here found his, let the Lord be praised for it.
III. The mutiny and murmuring of David’s men against him (v. 6): David was greatly distressed, for, in the midst of all his losses, his own people spoke of stoning him, 1. Because they looked upon him as the occasion of their calamities, by the provocation he had given the Amalekites, and his indiscretion in leaving Ziklag without a garrison in it. Thus apt are we, when we are in trouble, to fly into a rage against those who are in any way the occasion of our trouble, while we overlook the divine providence, and have not that regard to the operations of God’s hand in it which would silence our passions, and make us patient. 2. Because now they began to despair of that preferment which they had promised themselves in following David. They hoped ere this to have been all princes; and now to find themselves all beggars was such a disappointment to them as made them grow outrageous, and threaten the life of him on whom, under God, they had the greatest dependence. What absurdities will not ungoverned passions plunge men into? This was a sore trial to the man after God’s own heart, and could not but go very near him. Saul had driven him from his country, the Philistines had driven him from their camp, the Amalekites had plundered his city, his wives were taken prisoners, and now, to complete his woe, his own familiar friends, in whom he trusted, whom he had sheltered, and who did eat of his bread, instead of sympathizing with him and offering him any relief, lifted up the heel against him and threatened to stone him. 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. Things are sometimes at the worst with the church and people of God just before they begin to mend.
IV. David’s pious dependence upon the divine providence and grace in this distress: But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. His men fretted at their loss. The soul of the people was bitter, so the word is. Their own discontent and impatience added wormwood and gall to the affliction and misery, and made their case doubly grievous. But 1. David bore it better, though he had more reason than any of them to lament it; they gave liberty to their passions, but he set his graces on work, and by encouraging himself in God, while they dispirited each other, he kept his spirit calm and sedate. Or, 2. There may be a reference to the threatening words his men gave out against him. They spoke of stoning him; but he, not offering to avenge the affront, nor terrified by their menaces, encouraged himself in the Lord his God, believed, and considered with application to his present case, the power and providence of God, his justice and goodness, the method he commonly takes of bringing low and then raising up, his care of his people that serve him and trust in him, and the particular promises he had made to him of bringing him safely to the throne; with these considerations he supported himself, not doubting but the present trouble would end well. Note, Those that have taken the Lord for their God may take encouragement from their relation to him in the worst of times. It is the duty and interest of all good people, whatever happens, to encourage themselves in God as their Lord and their God, assuring themselves that he can and will bring light out of darkness, peace out of trouble, and good out of evil, to all that love him and are the called according to his purpose, Rom. viii. 28. It was David’s practice, and he had the comfort of it, What time I am afraid I will trust in thee. When he was at his wits’ end he was not at his faith’s end.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
First Samuel – Chapter 30
Sack of Ziklag, vs. 1-10
On the third day from the departure of David and his men from Aphek they arrived back at Ziklag to a shocking discovery. In their absence the Amalekites took advantage of the opportunity to avenge themselves for some of the raids they had suffered at David’s hands. They had taken the town and burned it to the ground. However, the Lord had caused them to spare the lives of the women and children, though the distraught men probably did not know it at the time. David’s wives were among those missing, and all the men wept bitterly, until they were powerless to weep any more.
Some of David’s mistakes were beginning to catch up with him in this trail, for he must have been out of the place the Lords wanted him here in the Philistine country. The Scriptures state, “David was greatly distressed.” There were several reasons for this: 1) His own wives, Ahinoam and Abigail, were among those captured; 2) there were threats against his life by the deeply aggrieved men, some of whom wished to stone him; 3) it was clearly a chastisement of the Lord. Very likely the men, or some of them, were opposed to going to the war against Israel in the first place. David’s insistence on going with the pagan army had led to this terrible catastrophe. It was very uncommon for the boys not to have been slaughtered, the women ravished, and the girls put into slavery. Thus one can appreciate the feeling of the poor men of David.
One of the marks of David’s greatness, so stressed later in his life, appears here. He repented and sought the will of the Lord. He sent for Abiathar the priest with the ephod to inquire of the will of God. David inquired whether he would overtake the enemy if he pursued after them. Not only did the Lord respond that he should pursue and would overtake them, but informed him also that he would recover all that the Amalekites had taken.
So David and his men pressed on immediately and came to the brook Besor. This was fifteen to twenty miles south to southwest of Ziklag in the wilderness area allotted to the tribe of Simeon. At this place two hundred of the men were too tired to get across the brook. After all they had marched many miles during the last four or five days, and the rapid pursuit from Ziklag totally exhausted them. These two hundred were left here at Besor with the camp gear while the remaining four hundred men pressed on in hot pursuit of the enemy.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES
1Sa. 30:1. The south, or the Negeb, the south country, so called by the Israelites as being the southern part of Palentine.
1Sa. 30:2. They slew not any. Not from motives of humanity, but because they reserved them for slaves.
1Sa. 30:6. The people spake, etc. Because they sought the occasion of their calamity in his connection with Achish, with which many of his adherents may very probably have been dissatisfied. (Keil.)
1Sa. 30:9. The brook Besor. Supposed to be Wady Sheriah, the deep bed of a winter torrent, which is distinctly traceable from the adjoining heights, in its sinuous course up to its source, far away in the distant hills of Judah. It is about thirty yards in width, and is flanked by high precipitous banks, pouring in the rainy season a copious volume of muddy water into the sea, but dwindling to a few stagnant pools in the dry season. The verdant bank of a stream naturally offered a convenient rest to the soldiers who, through fatigue, were unable to continue the pursuit. (Jamieson.)
1Sa. 30:11. An Egyptian. Taken by the Amalekites from his own country and retained as a slave.
1Sa. 30:11. Bread, rather food, the kind being afterwards specified.
1Sa. 30:12. Cake of Figs, etc. See on 1Sa. 25:18. Three days, etc. According to the Oriental mode of reckoning, three consecutive parts of days were reckoned three days (Jon. 1:7; Mat. 12:40, etc.). (Jamieson.)
1Sa. 30:14. Cherithites. Doubtless a Philistine tribe (see Eze. 25:16; Zep. 2:5). Caleb. That portion of the Negeb which belonged to Calebs family. The three regions which the Amalekites invaded are named from West to East. We hence see that the plundering expedition extended over the whole south country. (Erdmann.)
1Sa. 30:15. God. Elohim, not as in the case of Achish, by Jehovah.
1Sa. 30:17. From the twilight, etc. Keil understands this to mean from one evening until the following one; but it seems more reasonable to refer the twilight to the early dawn, and so to conclude that the pursuit only lasted one day, and that David surprised them by a night march; to the evening, etc., may be read toward the next day, which according to Hebrew reckoning began in the evening. (See Erdmann.)
1Sa. 30:20. The second clause of this verse is not, in the original, connected with the first, neither is the word other in the original. The verse is obscure, but the context shows that David not only recovered his own cattle, but took some from the Amalekites. (See 1Sa. 30:26-31.)
1Sa. 30:23. My brethren. By this address he speaks to their hearts, and at the same time alludes to the fraternal relation in which they all stand to one another. (Erdmann.)
1Sa. 30:25. So it was, etc. A similar law in Num. 31:27, only there the division is between the soldiery and those who stayed at home, the former having the advantage. Davids rule was perhaps a special application of the general principle; it was in force in the time of the Maccabees. (Transl. of Langes Commentary.)
1Sa. 30:27-31. The inhabitants of the cities and villages here enumerated had without doubt shown kindness to David during his wanderings in the wilderness of Judah; they were all, so far as they can be identified, situated in the territory of Judah and Simeon, and with the exception of Hebron (see on 2Sa. 2:1), they are unimportant. Bethel is not the famous city of that name, but probably Bethuel (1Ch. 4:30), or Bethul, in the tribe of Simeon (Jos. 19:4).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH
DAVID AVENGES THE PLUNDER AND BURNING OF ZIKLAG
I. Return to the path of duty will not ensure deliverance from all the consequences of transgression. We may well take for granted that David had seen the folly and sin of taking his own counsel and ordering his own path, instead of seeking for Divine guidance and resting in the Divine promise; and that he left the camp of Achish, feeling that his soul had escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler; that the snare was broken, and that his help was in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth (Psa. 124:7-8). But when he found what a calamity had befallen his family and his followers during his absence, and when he was upbraided as the cause of the misfortune, he learned a lesson which was repeated with a terrible emphasis in his later life, that the effects of sin often long outlive repentance and pardon.
II. But return to God in the way of duty will deliver from the worst consequences of transgression. Herein lies the all-important difference between Saul and David at this time. They had both been found in places entirely inconsistent with their calling, and unworthy of the honour which God had put upon them, and in both lack of faith in God was the cause of their fall. And chastisement had come to both in consequencenot only had Saul been brought into great straits, but David also had found himself in a position which to him must have been one of most painful perplexity. But here the analogy between them ceases, and the contrast begins. The retribution which came upon Saul drove him to yet more daring disobedience to God, even to an act of the most open defiance of His authority; but the retribution which fell upon David brought him back to the path of obedience, and when he was again in it the wall of separation which his sin had built up between God and his soul was broken down, and he could again look up to Jehovah for direction in his difficulties. Although he had not yet paid all the penalty of his wandering, the worst effect of it was done away with when he could in confidence inquire of the Lord in His appointed way. Henry says, The only way to flee from God is to flee to Him, and David, in common with all who have known both the bitterness of sin and the sweetness of pardon, proved this now and on many other occasions.
III. A sudden transition from adversity to prosperity is a revelation of character. The sunlight not only causes the flowers to spring out of the ground, but it also draws forth many creeping things which the frost held hidden beneath the surface. And prosperity has the same twofold effect upon human souls. While it enlarges the heart of the truly great man, and causes him to remember with gratitude the friends who have helped him in the time of need, it often narrows the ignoble soul, and makes a selfish man more selfish than he was before. For men are not covetous because they are poor, nor liberal because they have abundance; that which a man has does not make him what he is, or wealth and a bountiful disposition would always go together. The sudden good fortune which came at this time to David and his followers revealed the difference in their disposition; for while he desired that as many as possible should share in it, they would have withholden a portion from those of their own company who had been unable to go with them to the battle. But the root of this difference is to be found in this case, as in all similar cases, in the opposite view which men take of the wealth which they possess. In Davids estimation it was that which the Lord hath given us (1Sa. 30:23); in the eyes of his men it was the spoil which we have recovered (1Sa. 30:22). It is only when men receive all from God that they use it for God, and in so doing make their abundance a blessing and not a curse to themselves.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
1Sa. 30:6. The holy man here liveth when his heart dieth. As the sap in winter retreateth to the root, and there is preserved, so the saint in crosses retireth to God, the fountain of his life; and so is comforted. When Davids table of earthly comforts, which for a long time at best had been but indifferently spread for him, was quite empty, he fetcheth sweetmeats out of his heavenly closet. The saint in the sharpest winter sits at a good fire. When abused by strangers he can complain to and comfort himself in his Father.Swinnock.
1Sa. 30:8. If it was a duty under the Old Testament, in an enterprise pertaining to war, thus to turn first to God before resolving on anything, that yet the spirit of the Old Testament carried along with it, and did not absolutely forbid, how much more among Christians under the New Testament should nothing of the sort be done without the Divine consent.Berlenberger Bible.
1Sa. 30:13. Here is a warning to Christian nations, who have, what the Amalekites had not, a clear revelation of Gods will in the Gospel with regard to slavery. It may be expected that he will visit them with retribution in mysterious ways of His Providence, when they least anticipate it, for acts of cruelty to slaves.Wordsworth.
1Sa. 30:24. This decree, that they who for good reasons (see 1Sa. 30:21) tarry with the stuff shall share alike with those who go down to the battle, is not without its meaning.
In the heavenly Church of God,
His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,
And post oer land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.
Milton.
Moses, praying on the hill, contributed to the victory even more than Joshua fighting on the plain. And in the Christian Church provision ought to be made for prayer and meditation, and for patient study of Gods word, as well as for the more active exercise of pastoral duties (see 1Ti. 4:13; 2Ti. 4:13).Wordsworth.
Those that represent God upon earth, should resemble him in their proceedings. It is the just mercy of our God to measure us by our wills, not by our abilities; to recompense us graciously, according to the truth of our desires and endeavours; and to account that performed by us, which He only letteth us from performing. It were wide with us, if sometimes purpose did not supply actions. While our heart faulteth not, we that, through spiritual sickness, are fain to bide by the stuff, shall share both in grace and glory with the victors.Bishop Hall.
1Sa. 30:1-26. Two Pictures. I. The sorrowful return.
1. He had left home without seeking the Lords guidanceapparently to fight against the Lords peopleuncertain and unhappy.
2. He had returned, because distrusted, and sent away in dishonour.
3. He found his home in ashes and his family carried away captive.
4. His personal wretchedness was enhanced by the natural wrath of his friends. II. The subsequent joyful return. I. He leaves with explicit Divine direction and promiseto fight national as well as private enemieshopeful and happy.
2. He returns victorious and honoured.
3. He has regained greater wealth than he had lost.
4. His personal joy is increased by the privilege of sending gifts to his friends. And what unites the two pictures? His sorrowful return led him to deep penitence, revived faith, and humble prayer, and from these resulted the joyful return. Sore afflictions, when rightly borne, often open the way to lifes sweetest joy.Translator of Langes Commentary.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Davids Return to Ziklag, 1Sa. 30:1-31.
Davids Camp Looted. 1Sa. 30:1-6
And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
2 And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.
3 So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.
4 Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
5 And Davids two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
6 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.
1.
Why had the Amalekites sacked Ziklag? 1Sa. 30:1
David and his men had made expeditions against these people when David wanted to impress Achish (1Sa. 27:9-12). These Bedouin peoples had probably watched the departure of David and his men and had taken advantage of the opportunity to capture their women, children, and possessions. It is ironical that the people who led this expedition against David were the people whom Saul had been sent to destroy. Evidently Saul had not only spared the king, but had allowed some of the men to escape. These people then rose up to cause trouble for David.
2.
Why had they not slain any? 1Sa. 30:2
They had not followed Davids method of warfare. David had the extreme need for ridding himself of any witnesses and had entered into campaigns of total extermination. The captives taken by the Amalekites were probably destined to the Egyptian slave market. This was the way in which the Midianites were introduced in the days of Joseph. They bought him for twenty pieces of silver and took him to Egypt, where he was sold (Gen. 37:36).
3.
What caused Davids excessive grief? 1Sa. 30:4
David and his men had marched with the rearward of the Philistine armies as far as Aphek. There they were halted by the lords of the Philistines who were making the final assignments for the battle in the north. After they were discharged, they made a forced march for three days and had arrived in their home only to find it pillaged and burned. They wept until they had no more tears and no more mental, physical, or nervous energy to expend in their grief.
4.
Why did the men blame David? 1Sa. 30:6
The men felt that their association with David would ultimately bring them only misfortune. The men are described as being bitter of soul. This description fits angry men as is evidenced by Jdg. 18:25 and 2Sa. 17:8. The Shunamite woman whose son had died is described in this same way as she fell at Elishas feet (2Ki. 4:27). The same idea is expressed in an attempt to describe Jacobs fear and distress as he was about to return to meet Esau (Gen. 32:7-8) and also the people of Israel as the Canaanite peoples whom they had left in the land distressed them (Jdg. 2:15). These men were at their wits end. Since David was their captain and ultimately responsible for the major decisions, they blamed him for all that had befallen them. They even considered seriously the actual stoning of David.
5.
How was David sustained in the day of peril? 1Sa. 30:6 b
Hardly any stranger circumstances can be imagined than those which confronted David upon his return to Ziklag, He and his men had hurriedly returned from Aphek to Ziklag by a forced march of three days duration. Their welcome consisted of charred remains of what had been their homes and the knowledge that their women, children, and cattle had been driven away as spoil by the plundering Amalekites. Their grief was such that they wept until the fountains of weeping were run dry, and then the men turned and vented their grief by anger at David. There were conversations directed towards stirring up the men to stone David. In all this, we read, David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. By such faith David was sustained even in days of greatest peril.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) On the third dayThat is, on the third day after King Achish, in consequence of the remonstrances of the Philistine chieftains, had dismissed David and his contingent from the ranks of the Philistine army. This dismissal could hardly have taken place at Shunem, in the Esdraelon (Jezreel) Vale, for Shunem is some ninety miles distant from Ziklag. The division of Achish had marched from Gath with David; and somewhere in Philistia, after the whole force had been gathered into one, the scene which resulted in Davids services being dispensed with took place.
The Amalekites had invaded the south.This was partly in retaliation for the late raids of David in the Amalekite country, partly because Amalek had heard that, owing to the Philistine and Israelite armies having left the southern districts for the central part of Canaan, all the south country was left unguarded. The south, that is, the Negeb, or the dry land-all the southern part of Judea; it included also a part of the Arabian Desert.
And smitten Ziklag.This was an act of vengeance, Ziklag being the city of that famous Israelite chieftain David, who had done so much damage to Amalek, and who had treated the captives with such cruelty. While other parts of the south were simply plundered, Ziklag was marked for utter destruction was sacked and burned.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
DAVID’S RETURN TO ZIKLAG, AND REVENGE UPON THE AMALEKITES, 1Sa 30:1-31.
1. On the third day The third day after his removal from the Philistine army. So David must have this time been absent from Ziklag at least five or six days.
The Amalekites Another predatory horde of the same nation as those whom David had but recently smitten. 1Sa 27:8.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
David Arrives At Ziklag To Find It In Ruins With All Its Inhabitants Taken To Be Sold Into Slavery By The Amalekites ( 1Sa 30:1-31 ).
David and his men arrived back in Ziklag after a two day march only to discover that it had been sacked in their absence. Taking advantage of the Philistine invasion which had fully occupied the warriors of both Philistia and Israel, a confederation of tribes of the fierce and nomadic Amalekites took the opportunity to ravage the towns in the Negeb (the extreme South of Canaan). Their purpose was in order to obtain spoil and slaves to be sold in Egypt. The size of the spoil that they took demonstrates the large scale nature of their invasion. This was not just one wandering tribe, but a gathering of a good number of them.
The consequence was that all the women and children of David’s men had been taken to be sold into slavery. Indeed David’s men were so angered by the fact that they were considering stoning David. Was it not he who had persuaded them to take up residence in this vulnerable town? Was he not responsible for its defence? Why had he allowed it to be denuded of protectors? Things were looking very uncomfortable. David, however, in this emergency, sought to the only One Whom he knew could help him in these circumstance. He turned to YHWH for strength and guidance.
The writer may well have seen in this attack by the Amalekites on Ziklag, (a city which at the time contained the weak and the helpless of those who were to be the foundation of the new nation of Israel/Judah), a parallel to what had previously happened under Moses. When Moses had begun the journey through the wilderness with the new nation of Israel, and with the conquest of God’s inheritance (Canaan) in his mind’s eye, the first adversaries who had molested God’s people were the Amalekites (Exo 17:8; Num 24:20; Deu 25:17-19), and they had attacked the weak and the helpless among God’s people (Deu 25:18), only to give Moses his first victory after leaving Egypt. Now the weak and the helpless of the people through whom YHWH was again shortly to deliver Israel had been molested by the Amalekites, and the Amalekites were to be defeated again, in accordance with Exo 17:16, by the one who would then go on to take over God’s inheritance. The writer possibly saw history as repeating itself.
Analysis.
a
b And when David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captive (1Sa 30:3).
c Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep (1Sa 30:4).
And David’s two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters (1Sa 30:5-6 a).
a But David strengthened himself in YHWH his God (1Sa 30:6 b).
Note that in ‘a’ the tragic situation is described, and in the parallel David strengthens himself in YHWH. In ‘b’ the wives, sons and daughters are carried away captive, and in the parallel David has lost his wives and David’s men are grieved at losing their sons and daughters. Centrally in ‘c’ the great grief and loss of David and his men is described.
1Sa 30:1-2
‘ And it came about that, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negeb, and on Ziklag, and had smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They did not kill any, but carried them off, and went their way.’
After two days fast travel David and his men arrived back at Ziklag ‘on the third day’, only to discover that it had been invaded and burned with fire in their absence. For in their absence the various Amalekite tribesmen who inhabited the Sinai peninsula, seeing their opportunity to attack the vulnerable, had gathered in a confederation and had swooped down on the Negeb, including Ziklag, and had carried off the inhabitants to be sold into slavery in Egypt. Everyone had been taken, both small and great.
1Sa 30:3
‘ And when David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captive.’
Thus on their arrival David and his men were confronted with a devastating scene. Their city had been burned with fire, and all their wives, sons and daughters had been taken captive. Not one remained. This was typical of Amalekite behaviour and helps to explain why their destruction was seen as necessary by YHWH with the safety of His people in mind. While Amalekites were roving around, no one was safe.
1Sa 30:4
‘ Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.’
The sight of their desolate city and the empty houses must have been devastating to David and his men, who had arrived with such hopes. It meant that all that they lived and fought for was lost to them. In one go they had lost everything that they cared for most. It is then no wonder that they wept at what they had lost until in the end they had no more tears. All that they loved was gone, and the situation appeared hopeless.
1Sa 30:5
‘ And David’s two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.’
Among those taken were David’s two beautiful wives, Ahinoam and Abigail, who were to be founders of his dynasty. Their separate mention emphasises the importance attached to them. But he was not alone in his loss. All the married men among them had lost wives.
1Sa 30:6
‘ And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters.’
When he saw the desolation of his men, and recognised their bitterness towards him as a result, David was grieved at heart, not so much because they considered stoning him, as because of why they considered doing so. It was because they saw him as having failed them. For, along with their wives, all their sons and daughters had also been carried of, with the result that there were mutterings among the men about stoning David who as their leader had, in their view, to bear the responsibility for this dreadful circumstance. If only he had left behind sufficient men to defend the city, or if only he had not left it in the first place when he had clearly not been wanted, this catastrophe would not have happened. (We must remember that men do not think rationally under such circumstances. They have to find someone on whom to release their anger). And to a certain extent he knew that they were right. It had been his responsibility to ensure that the city could be defended, and that enough troops had been left behind for the purpose. And he had no doubt thought that he had, but he had been proved wrong. Thus he had failed them.
1Sa 30:6 b
‘But David strengthened himself in YHWH his God.’
But it is in such circumstances that combined spiritual and leadership qualities come out. Instead of despairing David promptly looked to YHWH and found strength. He knew that YHWH was with him and that while YHWH lived there was hope, even if he himself had made a mess of it. He knew that in his extremity YHWH was there with him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Sa 30:1-31 David Victory at Ziklag 1Sa 30:1-31 records the story of the captivity of the families of David and his men at Ziklag, and his victory over the Amalekites to recover them.
Why would God record such a dramatic story in the Holy Scriptures? One possible answer is that this story lets us know that there is no situation too terrible that we cannot praise Him and thus, find the victory. Did not the Lord give David the victory when he encouraged himself in the Lord (1Sa 30:6)?
1Sa 30:6, “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.”
Did not the Lord deliver Jonah from the belly of the whale when he began to praise and acknowledge the greatness of the Lord (see Jon 2:1-10)?
Was not Job’s captivity turned when he prayed and acknowledged God’s greatness (see Job 42:1-10)?
Does not Habakkuk tell us to praise Him in difficult times (Hab 3:17-18)?
Hab 3:17-18, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
Were not Paul and Silas delivered from prison when they began to praise the Lord (Act 16:25-26)
Act 16:25-26, “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.”
Many of the Psalms reveal to us that David worshipped the Lord during the most difficult times in his life. Even when David sinned with Bathsheba and God judged the child so that it died, David worshipped the Lord. As a result, the Lord gave David another son by Bathsheba.
2Sa 12:20, “Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.”
Here is a proposed outline:
Suffering Overcome (How to win the battle)
Vs.1-6 – The Disaster of Everything, Devastation or Dispossession.
1Sa 30:6 (c)-8 – The Decision of Encouragement – The decisive decision was not to pursue men first, but to pursue God first. The real battle took place here.
Vs.9-20 – The Defeat of the Enemy
Comfort Administered (How to Share the victory)
Vs.21-25 – The Disbursement to Everyone – A king makes a decree (vs.25). Distribution, Dispensing, Division, Disbursement.
Vs.26-31- The Duty of Indebtedness.
1Sa 30:1 And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
1Sa 30:1
1Sa 30:1 “the Amalekites” Comments – Amalek was a grandson to Esau (Gen 36:12). In Exo 17:11, the Amalekites were defeated as long as Moses help up his hands. This represents prayer and praise to God. So this is how David must defeat them. The Amalekites were under a curse (Num 24:19-20).
Gen 36:12, “And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau’s son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau’s wife.”
Exo 17:11, “And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.”
Num 24:19-20, “Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city. And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever.”
If they represent the flesh, then:
2Co 4:16, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”
1Sa 30:1 Comments – Ziklag was the only earthly security they had. Sometimes, we lose all the securities we see and only have God to trust in.
1Sa 30:3 So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.
1Sa 30:3
Their leaving the city was for good intention even, to help out the king, but it resulted in disaster for them. How greatly discouraged they were even while coming back from not being able to fight with Philistines.
Their loss was complete, the loss of everything that meant anything to them.
1Sa 30:4 Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
1Sa 30:4
1Sa 30:6 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.
1Sa 30:6
Exo 15:23, “And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.”
Comments – The people, especially the wicked men, the men of Belial, in David’s group, looked for someone to blame. Note:
1Sa 30:22, “Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will not give them ought of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away, and depart.”
1Sa 30:6 “but David encourage himself in the Lord his God” Word Study on “encouraged himself” – Holladay says the Hebrew word ( ) (H2388) is the Hithpael, and means, “to feel oneself strengthened.” This same Hebrew word is also used in:
Num 13:20, “And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage , and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes.”
Deu 1:38, “But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.”
Deu 3:28, “But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.”
Deu 31:7, “And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the LORD hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.”
Jdg 20:22, “And the people the men of Israel encouraged t hemselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day.
2Sa 11:25, “Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him.”
2Ch 31:4, “Moreover he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the LORD.
2Ch 35:2, “And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the LORD,”
Psa 64:5, “They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?
Comments – David had learned how to be strengthened in the Lord during the most difficult times in his life. When the son of Bathsheba died, the Scriptures say that David came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped.
2Sa 12:20, “Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.”
The Lord was David’s God. The phrase “his God” brings out the fact that God was real and living in David’s life, and that God was personally concerned for David as an individual (Heb 11:6).
Heb 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
There was absolutely no man there to give David courage to go on except God Himself. There will be times in our own lives when no one around us is able to lift us up but God.
In 2000, when I was feeling emotionally down, I had a dream. In that dream, I was caught up in heavenly worship. I joined in this angelic choir, lost in worship and adoration to the Lord. I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and strengthen in my heart. The Lord was teaching me how to find strength in Him when the circumstances in life are difficult.
Comments – The tragedy at Ziglag was similar to Job’s disaster. The righteous man’s heart will always turn to God when disaster falls, and not blame God.
Job 1:21-22, “And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”
Psa 34:1, “A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed. I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
Eph 5:20, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;”
Scripture References – God encourages Joshua (Jos 1:6-7)
Jos 1:6-7, “Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.”
The children of Israel encouraged themselves (Jdg 20:22).
Jdg 20:22, “And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day.”
The Philistines encouraged themselves (1Sa 4:7-9).
1Sa 4:7-9, “And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore. Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.”
Paul encourages Timothy (2Ti 2:1)
2Ti 2:1, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
Note other Scriptures regarding encouragement:
Psa 27:13, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”
Psa 62:1-12, especially:
Psa 62:1, “To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.”
Also:
Psa 62:5, My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.”
Psa 68:35, “O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places: the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God.”
Isa 40:31, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Zec 10:12, “And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the LORD.”
Eph 3:16, “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;”
Eph 6:10, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”
Col 1:11, “Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;”
1Pe 5:10, “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”
1Sa 30:6 Comments – There are two reactions of people to tragedy:
1. To become grieved or embittered, or
2. To find comfort in the Lord your God.
Comments – How do we encourage ourselves?
Psa 27:14, “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”
Psa 31:24, “Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.”
1Sa 30:7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.
1Sa 30:7
1Sa 30:7 “I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod” Comments – Why holy garments?
1. For glory and for beauty:
Exo 28:2, “And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty .”
Exo 28:40, “And for Aaron’s sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and bonnets shalt thou make for them, for glory and for beauty .”
2. To consecrate him, that he may be a minister:
Exo 28:3, “And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office .”
3. That they bear not iniquity and die:
Exo 28:43, “And they shall be upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place; that they bear not iniquity , and die: it shall be a statute for ever unto him and his seed after him.”
Note a similar verse in the New Testament:
Eph 6:14, “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness ;”
Thus:
Rom 5:1-2, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Heb 4:15-16, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
Heb 5:1, “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.”
1Sa 30:8 And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.
1Sa 30:8
Gen 14:16, “And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.”
Scripture References – Note:
Exo 9:16, “And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.”
Exo 18:11, “Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.”
Job 40:11-12, “Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him. Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.”
Psa 33:10, “The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.”
Psa 76:10, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.”
Psa 119:21, “Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments.”
Luk 1:51, “He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.”
1Pe 5:5, “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”
1Sa 30:8 Comments – These things rightfully belonged to David and his men. They were going to recover what was already theirs
If we take God’s Word and act upon it, we will be rewarded also.
1Sa 30:9 So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed.
1Sa 30:9
1Pe 1:13, “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; “
How do we do the same?
Heb 12:1-3, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
1Sa 30:10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.
1Sa 30:10
1Sa 25:13, “And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.”
1Sa 30:11 And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water;
1Sa 30:11
1Sa 30:1, “And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day , that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;”
1Sa 30:16 And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, 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.
1Sa 30:16
Luk 12:19-20, “And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?”
Luk 17:27-29, “They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”
Luk 21:34, “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.”
Scripture References – Note:
1Th 5:3, “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”
1Sa 30:17 And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.
1Sa 30:17
1Sa 30:18 And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives.
1Sa 30:19 1Sa 30:20 1Sa 30:20
1Ti 5:17, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.”
1Sa 30:21 And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besor: and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with him: and when David came near to the people, he saluted them.
1Sa 30:21
1Sa 30:22 Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will not give them ought of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away, and depart.
1Sa 30:22
1Sa 30:22 “that they may lead them away and depart” Comments – These wicked men wanted to kick these two hundred men out of the group.
1Sa 30:23 Then said David, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the LORD hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand.
1Sa 30:23
1Sa 30:23 Comments – The Lord both kept David and men safe and delivered the enemy into their hands.
Rom 8:31, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”
1Sa 30:24 For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike.
1Sa 30:24
Exo 16:17-18, “And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.”
Act 2:45, “And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.”
2Co 8:14-15, “But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality: As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.”
2Co 1:3-4, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
Eph 4:28, “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”
Scripture References – Note similar verses:
Num 31:21-24, “And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD commanded Moses; Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead, Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water. And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp.”
Jos 22:8, “And he spake unto them, saying, Return with much riches unto your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver, and with gold, and with brass, and with iron, and with very much raiment: divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren .”
Rom 15:1, “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak , and not to please ourselves.”
Gal 6:2, “ Bear ye one another’s burdens , and so fulfil the law of Christ.”
1Sa 30:23-24 Comments David’s Grace – David shows grace to these wicked men by his patience with them and grace to those left at Besor by giving them also of the spoil.
1Sa 30:25 And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day.
1Sa 30:25
1Sa 30:26-31 David Repays Those Who Had Helped Him in Exile – When David became blessed by God, he felt indebted to those who assisted him. We have been given an obligation to share what God has given us.
Rom 1:14, “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.”
1Co 9:16, “For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!”
1Sa 30:31 And to them which were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt.
1Sa 30:31
1Sa 30:31 Word Study on “to haunt” Strong says the Hebrew word “haunt” ( ) (H1980) means, “to walk, go, wander.”
1Sa 30:31 Comments – In 1Sa 30:26-31, David was paying back what he had used from these places for his men, in his appreciation.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
David’s Return to Ziklag
v. 1. And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, v. 2. and had taken the women captives that were therein, v. 3. So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters were taken captives.
v. 4. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. v. 5. And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal, the Carmelite.
v. 6. And David was greatly distressed, v. 7. And David said to Abiathar, the priest, Ahimelech’s son, v. 8. And David inquired at the Lord, v. 9. So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, v. 10. But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
DAVID RESCUES HIS WIVES FROM THE AMALEKITES (1Sa 30:1-31).
EXPOSITION
DAVID UPON HIS RETURN FINDS ZIKLAG BURNT BY THE AMALEKITES (1Sa 30:1-6).
1Sa 30:1
On the third day. David evidently could not have gone with the Philistines As far as to Shunem; for, as noticed in the previous chapter, it would have been impossible to march back to Ziklag in so short a time. But as he had gone first to Gath, where no doubt Achish collected his vassals, and then marched northwards with the army for two days, he must altogether have been absent from Ziklag for some little time. The Amalelkites. Doubtless they were glad to retaliate upon David for his cruel treatment of them; but, besides, they lived by rapine, and when the fighting men of Philistia and of Judaea were marching away to war, it was just the opportunity which they wished of spoiling the defenceless country. The south. I.e. the Negeb, for which see 1Sa 27:10. It was the name especially given to the southern district of Judah, whence these freebooters turned westward towards Ziklag. They would probably not dare to penetrate far into either territory. The word for invaded is the same as in 1Sa 27:8, and implies that they spread themselves over the country to drive off cattle and booty, but with no intention of fighting battles.
1Sa 30:2-5
They slew not any. No resistance was made, as the men of war were all away. It was probably for thus leaving their wives and families absolutely defenceless that David’s people were so angry with him. As we are told in 1Sa 27:3 that the refugees with David had brought each his household with him into the Philistine territory, the number of women must have been large. The Amalekites spared their lives, not because they were more merciful than David, but because women and children were valuable as slaves. All the best would be picked out, and sent probably to Egypt for sale.
1Sa 30:6
The soul of all the people was grieved. Hebrew, “was bitter.” Their great sorrow is pathetically described in 1Sa 30:4. But, as is often the case with those in distress, from grief they turned to anger, and sought relief for their feelings by venting their rage upon the innocent. Possibly David had not taken precautions against a danger which he had not apprehended; but, left almost friendless in the angry crowd who were calling out to stone him, he encouraged himself in Jehovah, his God. Literally, “strengthened himself in Jehovah, and summoned the priest to ask counsel and guidance of God by the ephod.
DAVID‘S PURSUIT OF THE AMALEKITES (1Sa 30:7-16).
1Sa 30:7, 1Sa 30:8
Looking only to Jehovah for aid, David sends for Abiathar, who seems to have remained constantly with him, and bids him consult Jehovah by the Urim. In strong contrast to the silence which surrounds Saul (1Sa 28:6), the answer is most encouraging. Literally it is, “Pursue; for overtaking thou shalt overtake, and delivering thou shalt deliver.”
1Sa 30:9, 1Sa 30:10
Having obtained this favourable answer, David starts in pursuit with his old band of 600 men. So rapid was his march that one third of these dropped out of the ranks, so that the newcomers from Manasseh would have been useless, nor had they lost wives or children. The brook (or rather “torrent”) Besor practically remains unidentified, as the site of Ziklag is unknown; but possibly it is the Wady-es-Sheriah, which runs into the sea a little to the south of Gaza. As there was water here, those that were left behind stayed. Hebrew, “the stragglers stayed.” It seems also to have been wide enough to cause some difficulty in crossing, as it is said that these 200 were too faint, or tired, to go over the torrent Besor. From verse 24 we find that David also left with them as much as possible of his baggage. Stragglers had no doubt been falling out for some time, but would here be rallied, and obtain rest and refreshment.
1Sa 30:11, 1Sa 30:12
An Egyptian, the slave, as we read in 1Sa 30:13, of some Amalekite, left in the field, in the open common, to perish. He had become faint and could not travel as fast as they did, and so was left behind with no supplies of food, for he had eaten nothing for three days and three nights. The Amalekites had thus a start of at least this time, or even more, as this slave would probably have carried some food away with him from Ziklag.
1Sa 30:13
To whom belongest thou? As he was probably unarmed, and his garb that of a slave, David asks who is his owner and what his country. He learns from him besides that he was left behind three days ago because he fell sick. The word does not imply more than temporary faintness, and is that translated sorry in 1Sa 22:8. But his life was of too little value for them to mount him on a camel, or even to leave with him supplies of food, and so their inhumanity led to their destruction.
1Sa 30:14
The Cherethites. The interest in this people arises from David’s bodyguard having been composed of foreigners bearing the name of Cherethim and Pelethim. We here find the Cherethim inhabiting the southern portion of the land of the Philistines, and such was still the case in the days of Zephaniah (Zep 2:5, and compare Eze 25:16). As David retained Ziklag (1Sa 27:6), he appears to have chosen the men who were to guard his person from this neighbourhood, having probably been struck by their stature and martial bearing when dwelling among them. Hence it is probable that the Pelethim were also a Philistine race. Whether the Cherethim and the Philistines generally came from Crete to Palestine is a very disputed question, but they were certainly not indigenous, but immigrants into Canaan. Caleb. Upon the settlement of the Israelites in Canaan, Hebron with a large district in the south of Judah was assigned to Caleb the Kenezite, who with his clan had been incorporated into the tribe of Judah. Though the town was afterwards assigned to the priests, the whole country round remained subject to Caleb (Jos 21:11, Jos 21:12), and continued to bear his name. Evidently the Amalekites, beginning on the east, had swept the whole southern district of Judah before entering the country of the Philistines, where they no doubt burnt Ziklag in revenge for David’s cruel treatment of them.
1Sa 30:15
To this company. Better, “troop.” The word signifies a band of soldiers, robbers, or the like. Required by David to act as his guide, the Egyptian consents upon condition that David bind himself neither to kill him, it being one of the unscrupulous customs of ancient warfare to put deserters, persons forced to act as guides, and even noncombatants, to death to save trouble; nor give him up to his master, who would treat him in the same way.
1Sa 30:16
When he had brought them down. Though left behind, the Egyptian knew the course which the Amalekites intended to take, and was thus able to bring David quickly up to them, as they would move slowly because of their large booty of cattle. On overtaking them David found them dispersed in scattered groups abroad upon all the earth (literally, “over the face of all the land”), eating and drinking, and dancing. More probably, “feasting.” The word literally means keeping festival; but though they had solemn dances at festivals, yet, as is the case with our word feasting, good eating was probably the uppermost idea; still the word may have only the general sense of “enjoying themselves as on a festival.”
DEFEAT OF THE AMALEKITES AND RECOVERY OF THE WOMEN AND SPOIL (1Sa 30:17-20).
1Sa 30:17
From the twilight. It has been debated whether this means the evening or the morning twilight; but the words which follow, “unto the evening of the next day,” literally, “of (or for) their morrow,” seem to prove that it was in the evening that David arrived. Moreover, in the morning they would not have been feasting, but sleeping. David probably attacked them at once, and slew all within reach until nightfall. The next morning the battle was renewed; but as David had but 400 men, and the Amalekites covered a large extent of country, and probably tried to defend themselves and their booty, it was not till towards the next evening that the combat and the pursuit were over. As they would need pasture and water for their cattle, they had evidently broken up into detachments, which had gone each into a different place with their herds. The pursuit must have been prolonged to a considerable distance, as no more than 400 young men escaped, and even they only by the aid of their camels.
1Sa 30:18, 1Sa 30:19
Recovered. Hebrew, “rescued,” or “delivered.” The word occurs again in the second clause of the verse, and is there translated “rescued.” Had carried away. Hebrew, “had taken.” In 1Sa 30:19 recovered is literally “caused to return,” i.e. restored.
1Sa 30:20
This verse, which is made unintelligible in the A.V. by the insertion of the unauthorised word which, is really free from difficulty. After David, as related in 1Sa 30:18, 1Sa 30:19, had recovered the cattle carried oft by the Amalekites, he also took all the flocks and herds belonging to them; and his own men “made these go in front of that body of cattle, and said, This is David’s spoil,” i.e. they presented it to him by acclamation. It was this large booty which he distributed among his friends (1Sa 30:26-31).
DAVID ENACTS A LAW FOR THE DIVISION OF THE SPOIL (1Sa 30:21-25).
1Sa 30:21, 1Sa 30:22
On returning David finds the 200 stragglers, whom they had made to abide at the brook Besor. Rather, “whom he had, made to abide,” as it was David’s office to give such a command. The singular is supported by all the versions except the Chaldee, and by some MSS. David had made such men as were growing weary halt at the torrent, because it was a fit place where to collect the stragglers, and also, perhaps, because it would have required time and labour to get the baggage across. All the more wicked and worthless (see on 1Sa 1:16) members of the force now propose to give the 200, only their wives and children, and send them away with no share of the spoil. Besides the sheep and oxen given to David, there would be camels and other animals, arms, gold and silver, clothing, and other personal property.
1Sa 30:23, 1Sa 30:24
Ye shall not do so, my brethren. David rejects their unjust proposal kindly, but firmly. With that which. i.e. in respect of that which, etc. Who will hearken unto you in this matter? Literally, “this word,” this proposal of yours. David then enacts that those left to guard the baggage are to share in the booty equally with the combatants. Patrick in his commentary quotes a similar rule enacted by Publius Scipio after the capture of New Carthage (Polybius, 10; 1Sa 15:5).
1Sa 30:25
That he made it. I.e. David. Having been thus enacted by him and practised during his life, no king henceforward would venture to change it. In the war with the Midianites Moses had ordered that half the spoil should belong to the combatants and half to the congregation who remained in the camp (Num 31:27). This enactment of David was in the same spirit.
DAVID PROPITIATES HIS FRIENDS BY SHARING WITH THEM HIS BOOTY (1Sa 30:26-31).
1Sa 30:26
The elders of Judah. The spoil taken from the Amalekites and assigned to David must have been very large, as it was worth distributing so widely. He did not, however, send to all the elders of Judah, but to such only as were his friends. A present. Hebrew, “a blessing” (see on 1Sa 25:27).
1Sa 30:27
Bethel cannot be the famous city of that name, but is probably the Bethul of Jos 19:4, where it is mentioned as lying near Hormah and Ziklag. South Ramoth. Hebrew, “Ramoth-Negeb,” called Ramath-Negeb in Jos 19:8. Like Bethul, it was a Simeonite village. Jattir belonged to Judah (Jos 15:48), and was one of the cities assigned to the priests (Jos 21:14).
1Sa 30:28
Aroer, a different place from that on the eastern side of the Jordan, mentioned in Jos 12:2, is probably the ruin ‘Ar’arah, twelve miles east of Beer-sheba. Siphmoth. Some village in the Negeb, but unknown. Eshtemoa (Jos 15:50), the present village Semu’ah, south of Hebron.
1Sa 30:29
Rachal. Rather Racal, unknown, The supposition that it may be Camel is untenable. The Jerahmeelites; see on 1Sa 27:10, as also for the Kenites.
1Sa 30:30
Hormah. Anciently called Zephath. For the reason of the change of name see Jdg 1:17. Chor-ashan. More correctly Cor-ashan, the same place as Ashan (Jos 15:42), a Simeonite town (1Ch 4:32) assigned to the priests (Jos 6:1-27 :59). Athach, never mentioned elsewhere, may be a false reading for Ether (Jos 19:7).
1Sa 30:31
Hebron, destined soon to become David’s capital (2Sa 2:1), lay about fourteen miles south of Jerusalem. For an account of it see Conder, ‘Tent Work,’ 2.79, sqq. In comparing the list of David’s heroes (1Ch 11:26-47) with this catalogue of friendly towns, it will be found that several of them came from them, and had probably shared his exile at Ziklag. Such were Ira and Gareb, Ithrites from Jattir, Shama and Jehiel from Aroer; perhaps also Zabdi the Shiphmite (1Ch 27:27) came from Siphmoth. We find David in this narrative acting justly as a soldier, generously to those who had been kind to him in his wanderings, and forming friendships which he retained and cherished long afterwards, when from being a fugitive he had become a king.
HOMILETICS.
1Sa 30:1-10
The spiritual uses of calamity.
The facts are
1. David, on returning to Ziklag with his men, discovers that the Amalekites had smitten it and carried off the families as captives.
2. In their deep distress David and his men weep bitterly.
3. On a mutiny arising among his men, threatening his life, David betakes himself to God for comfort and guidance.
4. Inquiring of God through the high priest, he receives assurance of success in pursuing the Amalekites, and therefore, leaving the faint at Besor, he presses on with the rest of his force. The sojourn of David in the country of the Philistines had thus far been conducive to his safety, and events had seemed to justify the step taken when, from fear of being slain by Saul, he without positive Divine direction left his native land. It is true the ambiguous position into which he had brought himself exposed him for a while to a danger of being treacherous to his protector or hostile to his countrymen, but this peril had at last been providentially obviated by the opening of a door of escape. It must, therefore, have been intensely mortifying, and, as the event proved, impressively instructive, to learn, just when the joy of escape was at its height, that his self-chosen course had issued in a terrible disaster. A great calamity had come, but religiously it proved a blessing, which fact may be generalised by saying that calamities brought on by the mistakes of good men have important religious uses.
I. THE AVOIDANCE OF ONE CALAMITY by the adoption of our own policy of distrust of God’s care IS NO GUARANTEE FOR FREEDOM FROM ANOTHER. David, without good reason distrusting the care of God, thought he should one day perish by the hand of Saul (1Sa 27:1), and therefore, taking his own course, sought safety under the protection of Achish. We know how groundless was his fear; but, apart from that, events proved that though the dreaded evil was escaped, another most terrible one came. Nor is there much defence for the self-chosen policy in saying that his own life was secure, for escape from Saul gave no immunity from death by the hands of other men, and there are calamities even worse than death. We are too often influenced by present dangers, forgetful that though we avoid them we have no security in that avoidance from others equally fearful. The Israelites feared the giants reported to occupy the promised land, and escaped being, as they groundlessly thought, slain by them; but they saw not the physical miseries and the exclusion from the promised land consequent on choosing thus to escape. David ought to have profited by their example, as also should we from his. The application of this to common life is obvious.
II. OUR SELF–CHOSEN POLICY MAY BE LONG BEFORE IT REVEALS ITS CHARACTER IN ANY POSITIVE DISASTER. The ambiguous position of David rendered the months during which he was with Achish a season for verifying the wisdom of his policy. Although slight inconveniences arose which necessitated minor expedientsi as when he sought a separate city and made raids apparently on the south of Judah (1Sa 27:5, 1Sa 27:10), yet no event transpired to awaken manifest regret for the course pursued. It was only toward the end of the sojourn in the land of the Philistines that his policy bore the bitter fruit referred to in this section. Trouble came at last in addition to the mental embarrassments which had been a secret in his own breast. So long as moral laws have force will every false policy tend to disaster, the form and degree of it being determined by the nature of the case. Men may go on hoping for exemption from trouble, concealing the occasional fears and embarrassments of their own heart, successful escape may be well nigh assured, there may be even joy at the thought of providential deliverance from impending perils; but just then, from unexpected quarters, a blow may fall which confirms the truth that it is better to trust in the Lord than to listen to the fears of a wayward heart. Lot’s ungenerous policy toward Abraham, successful at first, issued in loss of all in Sodom. Jonah’s timid policy avoided the scorn and stones of the Ninevites, and bid fair to secure life and peace; but the storm arose, and a trouble quite unforeseen sprang forth. In commerce, in Church action, and domestic arrangements, distrust of God and self-seeking cannot but issue in evil, though the evil seem to tarry and be beyond calculation.
III. THE FORM OF CALAMITY MAY PROVE TO BE A NEAR APPROACH TO THAT WHICH SELF–CHOSEN POLICY WAS DESIGNED TO AVOID. David lost his family and his property, the next best things to his own life, and also was put in as much danger of being slain by his own men as ever he had been by Saul. He virtually found himself as he was when the distrust of God’s care suggested a flight from Judah. The same was true of the Israelites, who, avoiding the “giants” of the promised land, encountered the physical giants, famine and plague, and at last left their carcases in the wilderness. A merchant, by irreligious policy, may for a season avoid ruin, and yet by the means devised ultimately bring on an event equally disastrous.
IV. THE FIRST EFFECT ON A GOOD MAN OF THE PRESSURE OF CALAMITY IS TO REVEAL TO HIM THE FOLLY AND EVIL OF HIS SELF–CHOSEN POLICY. It often requires a heavy blow to awaken us from our complacent belief in our own wisdom. Such a blow fell on David in the desolation of his city, the loss of his wives, the injury to his adherents, and the mutiny of his own friends and admirers. The well woven veil of expediency which imagination and reason had fabricated during the past sixteen mouths was thus rudely rent, and he saw at once how much better it would have been for him and his people to have continued trusting to the care of God in Judah, till, at least, specific directions were given to depart. The reference to David encouraging himself in God (verse 6) implies the prostration of his spirit in the new light which had broken in upon him. He had not sought the Lord on leaving Judah, and now he sees the mistake. Here notice the diverse effect of calamity on men of real piety and men of no vital religion. David is humbled before God, sees his error, is bitterly penitent; whereas Saul in all his calamities persists in his self-will, and hardens his heart against God. The truly religious spirit may err, may become wretched in its wanderings from God, may for a long season cleave to its self-produced miseries, but when brought face to face with great calamity that bespeaks the judgment of God, at once bows in sorrow and shame, recognising what an evil and bitter thing it is to depart from the living God. How many a backslider and erring man has had occasion to bless the disaster that rent the delusion of their life and revealed their sin!
V. THE SUBSEQUENT EFFECT OF SUCH CALAMITY IS TO THROW A GOOD MAN MORE ENTIRELY UPON GOD FOR HELP AND GUIDANCE. David, humiliated, self-condemned, looking on to the future not knowing what best to do, took heart by casting his burden on the Lord, and seeking through the appointed channel specific directions as to the future. Affliction worked the fruit of righteousness. This is the proper religious use of all calamity, whether in the nation, the Church, our business, our domestic affairs, or the unrecorded events of private life. Jacob’s trouble consequent on his falsehood brought him nearer to God at Bethel. The sorrows that came on Israel in the days of Nehemiah developed a trust in God and earnest looking for his guidance not known in former days. There is good reason for all who are smitten with sorrow brought on by folly and sin to encourage themselves in God; for, as to David so to all his children, he is a covenant keeping God, having prepared for us a kingdom that cannot be moved. He it is who allows the trial to fall not for our injury, but for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness; the abandonment to ourselves and to the suffering of trouble is all in mercy, and specially intended to remind us of the security and rest to be found in him; and be is willing to hear our cry, and to cover all the sins of the past, as well as to vouchsafe the aid necessary to escape from the present anguish, and even to make it issue in some permanent spiritual advantage. We may therefore “hope in God” when all help fails (cf. Psa 42:5; Psa 56:13; Isa 54:8; Jer 3:12; Heb 12:5-12).
1Sa 30:11-20
The consequences of kindness.
The facts are
1. Pursuing the Amalekites, David finds an Egyptian slave in distress, and administers to him food and drink.
2. On being questioned, the man states that his master, who was one of the force destroying Ziklag, had left him there three days before.
3. On promise of not being delivered up to his master, he engages to act as guide to the rendezvous of the Amalekites.
4. On coming upon them in the midst of their revels, David smites them, and recovers all that his force had lost, and acquires also much spoil.
5. David keeps the captured flocks and herds as his portion of the spoil. The incidents of this section suggest
I. THE UNKNOWN RESULTS OF KINDNESS. Here was a case of a sick, starving foreigner a poor waif nigh unto death; and the kind attentions of David and his men not only were appreciated by a fellow creature, but issued in important results which, prior to the act of kindness, were not, perhaps, deemed possible. The feeble man, well used, led on to victory. At the close of that eventful day David must have felt how useful as well as how holy a thing it is to act the part of a good Samaritan. Men are often under temptation to be indifferent to the sorrows of others; but good always comes out of an exhibition of the law of kindness. No man ever lost anything by binding up the wounds of another; and often the healer has obtained an inward blessing as a pledge of some still further good that is to flow from his deed. The blessing of those ready to perish is worth more than the applause and favour of the rich and strong. By single acts of kindness hard hearts have been touched, and a new and blessed course of life has been entered on. Many a waif, fed and nourished by Christian benevolence, has become an honourable and holy member of society, aiding to overthrow an evil power worse than that of the ancient Amalekites. Who can tell the vast and blissful consequences that may ensue if only Christians would care more constantly and wisely for the outcast and degraded?
II. THE VALUE OF DETAIL IN SCRIPTURE HISTORY. The historian is specific in the account of what was given to this poor slave”bread,” “water,” “a piece of a cake of figs,” and “two clusters of raisins.” This occasional detail indicates the pure historic character of the Biblical narrative, and invests the Bible with a human interest. This circumstantial character of narrative is especially seen in the Gospel by St. Mark, and more or less in every writer. As a book designed for all degrees of culture, and in all ages and climes, the Bible wins its way to the heart and commends itself to the common sense of mankind by the air of reality with which its great facts are incorporated with an incidental setting of circumstances; and it is singular that its occasional detail is never contradicted by well established fact, but, on the other hand, is being constantly confirmed by discoveries concerning manners, customs, natural productions, and international relations.
III. THE BARBARITIES OF SLAVERY AND OF WAR. This unfortunate man had a master, but longed not to be restored to him. The barbarous manner in which he had been left to die justified his horror of his former owner. Slavery necessarily hardens the heart and debases the entire nature of all who promote it. The horrors that have been perpetrated under its influence more befit a hell than an earth like this. Christianity has proved its beneficent character in removing from many a fair region this accursed evil: and it enjoins on masters of the free to manifest towards their servants a kind, generous spirit, worthy of the Saviour they profess to follow. It is well when servants care to return to employers, and there is something wrong where there is aversion and reproach. The barbarities of war, which in this section and elsewhere are conspicuous, are among the foulest blots on human nature. In nothing as in war do the vilest passions of men break forth in wild licence. The ease and complacency with which many so called Christians speak and read of war is really shocking to one who enters deeply into the spirit of Christ. More care ought to be taken in preventing our children from imbibing a love of war and its literature, and in the Christian state its manifold, incipient, and actual evils ought to be removed or avoided by the most energetic measures. It is doubtful whether the Church rises to a due sense of its solemn obligations in this respect.
IV. THE RESTORATION SUBSEQUENT TO REPENTANCE AND OBEDIENCE. David had repented of the course to which he had committed himself, and, encouraging himself in God, he had followed the direction conveyed through the high priest. The result was a restoration of all he had lost by his folly and an acquisition of much besides. Of course this was a case of material loss, through misconduct, attended with much anguish of spirit, and the restoration was of the same character; but have we not here something analogous with the result of our repentance and renewal of life? The loss and damage occasioned by our sins are removed when we turn to God and follow the guidance of our High Priest. In due time we recover purity, peace with God, most blessed joys, varied spiritual treasures, and even convert the weapons of our great enemy into means of moral advancement. Much has been ruined by our sins, and the whole race has suffered from the curse; but the effect of our restoration of soul to God through Christ is a recovery of the lost position and blessedness, with also an attainment of a bliss surpassing anything known by our first parent in his state of innocence. The promise reads, “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer worm, my great army which I sent among you” (Joe 2:25).
V. PRUDENT FORESIGHT IN ANTICIPATION OF COMING EVENTS. David’s consideration for his followers in allowing them a large share in the spoil was attended also with a wise prevision of what was soon to take place, and no doubt it was on this account that he kept for himself the cattle taken from the enemy. Having repented of his former self-choosing, and having drawn nearer to his God (verse 6), his soul rose to the old confidence in his call to the kingdom, and, calm in the fresh assurance of God’s care, he saw from impending events that the end of Saul’s reign was nigh at hand. Hence, to pave the way for an easy and prosperous return to Judah, he selected what would prove suitable gifts to elders and friends (verse 20; cf. verse 26). Them we see how recovery from backsliding tends to a healthy tone and balance of ordinary mental operations, and how prudent anticipation of requirements becomes one called to high service in the kingdom of God. Faith in God’s purposes concerning us should be accompanied with wise effort to obviate difficulties in the realisation of that purpose. Our elevation in the service of Christ’s kingdom is to be secured on our part by the vigorous use of our best powers in dependence on God.
General lessons:
1. Amidst the hurry and excitement of our life we, like David, should turn aside to care for the poor and destitute, and shall find in so doing a blessing for ourselves.
2. As slavery was put down by the energetic assertion of the principles and spirit of the gospel, so may not the Church, if in earnest, equally suppress the war spirit which too largely prevails in so called Christian lands?
3. After the pattern of David in temporal matters we ought to strive with all zeal and constancy to recover the blessed inheritance of good lost to us individually and as a race through sin.
4. In so far as men are convinced of the certainty and glory of Christ’s kingdom will they exercise all their utmost powers to hasten it on and win men over to it. Indifferent action is a sure sign of spiritual decay.
1Sa 30:21-31
The law of service.
The facts are
1. On returning to the men who had remained at Besor, some of David’s followers oppose his intention to give them a share of the spoil, and are even desirous of sending them away.
2. David resists this spirit as being inconsistent with gratitude to God for his care and aid, and with strict justice to those who serve in humble form according to their strength.
3. David’s decision becomes a standing ordinance in Israel’s future national life.
4. He sends presents to the elders of cities that had befriended him during the days of his persecution. David’s course all through was wonderfully chequered. He had good reason for saying, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” No sooner had he rejoiced in the triumph of victory, and was devising in his heart kind and generous deeds, than he has to experience the annoyance and pain of contending with a murmuring and mutinous spirit among his own followers. As we look at him, the “man after God’s own heart,” bent on a noble mission for Israel, generous in spirit to all around, rising high above others in integrity of purpose and spiritual aspiration, and surrounded by a motley group of men, hard to control, and often low in tendency, we cannot but think of One greater, who later on stood among wayward, ignorant men, the Holy One, intent on establishing a throne never to be shaken, and wearied and wounded by the incessant “contradiction of sinners.” But God teaches mankind through lessons evolved from the varied and often painful experience of his servants, and it is a consolation to them that the fires which try them should also emit light for the benefit of coming generations. There are three truths practical in bearing brought out by this part of David’s experience.
I. THE DIVERSE CHARACTER OF MEN IS SEEN IN THE EFFECT OF SUCCESS UPON THEIR SPIRIT AND CONDUCT. David and his men had achieved a great success, and were returning full of the joy of victory. The record tells us nothing of the bearing of the leader and of the men on the first flush of success; no doubt the wild excitement over the spoil of many of his followers was in striking contrast with the tremulous joy which found vent in his private thanksgiving to God. But on their return to Besor, the depraved, irreligious spirit of those termed “men of Belial” appeared in the love of greed and the cruel indifference to the wants of the weary which drew forth David’s remonstrance. Success revealed the iniquity of their hearts, while it drew forth the grateful, tender qualities of David’s character. Prosperity is as real a test of what men are as is adversity. It draws forth a different set of qualities, but is not the less a means of proving and intensifying a man’s character, be it good or bad. When we say that sometimes success in commerce, literature, science, or military skill makes a man vain and scornful of others, or humble and considerate, we really mean that it has developed hidden weakness in the one case, and moral strength in the other. When the character deteriorates or improves under the influence of prosperity, it depends on casual circumstances as to bow the deterioration or improvement will manifest itself. Here the presence of feeble men unable to engage in conflict happened to be the occasion of an outburst of selfish feeling. The same occasion furnished a manifestation of kindly consideration and love of justice. While few things create in generous hearts more disgust and sorrow than the selfishness, luxurious indulgence, and purse proud bearing of men whose struggles in life have brought material success, few qualities are more admired than those of large hearted benevolence, simplicity of habit, compassion for the destitute, and the grateful, lowly spirit which ascribes all good to God, and proves the sincerity of the ascription by deeds of self-denial on behalf of others. He who can conquer prosperity is often a greater man than the conqueror of adversity. Only the spirit of him who “made himself of no reputation,” who “became poor” that we “might be rich,” will enable us to subdue all things to his glory.
II. THE LAW OF SERVICE IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. The selfish spirit of some of David’s men gave occasion for the exercise of his authority in a fight royal manner, and issued in the establishment of an ordinance in relation to service in his cause which became a law in Israel, and fitly foreshadows the principle on which all service in Messiah’s kingdom is based. David would not allow the men who, through exhaustion in the hasty march, had remained at Besor to care for the bag gage to be deprived of their share of the spoil through the greed of the actual combatants. His principle was that they were all engaged in one enterprise, that their position had been determined by the circumstances of the case, and that all honour should be done them. The ruling faculty in David was beginning to bear good fruit for the poor and needybeautifully typical of One who is the Refuge and Defender of the oppressed! Considering the passage in its bearing on service in Christ’s kingdom, we may notice
1. That all his people aye equally his servants, and have their proper work. The equality in Christ’s kingdom is that of oneness of spirit, aim, and relationship to him. All true Christians are zealous for his supremacy, eager to see him triumph over powers of evil, and on the same level as servants of one Lord and Leader. They are all workers, warriors, contending in accordance with their power and position for a common issue. Every member of the body has its function in securing the purposes of the head (1Co 12:12-14).
2. That diversity of employment is necessary to the execution of his purposes. The care of the “stuff” was as necessary in so dangerous a country as the pursuit and attack on the foe. In accomplishing the purposes of Christ on earth there are diversities of operations. The analogy of the body is used by the Apostle Paul to enforce this truth on the Church (1Co 12:12-31). It is an instructive study to notice how the manifold agencies and gifts of the Church and of individual Christians have worked together in producing the complex result we witness in the present advanced position of Christ’s kingdom. The recognition of diversity should stimulate and encourage all, whatever their powers and opportunities.
3. That incapacity for rendering conspicuous service is compatible with quiet yet important service. Those who by Providence are hindered from fighting in the high places of the field have good work to do in a quieter form. Missionaries, popular preachers, diligent pastors, and men of high literary culture may be in the forefront; but the mothers who train children in the fear of God, fathers who live godly lives in the world, quiet, wise men who conduct religious movements, widows who east in their mite, and even sick and weary ones who in the solitude of their chamber offer daily prayers for the hosts of Godrender most valuable service in the common enterprise.
4. Where thee is loyalty in service, whatever its lowly form, there is to be honourable recognition. David would not overlook the claims of the feeble men in charge of the” stuff.” In this he was true to the principles and precedents of Israel’s greatest leaders (Num 31:27; Jos 22:8). In Christ’s kingdom there is to be, after his great example in the case of the widow’s mite and the hosannas of children, a recognition by all of the need and value of services apparently insignificant. This is further taught in the blessing pronounced on the giver of a cup of cold water, the mention in the day of judgment of the care bestowed on the sick and needy, and also in the equal welcome which the Lord declares he will give to the gainer of ten and two talents. The rewards of the advancing kingdom are shared in the joy and satisfaction which all true workers experience, and in the material improvement of the world consequent on its advance; and while he makes all “kings and priests” now, he will at last honour them with a vision of the glory he had with the Father before the world was (Joh 17:24).
III. THERE IS A WISE POLICY IN THE EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE. The tenor of David’s life shows that the sending presents from the spoil taken to those who had befriended him in his time of need was the genuine expression of a grateful heart. At the same time this was coincident with a wise policy, and, in his mind, distinctly blended with it. Had the gifts been the product of a mere calculation of results, the act would only command the respect due to expediency, but having its root in feeling, it rises to a higher value. The recompense of kindnesses when occasion offers is the suggestion of a true heart, and though utilitarian ideas may not enter into the recompense, yet it is always useful in view of future contingencies. A prudent man called to a great work, is bound to prepare the way for its realisation by securing as far as possible the good will and cooperation of others.
General lessons:
1. It behoves us to be on our guard against the perils of success, and to remember that as God is a refuge from the storm, so he is a shade upon our right hand to tone down the fight of prosperity (Psa 121:5, Psa 121:6).
2. A degree of suspicion is always proper concerning ourselves, as there are latent evils which events may draw forth.
3. We should be careful not to disparage the services of persons seeking in a humble way to promote the glory of Christ (Mat 18:6).
4. The chief question for each is the existence within of a spirit of loyalty to Christ; the form of service is a matter of opportunity (Joh 21:15-17).
5. Those who render aid to the people of God in their time of distress are sure to be recompensed on earth as in heaven (Luk 6:31-38; Luk 14:13, Luk 14:14).
HOMILIES BY B. DALE
1Sa 30:1-10. (ZIKLAG.)
Confidence in God.
“But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God” (1Sa 30:6). Delivered from their embarrassing position in the Philistine army, David and his men set out early in the morning, and by forced marches (evident from the exhaustion of one third of them, 1Sa 30:10) arrived at Ziklag on the third day. Instead of being welcomed by their wives and children, they found the city a smoking and desolate ruin. “When we go abroad we cannot foresee what evil tidings may meet us when we come home again. The going out may be very cheerful, and yet the coming in very doleful” (M. Henry). The Amalekites (whom Saul had failed to exterminate, and David often attacked) had been there, and, in revenge for what they had suffered, had carried off the undefended people and property, and given the place to the flames. Deeming their recovery hopeless, the strong men wept like children “until they had no more power to weep.” Then their grief turned to exasperation, and seeking a victim on which to expend their wrath, they fixed on David, and “spake of stoning him” as the cause of all their misery. He was reduced to the utmost extremity, and could not fail to see in his trouble a just chastisement for his unbelief, prevarication, and cruelty. Possibly the reinforcements that “fell to him as he went to Ziklag” (1Ch 12:20) rendered him valuable service. But his hope was not in man; and instead of resigning himself to despair (like Saul), he was impelled by his distress and deprivation of human help to seek help in God alone. “The long misery of the first stage of his public career seems to have reached its culminating point. When things are at the worst, as the common proverb says, they must mend. And from that moment when he believingly cast all his dependence upon the Lord his God only, whom he had found faithful in all his promises, and whose providence had never failed him in his deepest dangers, from that moment he was safe, from that moment he was prosperous” (Kitto). Concerning the confidence in God which he exhibited (therein setting an eminent example to others), observe that
I. IT SPRINGS OUT OF CONSCIOUS HELPLESSNESS. Few men have an adequate conviction of their own helplessness; and one aim of the Divine discipline is to produce it. “When I am weak,” said Paul, “then am I strong”when I feel my utter weakness under the pressure of trial, then I am constrained to depend on the Lord, and become imbued with his strength (2Co 12:10). In the exercise of “the same spirit of faith” others “out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens” (Heb 11:34). True faith and spiritual power have their foundation amidst the “dust and ashes” of self-abasement and self-distrust. Confidence in God began to revive in David when Ziklag was reduced to ashes. The same thing is often occasioned in others by means of –
1. Sudden and severe bereavement; wife and children, it may be, taken away with a stroke.
2. The failure of cherished plans and purposes; the loss of property through robbery by men or accidents by fire or flood, the breakdown of health, the disappointment of long expectation.
3. The falling away of friends; their unreasonable anger and bitter reproaches. It must have been peculiarly painful to David to bear the mutiny of his own men, to witness the selfishness of many of them (1Sa 30:22), and to learn what little confidence could be put in man (Psa 146:3). He was left almost alone.
4. The upbraiding of conscience for past sin. Trouble is a powerful means of bringing sin to remembrance (1Ki 17:18).
5. The threatening of danger; the presence of “the king of terrors” (Job 18:14).
6. The lack of wisdom and power to deliver from distress. When we become fully aware of our utter helplessness, two courses lie open before useither to sink into despair or to cast ourselves wholly upon God. That the latter may be taken trial is sent; it is taken by him whose heart is in the main right with God, and it is never taken in vain.
II. IT LAYS HOLD OF ALL–SUFFICIENT HELP. “When David could not comfort him self in his wives, nor his children, nor his goods, nor in anything under the sun, he could in something above the sun. And the reason is at hand: God is the God of all consolation, the spring of comfort; if any water, it is in the sea; if any light, it is in the sun; if any comfort, it is in Godthere it rests, there it is when nowhere else. God is all-sufficient; there the heart finds every want supplied, every good thing lodged. As God is all-sufficient to furnish us with all necessaries, so infinite in power, wisdom, goodness to help us against all evils feared or felt” (R. Harris). Faith strengthens the soul by uniting it to God and making it partaker of his strength. It has respect to
1. His great name (see 1Sa 1:3). “Hope thou in God” (Psa 42:5; Psa 9:10; Psa 124:8).
“Hope, said I,
Is of the joy to come a sure expectance,
The effect of grace Divine and merit preceding.
This light from many a star visits my heart;
But flow’d to me, the first, from him who sang
The songs of the Supreme; himself supreme
Among his tuneful brethren. ‘Let all hope
In thee,’ so spake his anthem, ‘who have known
Thy name'” (Dante, ‘Par.’ 25.).
2. His intimate relationship to his people. “Jehovah his God.”
3. His past doings on their behalf. When David formerly fell into despondency (1Sa 27:1-12.) he seems to have forgotten all these, and failed to receive the encouragement which they were adapted to impart. But now he remembered them and “took courage.”
4. His faithful promises. “The free expressions of his goodness and beneficence,” the unchangeable assurances of his almighty help in time of need. “The mistake we make is to look for a source of consolation in ourselves; self-contemplation instead of gazing upon God. He is not affected by our mutability, our changes do not alter him. When we are restless he remains serene and calm; when we are low, selfish, mean, or dispirited he is still the unalterable I AM. What God is in himself, not what we may chance to feel him in this or that moment to be, that is our hope” (Robertson).
III. IT MAKES USE OF APPROPRIATE MEANS. “He encouraged (strengthened) himself,” etc. by
1. Repressing fear and unbelief. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?”
2. Directing the thoughts toward God, the ever-present, invisible, eternal Protector of his servants, and stirring up the heart to renewed trust in him. “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?” (Psa 118:6; Psa 121:1).
3. Inquiring of the Lord. “And David said to Abiathar,” etc. (1Sa 30:7, 1Sa 30:8). He sought him as he had not done on the previous occasion; sought him in a right spirit, and therefore (unlike Saul) received an answer:”Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake and deliver.” He was thereby further strengthened. His confidence, moreover, was expressed and perfected in
4. Obeying the will of the Lord (1Sa 30:9, 1Sa 30:10), and cooperating toward the fulfilment of his promise. Despondency led him to flee from difficulty and danger, but faith and hope incited him to go into their midst, and made him “as bold as a lion.” “I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”
IV. IT IS CROWNED WITH COMPLETE SUCCESS. By the help obtained of God fear is removed, strength renewed, and confidence inspired (1Sa 30:9). After a brief delay and some untoward events by which faith is still further tested (1Sa 30:10)
1. The object which is sought is providentially discovered (1Sa 30:11).
2. The enemy is completely defeated (1Sa 30:17).
3. That which has been lost is recovered (1Sa 30:19).
4. Much more than has been expected is gained (1Sa 30:20).
“A few days after David’s own people were about to stone him on the ruins of Ziklag the royal crown was laid at his feet.”
Observations:
1. When good men transgress they must expect to be “chastened of the Lord,” and wicked men are sometimes used as a rod for the purpose.
2. The wickedness of the wicked is mercifully restrained (1Sa 30:2), often turns to the benefit of those whom they seek to injure, and returns upon their own heads.
3. The chief purpose of chastisement is to bring men to God in humility, penitence, submission, and trust, and prepare them for future service and exaltation.
4. The difference in the effects of calamity upon men (as upon Saul and David) manifests the difference of their character.
5. The more heavily trouble presses upon men, the more closely should they cling to God, that it may be rightly borne and accomplish its intended moral end.
6. God never disappoints the confidence of his children, but fulfils his promises to them more richly than they dare to hope.D.
1Sa 30:11-20. (SOUTH OF THE BROOK BESOR.)
An Egyptian slave.
“I was reminded of the poor Egyptian whom David found half dead, and brought to life again by giving him ‘a piece of cake of figs and two clusters of raisins’ to eat, and water to drink, by an incident which occurred to me when crossing the plain of Askelon. Far from any village, a sick Egyptian was lying by the road side in the burning sun, and apparently almost dead with a terrible fever. He wanted nothing but ‘water! water!’ which we were fortunately able to give him from our traveling bottle; but we were obliged to pass on and leave him to his fate, whatever that might be” (Thomson, ‘The Land and the Book’). How the “young man of Egypt” became “slave to an Amalekite” is not stated, but it is probable that he fell into his hands in some marauding expedition, like the Hebrew women and children in the raid on Ziklag. His condition was an involuntary, hard, and degrading one. He was
I. ABANDONED BY HIS MASTER with
1. Indifference and contempt. His worth as a man created in the image of God was disregarded (as is generally the case in the odious institution of slavery). He was treated as the absolute property of his master, “an animated tool” (Aristotle), and when deemed no longer useful, thrown away.
2. Injustice. Every claim in return for his services was ignored. He was entirely at the mercy of his master, and unprotected by any law (such as existed among the Hebrews).
3. Inhumanity. “My master left me three days agone because I fell sick” (1Sa 30:13). He might have been easily carried forward on one of the camels (1Sa 30:17), but the Amalekites were hard and cruel, and he was left to perish with hunger or to be devoured by wild beasts. “He that is higher than the highest regardeth” (Ecc 5:8), and the meanest slave cannot be despised and neglected with impunity.
II. BEFRIENDED BY STRANGERS (1Sa 30:11, 1Sa 30:12).
1. Out of compassion and desire to save his life by every means in their power.
2. In fulfilment of the law of God, which required that kindness should be shown to the poor, the stranger, and the slave. “Love ye therefore the stranger, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deu 10:19; Deu 23:7, Deu 23:15, Deu 23:16).
3. With appreciation of the service he might render (1Sa 30:15). The more helpless any one is, the more urgent his claim to assistance; yet no one is so helpless but that he may be capable of requiting the kindness shown to him. Slavery among the Hebrews differed widely from slavery among other ancient and modern peoples. “By Christianising the master the gospel enfranchised the slave. It did not legislate about mere names and forms, but it went to the root of the evil, it spoke to the heart of man. When the heart of the master was filled with Divine grace and was warmed with the love of Christ the rest would soon follow. The lips would speak kind words, the hands would do liberal things” (Wordsworth, ‘Com. on Philemon’).
III. SERVICEABLE TO HIS BENEFACTORS.
1. From gratitude for the benefit received. No human heart is wholly insensible to the power of kindness.
2. Under a solemn assurance of protection. After his abandonment by his master he could have no scruple concerning his right to his continued service, if any such right ever existed; but experience had made him fearful and suspicious of men, and therefore he said, “Swear unto me by God,” etc. (1Sa 30:15). He had a sense of religion, and believed that Divine justice would avenge the violation of an oath, though it should be taken to a slave.
3. With efficient and faithful performance of his engagements. He not only gave David the information he sought, but guided him to the camp of the enemy, and contributed to a result which repaid him a hundredfold (1Sa 30:18).
IV. PRESERVED AND EMPLOYED BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE, which
1. Cares for the lowliest. “Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any” (Job 36:5). “Neither doth God respect any person” (2Sa 14:14).
2. Often makes use of the feeblest instrumentality for the chastisement of the “wicked in great power.”
3. And for the promotion of the welfare of the people of God, and the establishment of his kingdom. What a rich harvest may spring from a single act of kindness toward even the most despised!
“He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small:
For the dear God who loveth us
He made and loveth all” (Coleridge).D.
1Sa 30:21-31. (THE BROOK BESOR, ZIKLAG.)
The fruits of victory.
When David overtook the Amalekites in the evening twilight he found them given up to riotous indulgence, undefended, and little thinking how near they were to destruction. He forthwith fell upon them, and after a severe conflict, which lasted till the evening of the next day, gained a complete victory. He “recovered all” that had been carried away. In addition he obtained much spoil, consisting of flocks and herds, and of “arms, ornaments, jewels, money, clothes, camels, accoutrements, and so on.” The former were assigned to David (according to his wish, and as better adapted to the end he had in view), and driven in front of the recovered flock with the exclamation, “This is David’s spoil.” The latter were carried away for distribution among his men. By his victory a crushing blow was inflicted on a bitter enemy of the people of Israel, and a great deliverance wrought for them. He evidently regarded himself as (not merely engaged in a private enterprise, but as) acting on their behalf, and carrying out God’s purpose; and his conduct after the battle was marked by
1. Considerate sympathy with the faint and weary who had been disabled from taking an active part in the conflict. “He saluted them” (1Sa 30:21). As he had not previously urged them beyond their strength, so now he exhibited a kindly interest in them, and a marked respect toward them. His heart was not lifted up by success. They had “done what they could,” and formed part of his following. “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
2. Strenuous resistance to the arrogant, selfish, and unjust procedure of some of his followers (1Sa 30:22). “Rough, wild men were many among them, equally depressed in the day of adversity, and recklessly elated and insolent in prosperity. Nor is it merely the discipline which David knew how to maintain in such a band that shows us ‘the skilfulness of his hands’ in guiding them, but the gentleness with which he dealt with them, and above all the earnest piety with which he knew how to tame their wild passions, prove the spiritual ‘integrity’ or ‘perfectness of his heart'” (Edersheim). The spirit which these “wicked and worthless men” displayed is sometimes found even in the Church of Christ, and requires to be met with firm and uncompromising opposition (1Pe 5:9).
3. Devout recognition of the hand of God, in bestowing whatever good is possessed, preserving from harm, and delivering from dangerous adversaries. “Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us,” etc. (1Sa 30:23). “Man could not boast of his own merit in obtaining these possessions” (Ewald). They were a gift of God, and should be used for his honour and the good of all. There is a higher law than that of self-interest. Men are only “stewards” (not absolute owners) of property, ability, time, influence, etc; and as such it behove, them to “be found faithful.” “Freely ye have received, freely give.”
4. Equitable distribution. “And who will hearken unto you in this matter?” etc. (1Sa 30:24, 1Sa 30:25). The course proposed was as contrary to the common convictions of men concerning what is reasonable and just as to the benevolent purpose of God. “The equity of this law appears from hencethat by common consent these 200 men were left behind to look after the baggage; were part of the same body of men, linked together in the same common society; hindered by mere weariness from going to fight, which otherwise they would have done; their will was accepted for the deed; and they were in the same common danger, for if the 400 had been routed their enemies would have soon cut them off” (Patrick). “The members should have the same care one for another” (1Co 12:25).
5. Grateful acknowledgment of friendly aid during his “wanderings in the wilderness.” “He sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, his friends,” etc. (1Sa 30:26-31). They had suffered from Amalekite raids, but it was not to make restitution for their losses so much as to testify his gratitude and strengthen their attachment. His victory enabled him to display a princely munificence. It is a remarkable proof of the grateful nature of David, and his fidelity to his early friendships, as well as a curious instance of undesigned coincidence, that we find among those employed by David in offices of trust in the height of his power so many inhabitants of those obscure places where he found friends in the days of his early difficulties” (‘Sp. Com.’).
6. Commendable policywise, generous, patriotic, and religious. “Behold a present” (blessing, gift) “for you of the spoil of the enemies of Jehovah.” The elders of Judah and others looked to him as their future theocratic ruler. He himself felt that the time of patient waiting was nearly gone, and the time of active effort for the fulfilment of the Divine purpose concerning him well nigh come, if, indeed, the tidings of the death of Saul had not already reached him. He also foresaw that he must look for his chief support in his own tribe, and adopted the best method of securing it. “Piety without policy is too simple to be safe; policy without piety is too subtle to be good.” “This was already a royal act in vivid anticipation of his impending accession to the throne. Already the crown of Israel was unmistakably though dimly visible above his head” (Krummacher). “Whilst Saul’s star sinks in the north, the star of David rises in the south, and there begins the long line of fulfilments of the prophecy concerning the Star that should come out of Jacob” (Num 24:17) (Erdmann).D.
HOMILIES BY D. FRASER
1Sa 30:6
Faith reviving in distress.
I. CORRECTION. David, being a true but faulty child of God, was corrected by the rod. Quickly fell stroke after stroke. First he had to bear the galling scorn and suspicion of the Philistine lords. This was all he had gained by cajoling their king. Next he had to see Ziklag plundered and burnt. This was all he had gained by attacking the Amalekites and concealing the deed. Next, and in some respects most trying of all, he saw the loyalty of his own followers swept away in their passionate grief. “The people spake of stoning him.” This was all he had gained by all his unworthy devices to save his own life. All refuge failed him. So God in loving kindness scourges his children now when they have faltered in faith, and, mistrusting his defence, have betaken themselves to some Ziklag, some position unworthy of them. Their new confidences reject them, and they have to sit like David in dust and ashes.
II. ITS HAPPY ISSUE. Faith revived. When all refuge failed him, David returned to his Divine stronghold. “He encouraged himself in Jehovah his God.” Mark the contrast with Saul. When that unhappy king was stricken he departed from God more and more, hardened his heart in pride, found no place of repentance, and at last betook himself to unhallowed and forbidden arts. So we find Saul passing from gloom into thicker and blacker shadow, while David emerges into the sunshine. Such is the happy experience of many of the children of God. Faith revives in distress, and darkness turns to light. This, too, as the New Testament teaches us, always by the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, reviving childlike trust rekindling holy courage. The way in which David’s recovered faith wrought in him is full of instruction for us.
1. Revived faith rests on the Divine word of promise. David had let the promise of the kingdom made to him through Samuel slip from his mind when he began to despair of his life; and it is remarkable that he gave way to this fear at a time when there was a lull in the persecution directed against him. But when real danger was upon him, when he had lost all, and his own followers turned against him, his faith again caught hold of the Divine promise. He could not die then and there, for the purpose of the Lord must stand, the word of the Lord must be fulfilled. Now those who believe in Christ have the promise of eternal life in him. In hours of relaxed diligence they perhaps let it slip; but under real pressure faith revives and grasps the promise again. They shall not perish. They may be humbled and distressed, and they will acknowledge that they have brought this on themselves; but they are persuaded that he is faithful who promised, and so will not cast them off. He has said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee;” so that we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper.”
2. Revived faith takes to prayer and to diligent effort. The first thing which David did was to inquire of God. Faith restored always acts thus. Rising against discouragement, it is sure that God can turn darkness into light, loss into gain, death into life, and simply asks for direction. “What shall I do? Shall I sit still, or shall I move? Shall I pursue?” There are trials and dangers in which the only wise course is to be quite patient and passive; the “strength is to sit still.” When Daniel was cast to the lions his faith was shown in not struggling with the wild beasts, but sitting among them calm and still till rescue came at break of day. So may a Christian fall into a den of troubles out of which no effort of his own can bring him up; and his faith is shown in prayer and waiting on God, who is able to send his angel to minister to the weak and protect the helpless. Those whose faith has not failed at all may do more than praymay sing praises, as Paul and Silas did in the dark dungeon. Other cases there are, and more frequent, in which prayer should be promptly followed by active exertion. David did not ask the Lord to work a miracle, or send angels, to restore to him what the Amalekites had taken. It was possible for him and his men to pursue, overtake, and defeat the spoilers. So he asked the Lord whether he should pursue; and receiving the Divine command to do so, he addressed himself at once to the pursuit, and obtained a splendid success. Such is the energetic action of revived faith. Difficulties go down before its resolutions, and lost things come back to him who boldly pursues. Tears of defeat are turned into songs of victory. The troubles that afflict the people of God are to a large extent chastisements for unbelief or unfaithfulness. At the time they are not joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward they yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised thereby. Such are sufferings in sympathy with David. But to some extent those troubles are in sympathy with and for the sake of the Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. In such a case we have the comfort that
“Christ leads us through no darker rooms
Than he went through before.”
He is touched with a feeling of our infirmities. He has wept and he has loved. So if we are despoiled, he is our present help, and through him we may do valiantly and recover all. If messengers of Satan buffet us, his grace is sufficient for us, for his “strength is made perfect in weakness.”F.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
1Sa 30:1-2. 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 he could meet with, chap. 1Sa 27:9 that they should not have served his people in the same manner. But though they sought revenge, says Bishop Patrick, yet they desired booty much more. Being a poor and covetous people, they spared not the women and children out of compassion, but because they wanted slaves either for their own use, or to sell to others. But, be this as it may, one cannot help observing the gracious interposition of Providence in this event; for, doubtless, it is most extraordinary, that the captives should have been thus spared, to be recovered afterwards perfectly safe and unhurt out of the hands of a people to abandoned and execrable as the Amalekites.
REFLECTIONS.Little thought David and his men, while they were marching in the camp of the Philistines, what ravages were committing at home by their enemies.
1. The Amalekites, in their absence, probably having intelligence of it, fall upon the defenceless city, plunder and burn it, reserving all the women and children alive; not out of pity, it is to be feared, but covetousness; and in truth withheld secretly by God. Note; God can make the sins of men subserve his designs of mercy.
2. Great was the distress and consternation of David and his men at this unexpected calamity. Three days they had spent in marching home, and when they hoped to rest their weary limbs, lo! their houses are burnt, and their families gone, uncertain whether captives or murdered, and David’s wives among the rest. Note; (1.) We know not, when we go from home, what scenes of mourning may meet us on our return. (2.) The more we promise ourselves comfort in the creature, the bitterer will be our disappointment.
3. While tears would flow, they wept, and wearied themselves with sorrow; and when these fountains were dry, in distress and despair the men turned their complaints on David, and threatened to stone him, as the author of their calamity by leading them from their home. Thus was his faith severely exercised, and sorrow added to sorrow. Note; (1.) Suffering is apt to make us impatient; and, though we dare not fly in the face of God, we are ready to lay hands on those who have been, though innocently, instruments of bringing us into the trouble. (2.) Great saints become so by great sufferings. Grace, like the palm-tree, crescit sub pondere, grows under trials.
4. David, under all his afflictions, encouraged himself in God. Though he shared deeper than any man in the general loss, and in this unreasonable anger of theirs bore a grief peculiarly his own, he yet thought upon God, his power, love, and faithfulness, and still hoped in his mercy. This was his support in the time of his trouble; nor was he disappointed of his hope; for no man ever trusted God, and was ashamed. Note; (1.) Our circumstances can never be so bad, nor our case so deplorable, but there is ground for faith in the promises of God. (2.) To encourage our souls in him, is the surest way to escape from our troubles.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
III. Davids Victory over the Amalekites who destroyed Ziklag
1Sa 30:1-31
1And it came to pass, when David and his men were come1 to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south2 and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag 2and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives [captive the women] that were therein [ins. both small and great];3 they slew4 not any either great or small [om. either great or small], but carried them away [off] and went on their 3way.5 So [And] David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. 4Then [And] David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and 5wept, until they had no more power to weep. And Davids two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.6 6And David was greatly distressed [was in a great strait],7 for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved [bitter], every man for his sons and his daughters; but David encouraged [strengthened] himself in the Lord [Jehovah] his God.
7And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelechs son, I pray thee, bring me hither [om. hither] the ephod.8 And Abiathar brought thither [om. thither] the 8ephod to David. And David inquired at the Lord [of Jehovah], saying, Shall I pursue9 after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue! for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail recover all [for thou shalt 9overtake and deliver]. So [And] David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind 10stayed.10 But [And] David pursued, he and four hundred men; for [and] two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.11
11And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought12 him to David, and gave 12him bread, and he did eat, and they made him drink water. And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters [cakes] of raisins; and when he had eaten, his spirit13 came again to him; for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any 13water, three days and three nights. And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt,14 servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me because three days agone15 I fell sick. 14We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast [on the region] which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned 15Ziklag with fire. And David said to him, Canst [Wilt] thou bring me down to this company [troop]?16 And he said, Swear unto me by God that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master and I will bring thee down 16to this company [troop]. And when he had [And he] brought him down, [ins. and] behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth [over the whole land], eating and drinking and dancing [revelling]17, because of all the great spoil which they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah. 17And David smote them from the twilight even [om. even] unto the evening of the next day,18 and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, 18which rode upon camels and fled. And David recovered [rescued] all that the 19Amalekites had carried away; and David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither [nor] spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them; David recovered all. 20And David took all the flocks and herds, [;] which they drove before those other cattle [they drove before him this flock],19 and said, This is Davids spoil.
21And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they20 had made also [om. also] to abide at the brook Besor. And they went forth to meet David and to meet the people that were with 22him; and when David came near to the people, he saluted them. Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial [all the wicked and worthless men], of those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will not give them ought [aught] of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his 23wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart. Then said David [And David said], Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord [Jehovah] hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company 24[troop] that came against us into our hand. For [And] who will hearken unto you in this matter? but [for] as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall 25his part be that tarrieth by the stuff; they shall part alike. And it was so [it came to pass] from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance 26for21 Israel unto this day. And when [om. when] David came to Ziklag, he [and] sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to [om. even to] his friends, saying, 27Behold a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of the Lord [Jehovah]: To them which were in Bethel, and to them which were in south Ramoth [in Ramothnegeb], 28and to them which were in Jattir, And to them which were in Aroer, and 29to them which were in Siphmoth, and to them which were in Eshtemoa, And to them which were in Rachal, and to them which were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, 30and to them which were in the cities of the Kenites, And to them which were in Hormah, and to them which were in Chor22 -ashan, and to them which were 31in Athach, And to them which were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt [which David frequented, he and his men].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Sa 30:1-6. Description, of the calamity inflicted by the Amalekites, who plundered and burned Ziklag, the grief of David and his men at their loss, the danger to which he was exposed from the exasperated people who threw the blame on him, and his strengthening in the Lord.The construction of the four first verses is as follows: the protasis extends through the three first verses, but with two parentheses, the first extending from and the Amalekite, in 1Sa 30:1 to the end of 1Sa 30:2, the second including all of 1Sa 30:3 after the word behold; the apodosis is 1Sa 30:4.On the third day, namely, after his departure from Achish. The Amalekites had used Davids absence and the defenceless condition of Ziklag to revenge themselves for his invasion of their territory (1Sa 27:8). The south and Ziklag, the general term preceding the particular. The Negeb is the south-country, so called by the Israelites as being the southern part of Palestine or Judah, while it was north of the Amalekite territory. According to 1Sa 30:13 they had plundered Ziklag three days before Davids return. In verse 2 only the women are said to have been carried away; the children, mentioned in 1Sa 30:3; 1Sa 30:6, are omitted here for brevitys sake. The Sept.s addition to the text of the words and all is unnecessary (against Thenius).23 So the words nor woman after man are an explanatory insertion of the Sept. It is expressly remarked that the women were not slain, because they intended to make slaves of them and the children [in contrast with Davids conduct, 1Sa 27:11.Tr.]. The two wives of David, Ahinoam and Abigail, are especially named, 1Sa 25:42 sq., 1Sa 27:3. The great sorrow that they all, David and his men, expressed with tears and cries, corresponds with the great peril that threatened David, the people charging their misfortune on him and thinking of stoning him.The soul of all the people was bitter, they were deeply agitated. But he strengthened himself in the Lord his God, he had recourse to Him in order (1Sa 30:7 sq.) to inquire of him by the ephod, as he had done, 1Sa 23:9. His strengthening in the Lord consisted in the fact that, being assured through his inquiry of the Lords assistance, he straightway set out with his embittered men to recover the spoil from the Amalekites.
1Sa 30:7-10. Davids arrangements to secure his end: 1) the religious preparation, verses 7, 8; he first assured himself of the Lords will that he should pursue the enemy, and of His promise that he should be successful,on the words bring me the ephod, which indicate that the ephod was exclusively the property of the high-priest,24 comp. Hengst, Beit. [Contributions, etc.] 3, 67 sq.,2) his military disposition of his men, 1Sa 30:9-10. The six hundred men appear here as before. They are divided into two parts, four hundred pursue the enemy, two hundred remain behind, when they have reached the brook Besor. [But this arrangement was not at first intended by David; it was a necessity forced on him by the exhaustion of the two hundred.Tr.]. The brook Besor is probably the present Wady el Sheria, which begins in the hill-country of Judah and flows in a south-westerly direction south of Gaza into the sea. See Raumer, Pal. p. 52. [Rob. thought it the Wady Ar arah, and Grove and Porter think it yet unidentified.Tr.].At this brook and in its valleyboth must be considered here, because the staying behind of some of Davids men, afterwards referred to their exhaustion, supposes an insurmountable difficulty in the groundthe rest (= 1Sa 30:9) remained in a position adapted to the protection of the baggage which was left here (see 1Sa 30:24). The narrator here anticipates what is told in 1Sa 30:10; it is a proleptical expression, arising from the vivacious description of Davids rapid march with four hundred men, and there is no need to change the text into the Vulg. lassi wearied (= ), as Then. proposes, especially as the ancient VSS. had it and explained it by periphrases (Keil).25 The verb () = to be weary in Syr., occurs only here and in 1Sa 30:21. Weariness was the reason of their remaining behind. At the same time they served to guard the baggage (1Sa 30:24).
1Sa 30:11-16 a. David gets information of the Amalekites from an Egyptian straggler. 1Sa 30:11. And they found an Egyptian; from the proximity of Egypt the Amalekites had Egyptians as slaves (comp. 1Sa 30:13). And they took, that is, brought him to David, a pregnant expression in keeping with the rapidity of the action. The insertion of the Sept. and they brought him, is clearly an explanatory reading (against Then.). Bread () = food; they gave him to eat and to drink; the general statement stands first.
1Sa 30:12. The sort of food which they gave him. On the fig-cakes see on 1Sa 25:18. His spirit returned to him, he revived; having been left behind sick, and having been three days and three nights without food, he had lain exhausted on the field.26
1Sa 30:13 sq. The Egyptians answer. To whom belongest thou? that is, as slave, for as such he was recognized by his exterior. Whence art thou? ( , the remains unchanged, the changes according to the relations of the sentence. Ew. 326 a).We invaded; the verb here only stands with the Accus., usually with a Prep. ( , ,, see 1Sa 30:16).The first geographical statement [1Sa 30:14]: On the south of the Cherethites.27 a Philistine tribe dwelling in the south and on the sea (see 1Sa 30:16), which came originally, as the name indicates, from the island of Crete. See in Steph. Byzant. s.v. Gaza, the tradition that the Cretans under Minos made an expedition against the neighboring coast of Gaza. Reasons for the view that Caphtor, the home of the Philistines (who were not indigenous to Canaan, but immigrants, Deu 2:23; Amo 9:7), is identical with Crete, may be seen in Bertheau zur Gesch. d. Israel., p. 186200. Comp. Ewald Gesch. [Hist, of Israel] I. 336. Against this view see Starkes Gaza, p. 66 sq., 99 sq., Dunkers Gesch. d. Alterthums I., 339 A. [See also Vaihingers Article Philister, and Mllers Art. Kanaan in Herzogs R.-E., and Mllers more recent book Die Semiten, in which he wrongly makes the Philistines Japhethites. The whole question is obscure, but there is some ground for holding that the Philistines first passed from the neighborhood of the Persian Gulf into Lower Egypt (Gen 10:14, whence came the Philistines), thence through Crete to Canaan, to which country they have given the name Palestine. This would explain the Phnician-Canaanitish type of their language.Tr.].28The second statement: On what pertained to Judah, the southern regions of Judah, forming the eastern portion of the Negeb or Southland, which stretched across from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea. The third statement: On the south of Caleb.Caleb, one of the twelve spies, as reward for his faithfulness and believing courage, he alone with Joshua, daring, and advising the people, to enter the land (Num 13:6; Num 13:30; Num 14:6 sq.), was, with Joshua, alone considered worthy to tread the land of promise; the city of Hebron and its environs was given to him and his posterity as a lasting possession. When the city of Hebron was afterwards assigned to the priests, the race of Caleb yet retained all the adjacent fields and villages (Jos 21:11 sq.). Though it belonged to the tribe-territory of Judah, the district of Caleb is regarded as a distinct region; it formed the eastern part of the Negeb as far as the Dead Sea, comp. 1Sa 25:3. The three regions, which the Amalekites invaded, are named from West to East. We hence see that the plundering expedition of the Amalekites extended over the whole South-country, and was not intended for Ziklag alone.
1Sa 30:15. Davids question: Wilt thou bring me down to this troop? supposes the Amalekites had marched southward, and dwelt there south of Judah and Philistia. The Egyptian assures himself by an oath (by Elohim, not by Jehovah), from David that he will not kill him, because informers and guides, after having been used, were often so disposed of (Thenius), and that he would not deliver him up to his master, because the latter would have killed him for his service to David.
1Sa 30:16 a assumes that David gave him the oath. He brought him down.It is unnecessary (with Sept. and Then.) to insert thither. Though the slave was left behind sick, he yet knew the direction which this troop had taken.
1Sa 30:16 b20. David surprises the Amalekites and recovers the booty. 1Sa 30:16 b. After behold we ought perhaps to suppose they () fallen out (so Then. after Sept.). The narrative gives a lively description of the Amalekite troop, scattered over the ground (so David found them), revelling after their successful foray, and celebrating a feast because of all the great spoil.
1Sa 30:17. Thus abandoned to jollity David surprises them. The statement: from the twilight to the evening is understood by some to mean from the morning-twilight, by others to mean from the evening-twilight, the Heb. word () being used in both senses, for example, in the former in Job 7:4. In favor of the morning-twilight Isaiah 1) that David could only have surprised the revelling Amalekites by a night-march; and 2) the counter-limit: to the evening. Luther: from morning to evening. The succeeding word () means not on the following day, but (because of the Prep.) towards the next day (Luth.) According to the former rendering the fight would have lasted two whole days, which is improbable. According to the latter it lasted (as agrees with the circumstances) only one day, from morning to evening, when according to Heb. reckoning the following day began. The suffix (-), which the ancient VSS., except Syr. and Arab.,29 do not express, is perhaps an adverbial ending30 (Maurer, Ges., Then., Keil). That David had to fight the Amalekites a whole day shows that after the first surprise in the twilight they made obstinate resistance. [Instead of the next day, Bib.-Com. proposes to read to wipe them out (), and similarly Wellhausen. The present text is difficult. The addition towards the morrow (Erdmann) is unnecessary, and the phrase itself is strange, though sustained by the ancient versions. No explanation yet proposed is satisfactory.Tr.].
1Sa 30:18 sq. Statement of Davids complete success; he recovered all the goods and persons that the Amalekites had carried away.
1Sa 30:20. All the sheep and oxen David took away, namely, from the Amalekites, not merely what they had taken from him, but other rich booty in cattle. That flock ( ) [Eng. A. V. wrongly those other cattle] is not the flock that belonged to David, and was now recovered by him from the Amalekites. So some expositors take it, explaining it that David caused the flocks captured from the Amalekites to be driven before the rest which belonged to him, with the cry: this is the spoil of David; but there is no previous special mention of stolen cattle which would justify such a retrospective designation: before that (Davids) flock. That flock, in such a demonstrative or retrospective sense, can only be the previously-mentioned cattle captured from the enemy [1Sa 30:19]. Nor can we render with De Wette they marched, properly they led, that is, led the train of women and children; for the verb (), as Thenius properly remarks in opposition, never (even Gen 31:18; Exo 3:1; Isa 11:16; Psa 80:2 (1) Son 8:2) means lead except in so far as the leader is at the same time the driver (so 1Sa 30:2; 1Sa 30:22; 2Sa 6:3), and never means draw forward, lead on. Taking the verb in the sense of driving, there is, however, no object to the verb in the Heb. text (); the women and children cannot be the object, since only cattle has been spoken of. We must therefore (with Then. after Vulg.) make a slight change in the text (read ) and render: they (the drivers) drove (or, one drove) before him, that is, before David (who stood of course at the head of the troop) this flock, namely, that which had been captured from the Amalekites, to which the outcry this is Davids spoil answers very well.31
1Sa 30:21-25. Davids return with the recovered property and the booty to the two hundred men who were left behind, and the adjustment of a strife which was made by some wicked men of his band in regard to the division of the booty with them.
1Sa 30:21. Follow David, more precise statement of what is said in 1Sa 30:10, that they could not go over the brook Besor for weariness. The Sing. he made to abide (found in all ancient VSS. except Chald., and in 5 MSS. of De Rossi) instead of the Plu. is preferable (Then.), not only because it pertained to David to permit them to stay behind, but also because he is mentioned immediately before and after. David, who had left the tired two hundred to guard the baggage, now gives them friendly greeting as they come joyfully to meet him. On the phrase he saluted them, lit., asked after their peace, see 1Sa 25:5; Jdg 18:15.
1Sa 30:22. But in this joyful meeting a discordant note was introduced by certain wicked and worthless persons of the band, who had marched with David against the enemy and fought them. The translation of the Sept. the men of war is obviously an explanation, and does not require (Then.) a corresponding change in the Heb. text ( ). The Sing. with me refers to the individual man who speaks in the name of the rest [Eng. A. V., ad sensum with us.Tr.]. Because they went not, because they did not share the danger, they shall not share the spoil, but each one must content himself with his wife and children. The every one () is not dependent on we will give [as Eng. A. V. has it], so as to read, we will give them nothing, except to every man his wife, etc., but the proper translation is (Thenius): but every one his wife and children, these let them lead away, etc., because the every one () is too far from the to them () to be governed by the preposition to.
1Sa 30:23. In a gentle and friendly way David repels their demand. By the address my brethren he speaks to their hearts, and at the same time alludes to the fraternal association in which they all stand with one another, so that they that remained behind must receive their share by fraternal division. Do not so, my brethren, by that which the Lord has given us. is not Prep. = with that which (De Wette), but the sign of the Acc. [= in respect to that which freely rendered with as in Eng. A. V.Tr.]. Ewald, taking it as Acc., renders the phrase as an ejaculatory oath by that which! (Gr., 329 a), and so as an exclamation: think on that which. In favor of this translation, instead of the usual, in respect to that which is partly the interpunction (a strong pause at the word my brethren, ), as even Then. admits, partly the excited feeling with which David speaks notwithstanding his friendly and gentle tone, so that this rendering cannot be rejected (Then.) as less natural.32 Translate for he has guarded us, etc. (the in as causal).
1Sa 30:24. And who will hearken to you in this word; we must here beyond doubt render word () and not thing [as in Eng. A. V.] because of the reference to the word so emphatically spoken by the men. For [ Eng. A. V. but] refers to the negation involved in the question, the reason for which is given in the following words; according to the sense, therefore, it = but or rather. The Sept. inserts by way of explanation the words: they are not inferior to us, wherefore, but there is no ground for inserting this into the Heb. text (against Then.). As is the part so be the part These words are explained by the brief declaration: together shall they share, which ordains the procedure corresponding to that rule.33David repels the opposition with two arguments, 1) a divine, drawn from the so manifestly experienced goodness of the Lord, pointing a) to the gift bestowed on them in this booty; b) to the protection vouchsafed them; c) to the victory granted them; 2) a purely human, in which a) he affirms that no one will support them in their demand, since they were wicked and worthless people, b) in proof of this he points out the equality of soldiers in position and merit, in whether they take part in battle, or act as guards of baggage in reserve, and thence c) declares the demand of human justice every one his own, every one shall share in that which has fallen to so all together. An admirable speech, which set forth most fitly everything essential, and completely settled the dispute. [See in Patricks Comm. in loco. a citation from Polybius on the ancient rule of partition in war, and the procedure of Publius Scipio, like Davids, given in Polyb. X., XVI. 5 (Bib. Comm.).Tr.].
1Sa 30:25. So it was from that day forward.Davids decision ruled from thenceforth. He made it, the Subj. is David, not indefinite one made it (Sept., Vulg., Chald.). [A similar law in Num 31:27, only there the division is between the soldiery and those that stayed at home, the former having the advantage. Davids rule was perhaps a special application of the general principle; it was in force in the time of the Maccabees (2Ma 8:28; 2Ma 8:30). See Bp. Patricks further illustrations.The translation upwards, referring back to Abraham, Gen 14:23-24 (Rashi cited by Gill), is plainly wrong.Tr.]
1Sa 30:26-31. The dividing out of the booty
1Sa 30:26. David retained enough of the booty in the division among his own men, to send considerable presents to the elders of Judah, his friends.The territory of the tribe of Judah had been the scene of his wanderings during his persecution by Saul; see the express reference to this in 1Sa 30:31. Here only his kingdom could and was to come to historical realization through the adhesion to him of the elders of Judah and through them of the whole people. Because they were his friends, therefore he sent them presents from the spoil taken from Judahs old hereditary enemies; he did not send them gifts to make them his friends. [Probably for both reasons.Tr.]. It is besides probable that many localities in Judah had been plundered by the Amalekites in this foray. F. W. Krummacher: This was already a royal act in vivid anticipation of his impending accession to the throne. Already the crown of Israel was unmistakably though dimly visible above his head. Davids point of view in sending these gifts is declared expressly to be the religious-theocratic in his accompanying words: Behold a gift of blessing for you of the spoil of the enemies of the Lord.Blessing () = gift which comes from God (see 1Sa 25:27). The enemies, from whom the booty was taken, he calls enemies of Jehovah, because they were enemies of Gods people and so of Gods cause and kingdom in Israel, yea, of God Himself, who as covenant-God identified Himself with His people. Israels conflict against its enemies was a conflict of the Lord, see on 1Sa 17:47. The booty taken in battle from the Amalekites by the Lords help was therefore a gift of God and thus a blessing, in which all Judah, where was the factual foundation for Davids kingdom, was to share through its elders and in all its separate localities. It must, therefore, have been a very rich booty, as we might also infer from the long duration of the battle.The term Judah embraces all the territory of that tribe, together with certain after-mentioned cities of Simeon scattered on the south border of Judah, as in Jos 15:21 sq. some cities of Simeon are mentioned among the cities of Judah.
1Sa 30:27. Bethel cannot (according to 1Sa 30:31) be the city in Benjamin (now Beitin); the Sept. Vat. Baithsour, which Then. would adopt into the text as Beth-zur, the name of a city in the hill-country of Judah between Jerusalem and Hebron (Jos 15:58; 2Ch 11:7), which, however, is undesirable from the great difference between the syllables el and zur. It is probably the same place which is called Kesil in Jos 15:30, identical with the Simeonite town called in Jos 19:4 Bethul and mentioned in 1Ch 4:30 between Tolad and Hormah under the name Bethuel; according to Knobel = Elusa or el Khalasa, now a large ruin about twelve miles south of Beersheba, comp. Rob. I. 333 sq. [Am. Ed. I. 201, 202], Fay [in Langes Biblework] and Keil on Jos 15:30, V. Raumer, 180.Ramoth-Negeb, so called, in distinction from other cities of the same name, as lying in the south-country belonging to Simeon, Jos 19:8. [Shimei the Ramathite (1Ch 27:27), who was over Davids vineyards, was evidently a native of this Ramah (Bib. Comm.).Tr.].Jattir, probably the present Attir, Rob. II. 422 [Am. Ed. I. 494, II. 204], a priestly city, Jos 15:48; Jos 21:14; 1Ch 6:42, in the southern part of the hill-country of Judah, in Eusebius time (Onom. s. v. Jether) a large place inhabited by Christians, twenty Roman miles from Eleutheropolis, called in Seetzen, R. III., S. VI Ater.
1Sa 30:28. Aroer, 1Ch 11:44, in Judah, now a city with colossal ruins of foundation-walls in Wady Arara, about six miles south-east of Beersheba and eight miles south of Hebron, Rob. III. 180 [Am. Ed. II. 199].Siphmoth, not identified, not = Shepham on the north-border of Canaan, Num 34:10-11, the places here mentioned being all in the south (see 1Sa 30:31), according to Keil, perhaps found in Zebdi the Siphmite in 1Ch 27:27. [Bib. Comm. in loco. remarks on the number of cases in which Davids officials are the companions of his youth.Tr.].Eshtemoa, now the large village Semua, according to Schubert 2225 feet above the level of the sea, on the south-western part of the hill-country of Judah, Rob. II. 422, III. 191 [Am. Ed. I. 494, I. 204, 205], with numerous remains of walls, once a priestly city (Jos 15:50; Jos 21:14).
1Sa 30:29. Rachal, unknown. Instead of this the Sept. has five different names: Ged, Kimath, Saphek, Themath, Karmel, which Thenius would insert in the text, supposing that they might easily have fallen out through the repetition of the phrase to them which (). But only two of these names (Gad and Karmel) are found elsewhere, and Then. is obliged therefore to suppose changes in the original Greek forms34 in order to get known names. But besides the complicated character of these changes, the conjecture is opposed by the fact that Gath, as a Philistine city, cannot according to 1Sa 30:26 come into consideration here. And so the conjecture that Rachal is a corruption of Karmel is untenable.The cities of the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites were in the south of Judah (1Sa 27:10).
1Sa 30:30. Hormah, in Judah, also in the Negeb or south-country (Jos 15:30), assigned to the Simeonites according to Jos 19:4, called by the Canaanites Zephath (Jdg 1:17), situated on the southern declivity of the mountains of the Amalekites or the Amorites, now called Sepata [the pass es-Sufa, Rob. ii. 181,Tr.], a ruin on the western declivity of the elevated plateau Rakhma, five miles south of Khalasa (Elusa), see Ritter 14, 1085 [Smiths Bib. Dict., Art. Hormah; see Jos 12:14.Tr.]. Comp. Num 14:45; Num 21:3, the latter as to the meaning of the name: banning, banplace.Chor-ashan probably = Ashan35 (Jos 15:42), according to Jos 19:7 a city of Simeon (1Ch 4:32).Athach, only here, otherwise unknown; Then. conjectures the reading to be Ether (), a Simeonite city (Jos 19:7; Jos 15:43), which is possible from the similarity of the third letters [ ,]. In 1Sa 30:30 the Sept. has Jarmuth for Hormah, and inserts two additional names, Beer-sheba (Jos 15:28; Jos 19:2) and Nombe, for which Then. refers to the Nuba visited by Tobler.
1Sa 30:31. Hebron, fourteen miles south of Jerusalem, a primeval city (Gen 23:17; Num 13:22), in a deep and narrow valley in the hill-country of Judah, now el Khalil, that is, Friend of God, so called with reference to Abrahams residence there.And to all places, etc.David showed himself grateful to all who befriended and adhered to him as a fugitive, and bound them still closer to him.
HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL
1. It is a wonderful providence of God in the development of the parallel-running fates of Saul and David that, just before the catastrophe which overwhelmed Saul and his house and kingdom, the ways of both men seem to sink into the depths of misfortune, and lose themselves without a trace, Sauls way in battle with the Philistines, Davids in hostilities with the Amalekites. And so the nation Israel, already divided in fact between Saul and David, seems to be carried along to destruction with its two heads, and given up beyond salvation to its two mightiest hereditary foes. And on both sides Gods punitive justice is seen controlling human sin, for not only Saul, on whose head Gods final judgment of wrath descends, is guilty, Davids strait also is the result of his sin. This consisted 1) in his sinful weakness of faith and despair, which led him to have recourse to Israels enemy, instead of remaining trustfully in Judah according to the Lords direction (1Sa 22:5); 2) in his untruthfulness and prevarication, which led him to join the enemy against his own people, the Amalekites meantime, while he was marching north, plundering his possessions in the south, and 3) in his extremely cruel and bloody foray against the Amalekites (27), for which he had received no commission from the Lord, by which their vengeance was kindled against him. All this teaches us, as we look at David and at Saul, that sin is destruction. And yet, notwithstanding this similarity in suffering, which appears, on the one hand, as a divine punishment, and, on the other hand, in sin as cause of destruction, there is here completed to the eye that can recognize Gods ways, in a summary and epoch-making manner that most important contrast, whose history runs through the whole development of the kingdom of God in the Old Covenant and in the New. Sauls way vanishes in the darkness of an unfortunate battle with the old enemy of the nation, into whose hand God gives him and the people, and his life ends in despair; the sentence of rejection is executed. Davids way emerges from the gloom, he returns as victor over the foe, dispenses presents with princely munificence, his kingdom flourishes in the south over the whole territory of the mighty tribe of Judah, whose power southward against the tribes of which Amalek was the most dangerous in its enmity, and westward against the powerful Philistines, was the protection and guard of all Israel. Whiles Sauls star sinks in the north, the star of David rises in the south, and there begins the long line of fulfillments of the prophecy concerning the Star that should come out of Jacob (Num 24:17). While in the north Israel, involved in Sauls destruction and the divine judgment passed against him, lies prostrate before the Philistines, Davids victory frees the south from the enemy, and in Judah the foundation of the new kingdom of the future is laid by the heroic achievement of David and his men, and by his noble and winning behaviour. This great contrast in the fates of Saul and David is, however, founded in the contrast in their posture of heart to the Lord: Saul has lost sight of God, hardened himself against Him in pride, self-will and hate to David, lost ethical ability to repent, and in his time of need applied to anti-godly powers and deceitful human counsel. David, on the contrary, shows us his heart, as it bows in sorrow before Him (1Sa 30:4) under the painful, but not undeserved strokes of Gods hand (1Sa 30:5-6), but in the bitterest experiences, when his own men turn against him, does not yield to despair, but looks to the Lord for strength. And so he receives the consolatory revelation of Gods will and promise of divine help, and experiences the Lords saving and blessing power. From these gloomy paths David comes forth as a man after Gods own heart, to whom has come the experience that God gives grace to the humble and causes the upright to succeed.
2. The strengthening of the inner life in the Lord in time of need (as David here found) consists in the undoubtful experience and knowledge of what is well-pleasing to God through enlightenment from above, in fulfilling it with pious confidence and hope in His help through the consolations of His word, and in the permeation of ones own will by the sanctifying might of the divine will, which lifts up the sunken courage, and makes the crushed or depressed will to mount to bold resolution and energetic action. Such a strengthening attests itself particularly in the casting of all care on Him, and in brave struggle against all the powers of flesh and blood, which oppress and take captive the inner life. The condition of such an inspiriting and strengthening of the inner life of the member of Gods kingdom is his open-heartedness and receptivity for the divine vital powers, which are at the disposal of every one who will appropriate them, and constant intercourse with the Lord in unchangeable association of life with him founded on thorough humble devotion to him, without which neither can man be Gods property, nor God mans; all this being involved in the words: David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1Sa 30:1. Schlier: What else were the Amalekites than the Lords rods of chastening, to chasten David for all his improprieties in the land of the Philistines? For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and with His children He is always strictest.Berl. Bib.: God does not leave His people long in sin, but soon raps them over the knuckles when they go off on their own ways, in order that they may come into the track again.S. Schmid: When we go out of the house we should heartily pray, for we know not in what manner we shall return.
1Sa 30:2. Starke: That is Gods custom in dealing with His people; before He exalts them, He humbles them first. Pro 15:33; 1Sa 2:7.Cramer: God still cares for His own, and lays on them no more trouble than they can bear (1Co 10:13), and also restrains their enemies from making their cross heavier by a hair.
1Sa 30:3-5. Berl. Bib.: David was guided in a way so universal, that one cannot experience nor even know anything which was not to be found in him. And those who shall read attentively what is said of David, will therein certainly meet with their own condition; and this the more exactly, in proportion as they have gone further and become more conformed to Jesus Christ.[1Sa 30:4. Henry: It is no disparagement to the boldest and bravest spirits to lament the calamities of relations and friends.Tr.]
1Sa 30:6 sqq. Schlier: David was strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, for in prayer he had won over again the Lord his God and gained His gracious promise.[Taylor: As sometimes the partially intoxicated man will be sobered in a moment by the occurrence of some terrible calamity, so David, who had been living all these months under the narcotic influence of sin, was by the violence of the Amalekites and the threatened mutiny of his own men roused to his nobler self, and he strengthened himself in the Lord his God.Tr.]Berlenb. Bible: He strengthens himself in God through an increased composure and through the union of his will with the will of God, as himself doing or permitting all this.Roos: David saw no means before him of recovering his wives, children and property and those of his followers. But he strengthened himself in faith in the omniscience, wisdom and almightiness of God, and obtained through the Light and Right [Urim and Thummim] good instruction from God. Now as David did, so should the believing seed of Abraham in every need. We should not give way to gloomy unbelief, but strengthen ourselves in our God. We should and may do this all the more because the heart of God is in Christ Jesus or revealed to us yet more clearly than to David.
1Sa 30:8. Berl. Bible: If it was a duty under the Old Testament, in an enterprise pertaining to war, thus to turn first to God before resolving on anything, that yet the spirit of the Old Testament carried along with it, and did not absolutely forbid, how much more among Christians under the New Testament should nothing of the sort be done without the divine consent, without first duly consulting thereupon with Christ and His Spirit. [Taylor: Very suggestive is this contrast. David said, I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul; there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines. David strengthened himself in the Lord his God, and said unto Abiathar, Bring hither the ephod. On the one hand despair, leading to prayerlessness and self-will; on the other, faith, leading to prayer and eager willinghood to submit to the guidance of Jehovah.Tr.].
1Sa 30:9-10, Hedinger: He hopes in vain for consolation from God, who will not make use of Gods counsel.S. Schmid: As man acts towards God so God acts towards man (Lev 26:27-28).Schlier: As David humbled himself before God, God also acknowledged him again and took him up.We men cannot, enough humble ourselves before the Lord, but neither can we have enough confidence in the Lord.
1Sa 30:11. Hedinger [from Hall]: Worldly wisdom teacheth us to sow small courtesies where we may reap large harvests of recompense.
Verses 13, 14 [from Hall]: Wonderful is the providence of God, even over those that are not in the nearest bonds His own.
1Sa 30:16 [from Hall]: Destruction is never nearer than when security has chased away fear. The world passes away with its lust; well for him who is on his guard and seeks in time what promotes his peace.
1Sa 30:17. Cramer: God blesses the possessions of the pious and causes all to go well with them (Psa 1:3-4).
1Sa 30:18-19. God gives more than we could have desired and hoped for from Him.Schlier: Only for children of God who in trying times seek the Lord does it hold good, that when the need is highest Gods help is also nighest. We will never forget that a few days after Davids own people were about to stone him on the ruins of Ziklag, the royal crown was laid at his feet.[1Sa 30:24. This principle will apply to soldiers and non-combatants, ministers and their wives, missionaries and those at home who sustain them.
1Sa 30:26. How delightful when the prompting of gratitude for the past coincides with the dictate of policy for the future.Tr.]
1Sa 30:3-8. Right behaviour before God in need and anguish: 1) These men do not pretend to stoical indifference, but let their grief have free course, as the Lord has brought it on them (1Sa 30:4); 2) They bow low in humility under the hand of God, renouncing all self-help, and seeing human support vanish before their eyes (1Sa 30:6 a); 3) They lift themselves cheerfully up again in power and strength, procured from the Lord (1Sa 30:6 b8).
1Sa 30:6-20. The Lord is His peoples mighty rock of defence against the opposers of his kingdom: 1) He gives them his counsel upon their inquiry when in straits; 2) He fills them with his power for the conflict enjoined upon them; 3) He leads them according to his promises to glorious victory; 4) He causes them to come forth from the conflict with a rich blessing.
The Lords help in great need: 1) To whom is it given? a) To him who betakes himself to the Lord with prayerful inquiry (1Sa 30:7); b) To him who humbly gives himself up to the Lords guidance; a) in obedience to His commandment; ) in trust upon His promises (1Sa 30:8). 2) How does the Lord render His help? a) Through His wordanswering the inquiries addressed to Him in needputting an end to uncertainty by its decisionbanishing all anxiety and despondency from the heart of consoling promises (1Sa 30:8); b) Through His deedin often quite unexpectedly pointing out the right ways and means that lead to the end (1Sa 30:11-16)in often wonderfully rendering his assistance amid threatening perils (1Sa 30:17 sq.)and in causing a rich gain to be obtained from the most trying times of need.
The subjects of Gods kingdom in conflict with the world: 1) They enter into the conflict, strengthened in the strength of the Lord; 2) They conquer in the conflict, under the guidance and support of the Lord; 3) They come out of the conflict, crowned with the rich blessing of the Lord.
[1Sa 30:11. The forsaken slave: 1) Even the meanest may not be neglected with impunity. 2) Even the poorest may richly reward his benefactors. 3) Even the weakest may be the means of accomplishing great results (Davids recovering possessions and family, regaining the devotion of his followers, and reviving the friendship of his tribesmen, thus smoothing his way to the throne). 4) Even the lowliest is cared for by Providence, and his fortunes linked with the highest, in the providential network of society.
[1Sa 30:1-26. Returning HomeTwo Pictures. I. The sorrowful return. 1) He had left home without seeking the Lords guidanceapparently to fight against the Lords peopleuncertain and unhappy. 2) He had returned, because distrusted, and sent away in dishonor. 3) He found his home in ashes, and his family carried captive. 4) His personal wretchedness was enhanced by the natural wrath of his followers. II. The subsequent joyful return. 1) He leaves with explicit Divine direction and promiseto fight national as well as private enemieshopeful and happy. 2) He returns victorious and honored. 3) He has regained greater wealth than he had lost. 4) His personal joy is increased by the privilege of sending gifts to his friends. And now what unites the two pictures; His sorrowful return led him to deep penitence, revived faith (1Sa 30:6) and humble prayer (1Sa 30:8); and from these resulted the joyful return. Sore afflictions, when rightly borne, often open the way to lifes sweetest joy.Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1][1Sa 30:1. Some MSS. have , and in the better codices the Inf. is written fully Tr.]
[2][1Sa 30:1. Vulg. and Arab. read: the south of Ziklag, but negeb is probably here a proper name, the South-country; this may account for the absence of the Art.Tr.]
[3][1Sa 30:2. The order of words in Eng. A. V. here is opposed to the accents and to the syntax. The reading of the Heb. text, however, is harsh; we do not expect the descriptive phrase: both small and great to be applied to women, and therefore the reading of the Sept.: the women and all that was in it (comp. 1Sa 30:19) commends itself as better. Dr. Erdmann. however, rejects it.Tr.]
[4][1Sa 30:2. And slew no one, as in Chald., Vulg. and some MSS., is much easier. Syr. and Arab. strangely omit the negative, and read: they slew the men.Tr.]
[5][1Sa 30:2. Erdmann writes the passage from and the Amalekites in 1Sa 30:1 to the end of 1Sa 30:2 as a parenthesis, which is allowable, but not necessary.Tr.]
[6][1Sa 30:5. Some MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi have the Carmelitess, referring to Abigail. See note on 1Sa 27:3.Tr.]
[7][1Sa 30:6. That is, was in difficulty and danger, an idea not now so well expressed by the word distress. For grieved or bitter the Bib. Com. suggests exasperated, which conveys the sense with precision.Tr.]
[8][1Sa 30:7. This word is commonly and properly transferred, not translated (so Sept., Vulg., Syr., Chald.); Sym., however, renders it by , Aq. by , and Arab. by a descriptive phrase: the breast-plate by which thou inquirest.Tr.]
[9][1Sa 30:8. As this is a principal, not a subordinate question, Wellh. would insert the Interrog. before this verb.Tr.]
[10][1Sa 30:9. It seems impossible to do anything with this phrase. That something stood here in an early form of the text is shown by the Sept. and other VSS.; but these words give no sense: they cannot be proleptical, as Erdmann explains them, for the word supposes a division already made. The Syr. abandons the text, and explains: and David left two hundred men. The Vulg. reading: and certain tired ones stayed (preferred by Then., and rejected by Erdmann), is easy; but the statement is here unnecessary and out of place. It is more satisfactory to suppose that the phrase was early introduced into the text by clerical repetition from the following verse.Tr.]
[11][1Sa 30:10. Wellh. suggests that the two halves of this verse have changed places; but this is unnecessary, for, though the second half would fit on to 1Sa 30:9, the present order is quite in accordance with Heb. form of narration. in which the explanation is often made to follow the principal statement.Tr.]
[12][1Sa 30:11. Some MSS., and Sept. and Ar. read: took him and brought him.Tr.]
[13][1Sa 30:12. , not the nephesh, the breath of life, but the breath considered as vigorous and truly alive, somewhat as in Eng. the word spirit has come to mean courageous vigor and alertness.Tr.]
[14][1Sa 30:13. Sept. has against connection and accents: the young man of Egypt said, I am servant, etc.Tr.]
[15][1Sa 30:13. Literally: to-day three, that is, as Chald. gives it, to-day these three days, and some MSS. have three days. Vulg. nudiusertius.Tr.]
[16][1Sa 30:15. Sept. transfers ; in other Greek VSS. we find and , and also (perhaps, as Schleusner suggests, from the Chald. ).Tr.]
[17][1Sa 30:16. Properly keeping festival.Tr.]
[18][1Sa 30:17. Erdmann renders: towards the next day (after Luther), which is doubtful. Eng. A. V. is supported by Vulg., Chald., Sept. Chald., however, instead of using the same word as the Heb., has the day which was after it, and the Syr. has a similar form in their rear, as if they read , which does not suggest any good emendation. As the Heb. word stands, the – may be regarded as pronom. suffix, to their morrow (redundant), or as adverbial ending. Wellhausen emends the text and reads , which would suit the letters of the present word, but does not particularly commend itself.Tr.]
[19][1Sa 30:20. So Erdmann renders, reading (with Vulg. and Then.) instead of . The sense will be still better if we further read in the beginning of the verse: And they took, instead of And David took. The taking and driving seem to be the work of the same person (as Wellh. remarks), and it would be appropriate for Davids men rather than for himself to set aside his spoil. This change would require very little alteration of the lettering. As for the words: this flock, they seem unnecessary (Wellh. would reject them as clerical explanation), yet do not interfere materially with the sense.Tr.]
[20][1Sa 30:21. The Sing. he is found in some MSS., and in Sept., Syr., Arab., Vulg., Chald., and is better.At the end of the verse instead of , the VSS. and some MSS. have .Tr.]
[21][1Sa 30:25. There is a good deal of authority (about forty MSS., several printed Edd., and the Vulg.) for reading in Israel, which is better.Tr.]
[22][1Sa 30:30. Bor is found in Sept., Syr., Vulg. and a number of Edd. and MSS., and is preferred by De Rossi and Wellhausen.Tr.]
[23]On this reading see Textual and Grammatical.Tr.]
[24][The inquiry was probably conducted by the high-priest., in a way unknown to us, but more probably the answer came through the priests mouth.Tr.]
[25][See Text, and Gram.Tr.]
[26][Wordsworth (Comm. in loco.), sees in this a type of Christs mercy to the outcast. The two procedures are both examples of kindness, but there is no typical relation between them.Tr.]
[27] = , Eze 25:16; Zep 2:6, used as synonymous with the Philistines.
[28][Davids bodyguard (2Sa 8:18) was probably composed of Philistines.Tr.]
[29]They, however, read .
[30]As in ,.
[31][On this reading see Text. and Gram.Tr.]
[32][This rendering will hardly commend itself. An oath would naturally be by what God has done for us. or by His mercy towards us, not by what He has given us. Sept. has after ( ) the Lord has given us, and Cahen after what the Eternal has given us. The ordinary rendering seems most satisfactory.Tr.]
[33]On see Ew. 860, 2 a; the second is here also more sharply connected by the Waw. Cons., Jos 14:11; Dan 11:29.Instead of K. we must of course read . [The Keth. may be the old form Tr.]
[34]He says: We must very probably read (Jos 15:22) for (Jos 15:53) for , and perhaps (Jos 15:57) for . So Buns. and Ew., expect that instead of the latter reads Jos 15:52).
[35][A priestly city, 1Ch 6:44 (Eng. A. V. 1Sa 6:59).Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Chapter becomes very interesting in its contents, for it relates to a period in the life of David, both important, as it proved to him, and instructive to God’s people. During the absence of David from Ziklag to attend the army of the Philistines, the Amalekites whom David had before scourged, made an incursion upon the city, and had not only set fire to it but carried away the women and children captives. The distress of David’s little army was so great upon this occasion, that they talked of stoning him. – David sought the Lord – the Lord answered him – David by God’s direction pursued the spoilers, overtook them, recovered all his loss, and made distribution among his soldiers of the plunder.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(1) And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; (2) And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. (3) So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.
I beg the Reader to remark with me concerning this event, how evidently the hand of the Lord was in it. No doubt it was intended to correct David for his past faithlessness. What business had David in an enemies’ country? It was the want of faith in his God which first led him there. And moreover I beg to intimate, that it appears to me by the late conduct of David, that since this breach of trust in God, there was a remissness on the part of David, in his communion with the Lord. Hence we read of no counsel being asked of God all the time he had been in Gath. Conscious of his ill conduct, he was shy at the heavenly court, and did not except perhaps in form, frequently go there. I do not say that this was really the case. But from the silence of the Holy Ghost upon the subject, after recording his faithlessness and fear, (1Sa 27:1 .) I think it more than probable. How then is the Lord’s servant to be brought back? What method in all the stores of grace will the Lord adopt to make him sensible of his sin? What so suited as affliction. Hence David could and did say, not only upon this, but perhaps many other occasions: Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. Psa 119:67 . Dearest Jesus! have I not found cause to adopt the same language? I desire the Reader to make one remark more with me upon the occasion of this distress of David and his men, in proof that the Lord’s hand was in it; and that is, that the Lord over-ruled the minds of the Amalekites, so that they slew not any of the people, only took them captive. Had not the Lord restrained, surely it is more than probable, that they would have done by David as he did by them, as we are told in 1Sa 27 , and have saved none alive.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Golden Art of Self-encouragement
1Sa 30:6
‘He ran to his cordial’ is the sententious comment of John Trapp. He sorely needed a cordial. What mercy that he knew where the cordial was! He discovered it in the heart of God.
David’s soul was overwhelmed within him. Every prospect was doleful. Black skies frowned over his head. He was exhausted. All the springs seemed dried up. ‘But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.’ Yes, He knew his cordial, and in the exigent hour he ran to it.
Here we have often, all of us, a great community with David. We cannot follow him in some of his supremely exultant moods, but in his depression and depletion we have a strong affinity with him. We are one with him in the deep and dire need of encouragement.
I. Seasons for the Exercise of this Golden Art. We need to be proficient in this art (1) amid personal sorrow; (2) in social distress; (3) in depression; (4) when the results of our evil past come on; (5) when old age gathers upon us.
II. Reasons for the Development of this Golden Art. We need to encourage ourselves in the Lord our God because of the powerlessness of human help. How little we can do for ourselves, and how little others can do for us in the critical hours of life!
It is not in man to strengthen himself with effectual strength. Experience shows the illusiveness of mortal forces. When Ziklag lies in ruins whither shall David turn but to God?
III. Methods of Practising this Golden Art How shall we encourage ourselves in the Lord our God? We must do it (1) by prayer; (2) by the realization of God we encourage ourselves in Him. To sit down amid the shadows and contemplate our loving Lord is to be restored in soul; (3) by recollecting the saints of the past; (4) by searching the Scriptures.
IV. Benefits which this Golden Art Educes. They reap a wealthy harvest who encourage themselves in the Lord their God. Solid comfort is theirs! When we address ourselves to God He wonderfully soothes our sorrow. ‘No marvel that God remembered David in all his troubles,’ says John Trapp, ‘since in all his troubles David remembered God.’ The Lord is to us, in this matter, as we are to Him. If we remember Him He will not fail to remember us. Wondrous solace our God affords. It is unspeakable. Deeper than the depths of grief it penetrates. In a thousand ways God comforteth the lowly.
Dinsdale T. Young, The Gospel of the Left Hand, p. 97.
References. XXX. 6. C. Bradley, The Christian Life, p. 239. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. ii. p. 195. XXX. 6-8. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1606. XXX. 18. C. Bradley, The Christian Life, p. 225. XXX. 24. M. G. Glazebrook, Prospice, p. 157. XXX. 24, 25. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in a Religious House, vol. i. p. 313.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Atheistic Reasoning
1Sa 29:6 ; 1Sa 30:6
THE trials which David underwent at the hands of Saul have now been fully dwelt upon; we now come to a different class of trials, viz., the afflictions which were laid upon David by the Philistines. When David was so severely persecuted by Saul, he went over to the Philistines; specially he allied himself with Achish, the Philistine king of Gath, and fought under his direction. David succeeded in winning the confidence of Achish, so much so that on one occasion Achish said to David, “Therefore will I make thee keeper of mine head for ever.” It came to pass, however, that when the Philistines saw David in the army of Achish, the princes of the Philistines were wroth, and said, “Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him…. Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?” So David’s honour became the occasion of David’s persecution and sore trial. That very song roused the jealousy of Saul, and now it excited the hatred of the princes of the Philistines. When Achish told David the decision of the princes, David pathetically expostulated: “But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee unto this day, that I may not go fight against the enemies of my lord the king?” To this inquiry, so full of genuine feeling, Achish returned a noble reply: “I know that thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God: notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to the battle.” Remember, David was an anointed man. Saul hated him, and the Philistines cast him out. Samuel had anointed him with oil, and, lo, he was despised of men. He had slain the enemy of Israel, yet Israel spat upon his name. He had served the Philistines, yet their princes drove him away with bitter reproaches. Nor was this all. When David came to Ziklag, he found that the Amalekites had burned the city with fire, and taken all the people into captivity. So terrible was the feeling of the men, that they spoke of stoning David, because the soul of every man was grieved for his sons and for his daughters. Some very serious questions are forced upon us by this condition of affairs. Where was God? Where was the prophecy of Samuel? What was the value of divine election? Would it not have been better for David to have broken away from old vows and old hopes, and to have plunged into courses which would have given him instant pleasure? Let it be clearly understood that the story, viewed as illustrative of providential care, is by no means so dark as it looks. Somewhere we shall find an explanatory word. In reading history, always seek for the moral key. In estimating personal life, never forget to search the heart. The mysteries of providence are sometimes only the shadows of our own misjudgments and immoralities.
1. We find the secret of David’s ill-fortunes amongst the Philistines in these words: “And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.” This is the first piece of atheistic reasoning which we have met in the life of David. The old tone is wanting. This is the talk of a Philistine, so to the Philistines let him go. David takes his own case into his own hands; let him, then, learn the folly of his wisdom and the weakness of his strength. There are three things in life which must lead to disappointment, shame, and ruin: (1) Atheistic self-trust; (2) immoral and unnatural associations; and (3) duplicity and equivocation.
All these we find at this period of David’s life. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” A standard of judgment is thus supplied to every man. Where did we break down? It is a moral collapse. At what point did it set in? We may not be able to charge ourselves with a violent apostacy, but what of imperceptible decay?
2. David having brought himself into difficulties with the Philistines, the question was how to get out of those difficulties, and resume the old relations? The way of error is never easy. David thought he had found a nest of comfort, but, behold, there was a serpent in the nest, and it threatened his very life. These atheistic nests are very uncertain dwelling-places. They look inviting, but the wind will surely tear them in pieces. How did God deliver his servant? Through the wrath of David’s enemies. Suppose the Philistines had been pleased with him! Imagine for a moment the state of affairs if the princes had promoted him to honour, and laid him under the spell of their cruel blandishments. David complained of their treatment, not knowing that God was blowing up the rock in order to make a way of escape. Mark three things: (1) God does not easily or willingly cast off his erring children; (2) social injustice or cruelty may have a meaning never intended by its perpetrators; (3) the destruction of present securities may prepare the way for complete and enduring rest.
3. Though David had experienced severe trials manifestly sent by the hand of God, he was to be saved from ruinous conclusions by seeing what it was to fall into the hands of men. We sometimes suppose that if we could get clear of God, things would go easily with us. We think that by giving up religion we can escape difficulty. Be a materialist, and all will be well. Join the Philistines, and put an end to your miseries. Let us correct our reasoning by looking soberly at facts. How was it with David? The Philistines thrust him away, and his own men spake of stoning him. How false is the supposition that in escaping religion we escape trial! For example, the case of a minister giving up his ministry to make money; or the case of a good man quenching his religious convictions, and uniting with evil-doers.
4. A better spirit came upon David. “He came unto himself.” He was even as a returning prodigal. Hear the music of his better mood: “But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” From that hour the light came, and deliverance, and victory upon victory. For a time David had taken his life into his own hand; now he returned unto God, and made his peace with heaven. Woe unto the troops of Amalek in that day! “David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day.”
To every man there is a lesson. Come, let us return unto the Lord. We have wandered amongst enemies, and felt the bitterness of their treatment; we have strayed from the sanctuary, and gone into the land of idols and strange gods, and have seen how lifeless and powerless are the images carven by the cunning of men; we have broken our vows and forgotten our deliverances; we have taken charge of our own life, and it has perished in our keeping. Come, let us return unto the Lord; let us say, “We have sinned, and are no more worthy to be called thy children;” let us get back to the old foundations, the rock of righteousness and the stone of Zion; and who can tell how much of heaven we shall enjoy on earth?
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XIV
ZIKLAG, ENDOR, AND GILBOA
1Sa 27:1-31:13
Let us analyze David’s sin of despair, and give the train of sins and embarrassments that follow. The first line tells us of his sin of despair, 1Sa 27:1 : “And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.” It is a sad thing to appear in the life of David, this fit of the “blues” that came on him, and was utterly unjustifiable. In fact, he is done with Saul forever. Saul will never harm him again, and he is very late in fearing that he will one day perish by the hand of Saul. It reminds us of Elijah under the juniper tree, praying that he might die in his despair, when God never intended him to die at all but to take him to heaven without death. It was unjustifiable because the promises to him were that he should be king, and he should not have supposed that God’s word would fail. It is unjustifiable because up to this time he had been preserved from every attack of Saul, and the argument in his mind should be, “I will be preserved unto the end.”
The distrust of God sometimes comes to the best people. I don’t claim to be among the best people. I am an average kind of a man, trying my level best to do right, and generally optimistic and no man is ever whipped until he is whipped inside, and it is a very rare thing that I am whipped inside. Whenever I am it lasts a very short time. I don’t stay whipped long. But we may put it down as worthy of consideration in our future life that whenever we get into the state of mind the Israelites were in about the Canaanites that we are “mere grasshoppers in their sight and in our own sight,” then our case is pitiable. Let us never take the grasshopper view of ourselves.
That was the first sin, the succumbing of his faith; the temporary eclipsing of his faith. The next sin is this: “There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines.” Had he forgotten about God? Had he forgotten that he had tried that Philistine crowd once and had to get away from there without delay? Had he forgotten when he went over into Moab and was told by the prophet to get back to his own country? God would take care of him. That sin is the child of the other.
His third sin was that before taking such a decisive step he didn’t ask God a very unusual thing for him. Generally when anything perplexed him he called for the Ephod and the high priest and asked the Lord what he should do, but he is so unnerved through fear of Saul that he does not stop to ask what God has to say, and so that is a twin to the second sin, that was born of the original one. Without consulting anybody he gathers up his followers with their women, children, and everything that they have, and goes down to Gath, and there commits his next sin. He makes an alliance with the king of Gath and becomes tributary to him.
That in turn leads to another sin. He is bound to fight against the enemies of God’s cause, and so, occupying a town, Ziklag, bestowed upon him by the Philistine king, he marches out secretly and makes war on the Geshurites and Ginzites and Amalekites, and for fear that somebody would be spared to tell the Philistines that he was killing their allies, he kills them all, men, women, and children. Now, if he had been carrying out a plan of Jehovah he would have been justified, but the record says that he did it for fear that if he left any one of them alive they would report the fact to King Achish of Gath. His next sin is to tell a lie about it. We call it “duplicity,” but it was a sure-enough lie. He made the impression on Achish’s mind when he went out on this expedition that he was going against Judah, which pleased the Philistine king very much, for if he was fighting against Judah, then Judah would hate him and the breach would be widened between him and his own people.
We now come to another sin. Each sin leads to another. The Philistines determined to make a decisive war against Saul, and not to approach him in the usual way, but to follow up the boundary of the Mediterranean Sea and strike across through the very center of Palestine and cut the nation in two from the valley of Esdraelon. So Achish says to David, “You must go with us. You are our guest and ally and occupying a town I gave you.” So David marches along with his dauntless 600, and evidently against the will of his own men, as we will see later. He does go with the Philistines to the very battlefield, and when they get there the Philistines, seeing that he is with the court of the king, object to’ his presence and will not allow him to go to the battle with them. So he returned to the land of the Philistines.
I have no idea that he ever intended to strike a blow against Saul. I feel perfectly sure of it. When the battle was raging he would have attacked the Philistines in the flank with his 600 men, but he made the impression on the mind of the king that he would fight with them against Saul. The providence of God kept him from committing that sin.
These are the six sins resulting from getting into the wrong place just one time. I don’t say he won’t get into the place again, but this time he certainly was cowed. A man can’t commit just one sin. A sin can outbreed an Australian rabbit. The hunter sometimes thinks he sees just one quail, but when he flushes him, behold there is a pair or maybe a covey! There is a proverb that whoever tells a lie ought to have a good memory, else he will tell some more covering that one up, forgetting his first statement. I am sorry to bring out this charge against David, but I will have a much bigger one to bring out before we are done with him. He is one of the best men that ever lived, but all the good men that I know have their faults.
I have never yet been blest with the sight of a sinless man. I know there are some people who claim to be perfect and sinless, but I don’t know any who really are. A great modern sermon was preached on this despair of David, taking that first line as a text: “I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul.” The preacher was John McNeil, who is called the “modern Spurgeon.” He has charge of one of the livest churches in London and has published several volumes of sermons. This is the first in one of his books, and it is a great one.
This sin of David was punished in two ways. While he was off following the Philistines to the battlefield, these same Amalekites that he had been troubling so much, swooped down on Ziklag the town given to David by Achish and there being no defenders present, nobody but the women and children, they burned the town. They didn’t kill any one, but they took all the women and the children and the livestock and the furniture and everything made as clean a sweep as you ever saw, including both of David’s wives, Ahinoam and Abigail. The second punishment was that his own men, who didn’t want to go up with the Philistines, wanted to stone him for what bad happened when he was gone. His life was in danger.
But he recovered himself from this sin. When he saw the destruction of Ziklag and the temper of his men, the text says that David “greatly encouraged his heart in God and called for the high priest and the Ephod.” What a pity he hadn’t called for him sooner! But God is quick to answer readily, and forgive his erring children, and to put away their sin, and the answer comes through the Ephod to David’s questions: “Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them?” and God’s answer comes as quick as lightning, “Pursue them, for you shall overtake them and you shall recover all.” That was a very fine reply for a sinner to get when his troubles arose from his own sin, and so he does pursue them with his 600 men, and David in pursuit of a foe was like the Texas rangers. If a man’s horse gave out they left it. If a man himself gave out they left him. They just kept pursuing until they found and struck the enemy. That was the way with David.
A third of his force, 200 of his brave men, when they got to a certain stream of water, could not go any farther. He had to leave them and go with just 400 men. Out in the desert he finds a slave of one of the Amalekites, an Egyptian, starving to death. He had had nothing to eat for three days. David fed him, and asked him if he would guide them to the camp of the Amalekites. He said he would if they would never let his master get him again, and David came upon them while they were feasting and rejoicing over the great spoils. He killed all of them except about 400 young men who rode on camels. They got away. Camels are hard to overtake by infantry. They are very swift. And your record says that David recovered every man, woman, and child and every stick of furniture, besides all the rich spoils these desert pirates bad been gathering in for quite a while, cattle and stock of every kind.
David made the following judicious uses of the victory:
1. On the return, when they got to where those 200 were left behind, certain tough characters in his army did not want the 200 men to share in the spoils. They could have their wives and children, but nothing else. David not only refused to follow that plan, but established a rule dating from that time, that whoever stayed behind, with the baggage must share equally with those that went to the front. These men did not want to stay, but they couldn’t go any farther.
At the battle of San Jacinto, Houston had sternly to detail a certain number of his men to keep the camp, and they wept because they were not allowed to go into the battle. Those men that were detailed to stay in camp ought to be counted as among the victors of the battle of San Jacinto, and history go counts them.
2. The second judicious use that he made of the spoils captured from these Amalekites was to send large presents to quite a number of the southern cities of Judah that had been friendly to him and his men. He was always a generoushearted man. That made a good deal of capital for David. Even had he been acting simply as a politician, that was the wisest thing he could have done. But he simply followed his heart.
There were great accessions to David at Ziklag. The text tells us, 1Ch 12:1-7 , that there were about twenty-three mighty men, some of whom were Benjamites, who had come from Saul’s tribe, and they were right-handed and left handed. They could shoot an arrow with either hand. They could use either hand to sling a stone, and among these twenty-three were some of the most celebrated champions of single combat ever known in the world’s history. One of them, Jashobeam, in one fight killed 300 men with one spear.
SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR It is important for us to note just here the Mosaic law against necromancy, or an appeal to the dead by the living through a medium, i.e., a wizard, if a man, or a witch, if a woman, and wherein lies the sin of necromancy, which relates exclusively to trying to gather information from the dead. The law of Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy, is very explicit that no Israelite should ever try to gather information from the dead through a wizard or a witch, and the reason is that hidden things belong to God and revealed things to us and our children. The only lawful way to information concerning what lies beyond the grave is an appeal to Jehovah, and if God does not disclose it, let it alone. The prophetic teaching on this subject is found in the famous passage in Isaiah: “Woe to them that seek to wizards and witches that chirp and mutter. Why should the living seek unto the dead instead of unto the living God?”
Early in his reign Saul had rigidly enforced the Mosaic law putting the wizards and witches to death, or driving them out of the country.
There are several theories of interpretation concerning the transaction in 1Sa 28:11-19 , but I will discuss only three of them. Saul himself goes to the witch of Endor and asks her to call up Samuel, making an inquiry of the dead through a medium, wanting information that God had refused to give him. These are the theories:
1. Some hold that there was no appearance of Samuel himself nor an impersonation of him by an evil spirit; that there was nothing supernatural, but only a trick of imposture by the witch, like many modern tricks by mediums and spirit rappers, and that the historian merely records what appeared to be on the surface. That is the first theory. That is the theory of the radical critics, who oppose everything supernatural, and you know without my telling you what my opinion is of that theory. There are indeed many tricks of imposture by pretended fortunetellers, and some of them are marvelous, but such impostures do not account for all the facts.
2. Others hold that there was a real appearance of Samuel, but -the witch didn’t bring him up; she was as much if not more, startled than Saul when he came; that God himself interfered, permitting Samuel to appear to the discomfiture of the witch, who cried out when she saw him, and to pronounce final judgment on Saul. They quote in favor of this theory Eze 14:3 ; Eze 14:7-8 : “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them? . . . For every one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that separateth himself from me, and taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet to inquire for himself of me; I, Jehovah, will answer him by myself; and I will set my face against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people.” They interpret this passage to mean that when a man violated God’s law,. as Saul and this witch did, that God took it upon himself to answer, and answered through Samuel.
That theory is the Jewish view throughout the ages. According to the Septuagint rendering of 1Ch 10:13 , “Saul asked counsel of her that had a familiar spirit, and Samuel made answer to him.” It further appears to be the Jewish view by the apocryphal book Sirach 46:20, which says, “After his death Samuel prophesied and showed the king his end, and lifted up his voice from the earth in prophecy.” The Jewish view further appears in Josephus who thinks that Samuel was really there, but that God sent him; not that the witch had brought him up or could do it. This view was adopted by many early Christian writers; for example, Justin Martyr, Origen, and Augustine, all great men, and this view is held more and more by modern commentators, among them, for instance, Edersheim, in his History of Israel, and Kirkpatrick in the “Cambridge Bible,” and Blaikie in the “Expositor’s Bible,” and Taylor in his History of David and His Times. All those books I have recommended; they all take that second view.
3. Now here is the third theory of interpretation. First, there is such a thing as necromancy, in which, through mediums possessed of evil spirits which spirits do impersonate the dead and do communicate with the living. This theory holds that the case of Saul and the witch of Endor is in point that an evil spirit (for this woman is said to have had a familiar spirit; she was possessed with an evil spirit and the business of these evil spirits in their demoniacal possession is to impersonate dead people;) caused the semblance of Samuel to appear and speak through his mouth. This theory claims that the scripture in Job 3:17 , to wit: “When the good man dies he goes where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest,” would be violated if this had really been Samuel, who said, “Wherefore hast thou disquieted me?” And whoever this man was that appeared did say that.
If God had sent him he could not very well have used that language. God had a right to do as he pleased, but Saul had no right to try to call back a dead man to get information from him. This theory also claims that the prophecy pronounced by that semblance of Samuel was not true, but it would have been true if Samuel had said it. That prophecy says, “Tomorrow thou and thy sons shall be with me,” but Saul didn’t die until three days later; on the third day the battle of Gilboa was fought, and that Samuel, neither dead nor alive, would have told a falsehood. Very many early Christian writers adopt this theory, among them Tertullian and Jerome, the author of the Vulgate or Latin version of the Bible, and nearly all of the reformers, Luther, Calvin, and all those mighty minds that wrought out the reformation. They took the position that the evil spirit simulated Samuel. Those who hold to this theory further say that unless this is an exception, nowhere else in the Word of God is any man who died mentioned as coming back with a message to the living except the Lord; that he is the first to bring life and immortality to light through the gospel after he had abolished death. They do not believe that the circumstances in this case warrant an exception to the rule that applies to the whole Bible, and particularly they quote the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man asks that Lazarus might go back to the other world with a message to his brethren, and it was refused on the ground that they have Moses and the prophets, and if a man won’t hear Moses and the prophets neither would he hear though one rose from the dead. That makes a strong case.
Certainly the first theory is not true, and the other two theories are advocated with such plausibility and force that I will leave you to take whatever side you please. My own opinion is that Samuel was not there, but on a matter of this kind let us not be dogmatic. Let us do our own thinking and we will be in good company no matter which of these last theories we adopt.
A great many years ago, when spirit rapping was sweeping over the country, it was a custom among Methodist preachers to tell about visitations they had from the dead, and warnings that they had received, and J. R. Graves fought it. He said that it was against the written law of God, the law of Moses and the prophets, and our Lord and his apostles, and that we didn’t need any revelations from dead people, whereupon a Methodist preacher named Watson challenged him to debate the question and they did debate it. Graves stood on this position: There isn’t a case in the Bible where one who died was allowed to come back with a message to the living but Jesus only, and he is the only traveler that has ever returned from that bourne to throw light on the state of the dead. In the debate, of course, the central case was that of Saul, the witch of Endor and Samuel. If Watson couldn’t maintain himself on that it was not worth while to go to any other case. Watson quoted the appearance of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. Graves said, “Yes. They did appear, but they had no message for living people; none for the apostles.” Then he finally made all of his fight on this case. I read the debate with great interest. It was published, but it is out of print.
GILBOA The description of the battle and the results are so explicit in the text that I refer the reader to the Bible account of this great battle. But we need to reconcile 1Sa 31:4-6 , and 1Ch 10:4-6 . Both of these assert that Saul committed suicide fell on his sword and died and that he did die (2Sa 1:6-10 ), where that Amalekite who brought the news to David of the battle says that he found Saul wounded, and that Saul asked the Amalekite to kill him, and that the Amalekite did kill him. The Amalekite brought also to David a bracelet and a crown that belonged to Saul. You are asked to reconcile these two statements. Did Saul commit suicide? We know he tried to do it, but did he actually commit suicide, or did that Amalekite, after Saul fell on his sword, find him still alive and kill him? My answer is that the Amalekite lied. The record clearly says that Saul did kill himself, and his armor-bearer saw that he was dead, and every reference in the scriptures is to the death by his own hand except this one. This Amalekite, knowing that Saul and David were in a measure rivals, supposed that he might ingratiate himself with David if he could bring evidence that he had killed Saul.
There is no doubt that this Amalekite was there and found Saul’s body, and no doubt he stripped that dead body of the bracelet and the crown, but his story was like the story of Joe in the “Wild Western Scenes.” An Indian had been killed, stabbed through the heart, and the heart blood gushing all over the man who slew him. The fight was so hot that Joe, being a coward, stayed there fighting the dead Indian, and so they found him there stabbing and saying that the man that had first stabbed him through thought he had killed him, but that he was not dead and had got up and attacked him, and he had been having a desperate fight with the Indian.
The news of this battle sadly affected Jonathan’s son. Everybody that heard of the battle started to flee across the Jordan, and the nurse picked up Jonathan’s child and in running dropped him and he fell, and became a cripple for life. We will have some very interesting things about this crippled child after a while.
The gratitude and heroism of the men of Jabeshgilead are worthy of note.
The Philistines had cut off Saul’s head and sent it back to the house of their god, and took his armor and hung up his body and the body of his son Jonathan and the bodies of the two brothers of Jonathan on the wall of Bethshan, and when the men of Jabeshgilead (who had been delivered by Saul as the first act of his reign, and who always remembered him with gratitude) heard that Saul was killed, they sent out that night their bravest men and took those bodies down, carried them over the Jordan, burned them enough to escape recognition, and buried their bones under a tree. A long time afterwards David had the bones brought and buried in the proper place. I always think kindly of those men of Jabeshgilead.
David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan is found in 2Sa 1 . That lamentation, expressed in the text, is one of the most beautiful elegaic poems in the literature of the world. It is found on page 104 of the textbook. It is not a religious song. It is a funeral song, an elegy, afterward called “The Bow,” and David had “the song of the bow” taught to Israel, referring to Jonathan’s bow. I give just a little of it: Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, Who clothed you in scarlet delicately, Who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle!
Now the tribute to Jonathan: Jonathan is slain upon thy high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: Very pleasant hast thou been unto me. Thy love to me was wonderful, Passing the love of women.
Every admirer of good poetry bears tribute to this exquisite gem, and it has this excellency: It forgets the faults and extols the virtues of the dead. Saul had done many mighty things. That part of Gray’s Elegy, “No further seek his merits to disclose,” compares favorably with this. It is the only elegy equal to David’s.
QUESTIONS
1. Analyze David’s sin of despair, and in order, the train of sins and embarrassments that follow.
2. What great modern sermon was preached on the despair of David, taking this line for a text: “I shall one day perish by the and of Saul”?
3. How was this sin of David punished?
4. How does he recover himself from this sin?
5. What judicious uses of the victory did he make?
6. What were the great accessions to David at Ziklag?
7. What is the Mosaic law against necromancy, or an appeal to the dead by the living through a medium, i.e., a wizard, if a man, or a witch, if a woman, and wherein lies the sin of necromancy?
8. What is the prophetic teaching on this subject?
9. What had Saul done to enforce the Mosaic law?
10. What are the theories of interpretation concerning the transaction in 1Sa 28:11-19 ?
11. Describe the battle of Gilboa and the results.
12. Reconcile 1Sa 31:4-6 and 1Ch 10:4-6 .
13. How did the news of the battle affect Jonathan’s son?
14. Describe the gratitude and heroism of the men of Jabeshgilead.
15. How did David lament over Saul and Jonathan, 2Sa 1 ?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1Sa 30:1 And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
Ver. 1. Were come to Ziklag on the third day. ] For so long they were in coming from the camp of the Philistines. See 2Sa 1:2 .
That the Amalekites had invaded the south.
And smitten Ziklag, and burnt it with fire.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
men. Hebrew. ‘enosh. App-14.
the south = the Negeb. The hill-country S. of Judah.
burned = burned up. See App-43.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 30
And when they got back to Ziklag they found that the Amalekites had invaded the land ( 1Sa 30:1 );
Now here’s something quite interesting. The Amalekites were the ones that God ordered utterly exterminated by Saul. But Saul failed to utterly exterminate them. He disobeyed the commandment of God, so he lied and said, “I’ve done all that the Lord told me to do.” That was a lie. He did not utterly exterminate the Amalekites. We have pointed out in the past that the Amalekites in the scripture are a type of the flesh, the flesh life.
Now what’s God’s verdict for your flesh? God doesn’t say, “Now reform your flesh.” God doesn’t say, “Bring your flesh under control.” God said, “Kill it, crucify it.” “If we by the Spirit, do mortify, or put to death, the flesh, we shall live” ( Rom 8:13 ). Know ye not that your old man, your flesh was crucified with Christ, and God has only one verdict for your old flesh, and that is crucify it, utterly destroy it, give no place for your flesh to fulfill the lusts. Even as God ordered utter extermination of the Amalekites, a type of the flesh, so He orders the utter destruction of our flesh.
Now failure to do so is only going to lead to further problems. Had Saul utterly destroyed the Amalekites, obeyed the voice of God, then they would not have been able to invade Ziklag and take David’s wives, and all of the spoil with them.
Interestingly enough, next week in our study, as we get into second Samuel, we’re gonna find that an Amalekite came to David and said, “I was passing through Mount Gilboa, and I saw Saul and he was fallen on his spear, and he lifted himself up and asked me to kill him, and I came over and killed him.” Saul who was ordered to utterly wipe out the Amalekites, and failed to do so, was ultimately killed by an Amalekite. You leave a part of your flesh, you know the liberty, and say, “Well, that’s just a part of the flesh I want to hold on to that,” it’ll ultimately destroy you.
So the Amalekites made an invasion of the land. They took the city of Ziklag. Of course, all the men were off to war in several other cities.
David and his men came to the city, and they found that it was burned with fire; their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were gone. And David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and they began to cry, until they had [no voice left] no more power to weep. David’s two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail were taken. And David was greatly distressed; and the people were talking about stoning him ( 1Sa 30:3-6 ),
Now you remember David had a rough crew. Everyone who was in debt, everyone who was in trouble, everyone who was fleeing from the law, they all came down to David. He didn’t have really a choice kind of an army. He had every renegade and outlaw in the land, that fled to David. So here, when they come back and find that the area had been taken, they’re gonna stone David. “So David was greatly distressed; for the men were speaking of stoning him,”
because all of the people were so grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord ( 1Sa 30:6 ).
Sometimes that’s the only place you can get encouragement. Things are so bad that the only place you can find encouragement is in the Lord. David encouraged himself in the Lord, and that is a marvelous practice, something that we ought to be doing more ourselves, is encouraging ourselves in the Lord.
Now how did he encourage himself in the Lord? Read the forty-fifth Psalm, I think, “Why art thou cast down O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God? He’s gonna yet deliver you.” You know he sort of talks to himself. We need to talk, “Why am I so discouraged? Why am I so despondent? Why am I so cast down? What’s the matter with you, soul? What’s your problem? Don’t you hope in God? He’s gonna yet deliver you. You know you don’t need to be discouraged, God’s still on the throne.” We need to just sort of encourage ourselves in the Lord. God is on the throne, God is in control, God is in control even of this situation, and God is going to work, He’s not going to let you down. He just encouraged himself in the Lord. A marvelous practice, and one that we all need to learn, because we’re all gonna face tough situations, discouraging situations where we need to be lifted up, and the only place to find that is by turning to the Lord and realizing “Hey, it’s not out of God’s hands, He’s still in control, He’s still on the throne, He’s gonna work these things out, and Oh thank You Lord.” You get strength, you get courage as you look to the Lord and begin to get things in balance, and in the proper perspective.
And so David said to Abiathar the priest, Bring me the ephod. And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. And David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And the Lord answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail you’ll recover everything. So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed. But David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred stayed back, they were so faint they could not get over the brook. And they found an Egyptian in the field, they brought him to David, and David gave him bread; and gave him water. They gave him a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten these, his spirit revived: for he had not eaten any bread, nor drunk any water, for three days and three nights. And David said unto him, To whom do you belong? where are you from? And he said, I’m a young man of Egypt, and I’m a servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick. And we made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongs to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb; we burned Ziklag with fire. And David said, Can you bring me down to this company? And he said, If you’ll swear to me by God, that you’ll neither kill me, nor deliver me to the hands of my master, I will bring you down to this company. And so when they had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad in all the earth, [the Amalekites,] they were eating, they were drinking, they were dancing, because of the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah ( 1Sa 30:7-16 ).
They took advantage of the fact that the Philistines and Judah had all gone up to have this big battle. So they came in, women and children left, just were able to wipe out these towns, take the spoil and so forth.
So David smote them from twilight even to the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man, except for four hundred guys that got on camels, and rode off. And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, nor sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all. And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they had driven before them, and said, This is David’s spoil. And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint they could not follow David, whom they stayed back at the brook of Besor: and they went and they came forth to meet David, and the people that were with him: and David came near to the people, and greeted them. And then answered all the wicked men the man of Belial, those that went with David, and they said, Because they didn’t go with us, we’re not gonna give them anything from the spoil that we have recovered, except we’ll give every man his wife and children back. And David said, You shall not do so, my brothers, with that which the Lord has given to us, who has preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand. For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to battle, so shall his part be that tarries by the stuff: they shall part alike. And so it was from that day on, that he made a statute and an ordinance in Israel unto this day ( 1Sa 30:17-25 ).
That is, “Those who stay back by the stuff share equally in the spoil with those that go forth into the battle.” Now this I believe also is a rule of God today say in the area of missions. You know “if a missionary is out there, how can he go, the Bible says, except he be sent?” So as we send and support missionaries, staying here by the stuff, so to speak, we share equally in the rewards, and the fruit of their ministries. God’s law, an ordinance, a statute. They that stay by the stuff share equally in the reward with those that go into the battle.
So when David came to Ziklag, he sent the spoil to the elders of Judah, [the many cities. I like this verse thirty-one.] To those that were in Hebron, and to all the place where David himself and his men were wont to haunt ( 1Sa 30:26-31 ).
So in all these areas where David and his men were going around, he sent a lot of the spoils to various cities, and to the people in those cities. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
1Sa 30:1-2. And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.
What a singular providence! There was a blood-feud between Amalek and Israel since Israel endeavored to exterminate the Amalekites, and it is written, The Lord shall have war with Amalek for ever and ever; yet God holds in these tigers, and will not let the lions devour their prey.
1Sa 30:3-4. So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, And their daughters, were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
They were tired and weary after a long march with Achish, and then another long march home. Oh! how they longed for their couches! How they desired to sit down and converse with their wives and their little ones! Tears did not seem a sufficient expression for their sorrow, and yet when a strong man weeps a burly warrior like Joab, a rough, coarse man like Abishai, or a strong young man like Asahel there must be deep grief. They wept till they had no more power to weep.
1Sa 30:5-6. And Davids two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 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.
He had not only his own personal sorrow, but that of all his people; and then, instead of comforting him, every friend had turned into a foe; his house was a heap of ashes; he might have said, Ahinoam is not, and Abigail is not, and my children have ye taken away; all these things are against me! But he had more faith than Job, and so he encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
1Sa 30:7. And David said to Abiathar, the priest, Ahimelechs son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.
Ah! thats the thing! Bring hither the old family Bible; let us go to prayer about it; down on our knees and tell the Lord the case.
1Sa 30:8. And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.
But it is easier said than done. Where are they? How shall they find these fleet Amalekites Who fly away so rapidly?
1Sa 30:9-10. So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him. and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed. But David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.
Worse and worse you see! But the case is in Gods hands, and no matter what the circumstances may be. Alls well that ends well, and God always has the enemy in his hands.
1Sa 30:11-13. And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water; 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. And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days agone I fell sick.
Shame on his master, I say, and yet there are some who stop their mens wages as soon as they get a little ill! Shame on them, I say. It might be fit for an Amalekite to do this, but certainly not for an Israelite. So this young Egyptian tells David all about what they had done; and David follows them, smites them with the sword, takes away their plunder, and, moreover, gets a great spoil to himself, and so the Lord hears the voice of David. Now Abrahams servant and David were men in like difficulties with us, but they asked guidance of God and received it; let us be sure in every time of difficulty to do the same.
This exposition consisted of readings from Gen 24:1-16; 1Sa 30:1-13; 1Jn 1:1-3.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Being thus delivered, David returned to Ziklag. In his absence it had been sacked by the Amalekites. Immediately the true spirit of patriotic heroism was stirred within him, and he moved with rapid determination to avenge the wrong.
He was absolutely successful, inflicting punishment on his foes and rescuing from them all who were his own.
It is from this story that the history moves forward into the next Book. Having gathered spoils from his enemies, David sent presents to all the elders of Judah, and by this act undoubtedly prepared the way for establishing himself among them.
We have no warrant for thinking that this was merely an act of policy on David’s part to obtain the throne. It would be far nearer the truth to say that recognizing his position as the anointed of God he was burning determination with him to rid his people of their foes, and to enlarge his army by enlisting the sympathy of the leaders of the tribe.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
a Blow That Led Back to God
1Sa 30:1-15
As David was leaving the battlefield, a number of men of Manasseh fell to him, 1Ch 12:20, so his following was greatly increased. It was as if God had anticipated his coming trial, and prepared him to encounter it. The God of his mercy prevented (literally, went before) him. But what a mercy it was that he had been sent back; that no garrison had been left to guard the women, which might have irritated the depredators; and that nobody had been killed, 1Sa 30:2!
In the first outburst of grief and horror, only divine and gracious interposition could have saved Davids life. But this was the hour of his return to God. With the charred embers at his feet and anxiety gnawing at his heart, the threat of violence in his ears, and bitter compunction of conscience, he strengthened himself in the Lord his God. From that hour he was his old, strong, glad, noble self. After months of neglect, he bade Abiathar bring him the ephod, and he inquired the will of God. Then with marvelous vigor he went in pursuit and recovered all. He had been brought out of an horrible pit, and again his feet were on the rock, Psa 40:2. His goings could now be established.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 30
1. The Amalekites destroy Ziklag (1Sa 30:1-5)
2. Davids distress and return unto the Lord (1Sa 30:6-8)
3. David pursues the Amalekites (1Sa 30:9-10)
4. The young Egyptian and the defeat of the enemy (1Sa 30:11-20)
5. The threatening dissension and Davids decision (1Sa 30:21-25)
6. The spoil sent to Judah (1Sa 30:26-31)
The chastening hand of the Lord now rests heavily upon wayward, backsliding David. The Amalekites had destroyed Ziklag. The entire city was burned to the ground and the women and children were taken away captive by the Amalekites. The people rose up against David and were ready to stone him. He reaps the fruit of his sowing. He had gone into an alliance with the enemies of God and His people, and now he finds that the Lord permitted the enemy to touch his possessions. The Lord through affliction, loss and sorrow spoke to the heart of David. How humiliating that his followers were ready to stone him! They understood that his behaviour had brought upon them the disaster, that he was another Achan (Joshua 7). It was then that he turned to the Lord. David encouraged himself in the LORD his God. Here we see the difference between him and Saul. Affliction and sorrow, the chastenings of the Lord, recall the true believer and bring him back to the Lord. He sought the presence of the Lord and once more through Abiathar, who had the ephod, enquired of the Lord. And here graciously the Lord met His servant who had failed Him! There is no word of rebuke on account of the 16 months David had wandered from the Lord, but instead the Lord assures His servant that he would recover all.
The incident of the young Egyptian is very interesting. David appears now once more as a type of our Lord. He did not foreshadow the Lord Jesus during the months he was with the Philistines. The Egyptian is a type of the unsaved. He is an Egyptian (the type of the world); he was found in the field (the field is the world Matt. 13). He was the slave of an Amalekite. Amalek as we have seen in the annotations of Exodus (chapter 17) and in Judges, is a type of the flesh. Behind it stands Satan. Thus the unsaved, the one who is not born again, is of the world and a slave of Amalek, serving the flesh under Satans dominion. The physical condition of this young Egyptian also typifies the spiritual condition of the unsaved. And David in showing him mercy is a type of Christ. The young mans confession, the bread and water given to him, can easily be applied in the gospel. The story of the Egyptian reminds us of the parable of the good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke. The young Egyptian is assured of his safety; the slave of the Amalekite becomes the servant of the king. The company to which he belonged is eating and drinking and dancing. They rest secure dreaming of no danger, when all at once the battle cry of the king is upon them. It is the picture of the world. Thus sudden destruction will come upon them. And David recovered all.
How differently the dissension, which threatened among Davids men, would have turned out had he still been away from the Lord. But now he acts in the sweetness of grace. The great spoil is distributed among the different cities of Judah. Well may we think here of the victory of our coming King in which His people will share through His infinite grace.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
were come: 1Sa 29:11, 2Sa 1:2
on the third: This was the third day after he had left the Philistine army at Aphek, from which place, Calmet supposes, Ziklag was distant more than thirty leagues.
the Amalekites: 1Sa 15:7, 1Sa 27:8-10, Gen 24:62, Jos 11:6
Reciprocal: Gen 14:7 – Amalekites Exo 17:8 – General Exo 17:14 – for I will Num 13:29 – Amalekites Num 24:20 – his latter end Num 31:10 – General Deu 25:19 – thou shalt Jos 15:31 – Ziklag Jos 19:5 – Ziklag 1Sa 15:8 – utterly 1Sa 27:1 – into the land 1Sa 27:6 – Ziklag 1Sa 29:10 – General 1Sa 30:14 – we burned 2Sa 1:8 – an Amalekite 2Sa 2:3 – his men 1Ch 4:30 – Ziklag 1Ch 12:21 – against the band Psa 9:6 – thou hast Jer 41:12 – to fight
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 30:1-2. The Amalekites had invaded the south Namely, the southern part of Judah, and the adjacent country. This, probably, they had done to revenge themselves for Davids invading their country, mentioned 1Sa 27:8. And smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire Which they might easily do when David and his men were absent, and but a small, if any, guard left in the place. And had taken the women captives And among the rest Davids two wives. They slew not any, but carried them away Toward their own country. Being a poor and very covetous people, they doubtless intended to sell them for slaves, and make money of them. How great must have been the surprise, and how inexpressible the grief of David and his men, when they came to the town, to find it utterly desolated, and burned down to the ground, and all the persons and property left therein taken away!
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 30:7. Abiathar brought the ephod. None but the priest could wear this, and as the highpriest could not consult the oracle without the knowledge of his sovereign, Abiathar wore the ephod, and enquired at Davids command, in the place of devotion.
1Sa 30:14. The Cherethites; Cretans and islanders who had settled among these less occupied lands.
REFLECTIONS.
How restless and wicked is the heart of man! Shall the earth never be at rest; and shall the wicked never be still? No sooner did the remnant of Amalek, who had escaped the sword of Saul and of David, hear of the war between Philistia and Israel, than they judged it a favourable opportunity to plunder both the countries. And those men and nations who are not reformed by the judgments of God, are not far from destruction.
David, who seemed doomed to adversity, since the day he left his fathers peaceful flocks, had scarcely escaped from the jealousies of the princes, before he found a greater calamity in the burning of Ziklag, and in the capture of both his wives and all the people. This was a heavy stroke. Every man was bereft of his wife, his children, his property: but great trials make manifest the heart of man. They all wept till they could weep no more; the invader was fled, and they had no hope. Revenge on the enemy seemed not in their power; therefore the wicked were resolved to stone David as a criminal for leaving the city defenceless.
Mark now the difference in the characters of men. While the wicked had no consolation but revenge, David had recourse to God; and where else can we go in the day of trouble. He called for Abiathar and the ephod, that he might enquire of God. This was the way to retrieve the calamity, and rise by the counsel and blessing of heaven. The Lord, ever mindful of the promise at his anointing, bade him pursue, and promised him success.
Mark also how providence corresponded with the oracle. They found a servant in the field, cruelly abandoned of his master, but graciously left as a guide to David. They overtook the enemy on the confines of his country, when he supposed all dangers past; when he was making a feast, exulting in his success, and saying, this is Davids spoil! Ah, little did he think that this night God would execute the residue of the sentence, and blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. And little do the wicked think, during their cups and their feasts, that perhaps the long suspended strokes of insulted heaven are about to be inflicted in the severest manner, and that God will strike them as Amalek and Belshazzar, in the midst of their riot.
David, poor and ruined three days ago, having no hope but in his God, was now rich and victorious. He recovered all the women and children, all the cattle and spoil that Amalek had taken from the Philistines or Cherethites, from Judah, and from Ziklag; he acquired laurels in the estimation of all surrounding nations which faded not away, and was enabled to make presents to the princes of Judah, and others who had showed him kindness in his exile. Oh how much was he indebted to the envy and jealousy of the Philistine princes: or rather, to God who constantly overruled the calamities of this exile for good. Now the sons of Belial who served him of necessity, had their mouths shut. Now they were confounded for having in the violence of passion proposed stoning the Lords anointed. And surely the christian cannot but read the character of his God, in all the calamities of David. From the day he left the peaceful flocks of his father, to this day, he had seen little but a succession of afflictions, and afflictions which would have overwhelmed any man who had not the strongest confidence in God; but these calamities were to him always productive of salvation, of honour, and of piety. What then have we to fear from the malice and envy of men? They will fall into their own pits, and their feet will be entangled in their own net.
We learn last of all, that David as a prince was distinguished by equity. He fairly shared the immense booty with the two hundred men who had guarded his baggage, and were detained by extreme weakness. A prince of known probity and honour has the confidence of all his country; and the lustre of his moral character far exceeds the lustre of his fortune and his birth. What then is the confidence we should repose in Christ, the Prince of the kings of the earth?
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1 Samuel 30. Amalekite Raid on Ziklag.Cf. above.
1Sa 30:1-6. On reaching Ziklag, David found that the Amalekites had sacked the town and carried off the families and property of himself and his followers. Apparently he had taken his whole force to Achish, leaving Ziklag without any adequate garrison.
1Sa 30:7-20. Encouraged by an oracle from Yahweh, David went in pursuit, probably southwards, overtook the raiders, annihilated them all but 400, and recovered the captives and the spoil.
1Sa 30:14. Cherethites: a tribe in the South or Negeb (cf. 1Sa 27:10), probably akin to the Philistines (p. 56.)
1Sa 30:17. of the next day: a copyists mistake; it is uncertain what the original reading was, but we may be sure that the slaughter only lasted from twilight even unto the evening.twilight: evening twilight.
1Sa 30:20. As it stands, this verse states that David appropriated all the recovered cattle, which would not be consistent either with custom, policy, or Davids character. The text and translation are hopelessly obscure and corrupt. Probably the verse in its original form stated that David not only recovered what had been lost, but also saptured much other spoil.
1Sa 30:21-25. During the pursuit 200 men had become too exhausted to keep up, and had been left behind. It was decided that they should share equally in the spoil. This became a precedent, and was the origin of the custom that those who guarded the camp and the baggage should share equally in the spoil with those who did the fighting.
1Sa 30:26-31. Out of the spoil David sent presents to the authorities of the various places he had frequented during his outlawry. They seem to have all been in the Negeb, from Hebron southwards.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Returning to Ziklag, David and his men find themselves described by the meaning of Zikiag’s name, “enveloped in grief.” They had been at least some days away, and the Amalekites had invaded the land, sacking Zikiag and burning it. They had not killed the women and children, but had taken them captive (v.2). David had before attacked the Amalekites in a certain area at least and killed men, women and children (ch.27:8-9). Likely other remaining Amalekites would hear of it, so that this attack could have been in reprisal. At any rate, David had not been caring for his own city, but was on an ill-advised trip with Achish. This is a spiritually important lesson for us. When we are not properly on guard and in communion with the Lord, the lusts of the flesh (of which Amalek speaks) will almost certainly take advantage of us. This will not result in the total destruction of a believer, but will rob away from him much of that with God has entrusted him.
David and his men were so overcome with grief that they wept until they could weep no longer (v.4). It is mentioned too that David’s wives, along with all others, had been taken captive (v.5). But David’s distress was increased when the grief of his men turns to anger against him. They would easily point to David’s wasting time in a useless trip which Achish, and being grieved at the loss of their families, they consider stoning David to death! Of course this would help nothing. Men similarly talk against God for allowing their enemies to harm them. In that case, it is totally unjust, and certainly of no help. But David turned to the Lord in his need. (v.6). This was the one source of real help.
David asks Abiathar the priest to bring the ephod. This was the garment the high priest wore over his robe. In the ephod was the breastplate containing the urim and thummin, the twelve precious stones, each of which symbolized a tribe of Israel (Exo 28:6-21). It was used for enquiring from God. The twelve stones emphasize the vital truth that God will only answer on the basis of his love and care for ALL Israel, not from any sectarian viewpoint, as though favoring one person or another. Saul could not rightly use it for it was not Israel that he loved, but himself. It may be that Abiathar himself wore it when David enquired of the Lord.
It is good to see David so inquiring. He did not do so in the case of Nabal (ch.25:12-13), and was preserved from acting rashly only by God’s grace in working in Abigail’s heart. This time God answers his inquiry as to pursuing the Amalekites by assuring him that he would not only overtake them, but would recover all that had been taken.
They could therefore go with full confidence in the living God David’s six hundred men went with him only as far as the brook Besor, where two hundred remained behind because they were tired out (v.9). The other four hundred, in pursuing, found an Egyptian man in an exhausted condition, and brought him to David. They first gave him bread and water, a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins, then found out that he had been without food and water for three days (vs.11-12). The man was welcomed and fed before they questioned him. This is a refreshing picture of the grace of God. The fact of one’s need is enough to entitle him to a free salvation. Abundance of grace is waiting for those who know themselves to be in real need. Christ has already died for them and risen again. He is “the bread of life” (Joh 6:35), available for every hungry heart, and He gives “the water of life” freely to anyone who desires it (Rev 22:17). That water is the Spirit of God (Joh 7:37-39) who applies the Word of God to the one who realizes his need of it (Eph 5:26). The figs and raisins indicate that the grace of God abounds beyond our actual need.
The man being revived, David questioned him, “To whom do you belong? and where are you from?” Every sinner on earth should be prepared to honestly answer these questions. If so, their answer would be similar to the answers of this man. “I am a young man of Egypt” (v.13). We know that Egypt is a type of the world in its independence of God. Typically then the men is saying, “I am a young man of the world.” More than that, he adds, “servant to an Amalekite.” Typically this means “servant to the lusts of the flesh.” How many in the world today does this describe! They have never been freed from their bondage to sin.
His master had no care for him personally. When he became sick, his master left him lying in a field. Thus many become slaves to sin, to drink, to drugs, etc., and find themselves alone and destitute, hopelessly lost. The one true resource for them is the grace of God in Christ Jesus, who can save the guiltiest and lift them out of their miserable condition.
In verse 14 the man frankly confesses his part in the invasion the Amalekites had made in the land of the Cherethites, of Judah and Caleb, and in the burning of Zikiag. The confession of who he was and to whom he belonged, together with a confession of what he had done, illustrates the proper attitude of one who comes to the Lord Jesus for salvation. He hides nothing, but simply tells the truth, though it may hurt him to do so.
David then asks the man if he will bring him down to this band of the Amalekites (v.15). This is similar to the Lord asking a newly converted person if he will bring Christ to his former friends. The man agreed only on condition that David would swear to him by God that he would not kill him and would not give him back into the hands of his master. We do not need to be told that David gave him this assurance. God gives similar assurance to all who trust the Lord Jesus as Savior. The words of the Lord Jesus are, “they shall never perish” (Joh 10:28). Also, Rom 8:14 assures the believer, “sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.”
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
30:1 And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on {a} the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and {b} smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
(a) After that he departed from Achish.
(b) That is, destroyed their city.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
David’s crisis and his response 30:1-6
David took three days to return from Aphek (1Sa 29:11) to Ziklag. The Amalekites, whom David had previously raided (1Sa 27:8), took advantage of the Philistines’ and David’s absence to retaliate in the Negev and on Ziklag. They plundered both Philistine and Judahite territory (1Sa 30:16). When David and his men arrived back home, they discovered Ziklag empty of inhabitants and burned down. David joined his men in weeping over the tragedy that the enemies of God’s kingdom had caused (cf. Mat 23:37). David’s supporters then turned on him and almost stoned him, giving him trouble on two fronts simultaneously. In his distress David, as usual, strengthened himself in the Lord by relying on Yahweh and inquiring of Him (1Sa 30:6-8). From the Psalms we know that David often did this by looking back on God’s past faithfulness, looking up in prayer, and looking forward with God’s promises in view.
"David’s genius was his spiritual resilience." [Note: Baldwin, p. 169.]
"Both David and Saul are portrayed as persons in deep crises of leadership, and both are deeply at risk. What interests us is the difference of response. . . . Saul seeks refuge in a medium [but David inquired of the Lord]." [Note: Brueggemann, First and . . ., p. 201.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XXXV.
DAVID AT ZIKLAG.
1Sa 30:1-31.
AFTER David had received from King Achish the appointment of captain of his body guard, he had with his troops accompanied the Philistine army, passing along the maritime plain to the very end of their journey – to the spot selected for battle, close to “the fountain which is in Jezreel.” It seems to have been only after the whole Philistine host were ranged in battle array that the presence of David and his men, who remained in the rear to protect the king, arrested the attention of the lords of the Philistines, and on their remonstrance they were sent away. It is probable that David’s return to Ziklag, and the expedition in which he had to engage to recover his wives and his property, took place at or about the very time when Saul made his journey to Endor, and when the fatal battle of Gilboa was raging. We have seen that though David never, like Saul, threw off the authority of God, he had been following ways of his own, ways of deceit and unfaithfulness. He too had been exposing himself to the displeasure of God, and on him, as on Saul, some retribution behooved to fall. But in the two cases we see the difference between judgment and chastisement. In the case of Saul it was judgment that came down; his life and his career were terminated avowedly as the punishment of his offence. In the case of David the rod was lifted to correct, not to destroy; to bring him back, not to drive him forever away; to fit him for service, not to cut him asunder, or appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There is every reason to believe that the awful disaster that befell David on his return to Ziklag was the means of restoring him to a trustful and truthful frame.
It appears from the chapter now before us that, in the absence of David and his troop, severe reprisals had been taken by the Amalekites for the defeat and utter destruction which they had lately inflicted on a portion of their tribe. We must remember that the Amalekites were a widely dispersed people, consisting of many tribes, each living separately from the rest, but so related that in any emergency they would readily come to one another’s help. News of the extermination of the tribes whom David had attacked, and whom he had utterly destroyed lest any of them should bring word to Achish of his real employment, had been brought to their neighbours; and these neighbours determined to take revenge for the slaughter of their kinsmen. The opportunity of David’s absence was taken for invading Ziklag, for which purpose a large and well-equipped expedition had been got together; and as they met with no opposition, they carried everything before them. Happily, however, as they found no enemies they did not draw the sword; they counted it better policy to carry off all that could be transported, so as to make use of the goods, and sell the women and children into slavery, and as they had a great multitude of beasts of burden with them (1Sa 30:17) there could be no difficulty in carrying out this plan. It seems very strange that David should have left Ziklag apparently without the protection of a single soldier; but what seems to us folly had all the effect of con- summate wisdom in the end; the passions of the Amalekites were not excited by opposition or by blood-shed; their destructive propensities were satisfied with destroying the town of Ziklag, and every person and thing that could be removed was carried away unhurt. But for days to come David could not know that their expedition had been conducted in this unusually peaceful way; his imagination and his fears would picture far darker scenes.
It must have been an awful moment to David – hardly less so than to Saul when he saw the host of the Philistines near Jezreel – to reach what had been recently so peaceful a home and find it a mass of smoking ruins. If he had been disposed to congratulate himself on the success of the policy which had dictated his escape from the land of Judah, and his settling at Ziklag under protection of King Achish, how in one moment must the rottenness of the whole plan have flashed upon him, and how awed must he have been at the proof now so clearly afforded that the whole arrangement had been frowned on by the God of heaven! What an agony of suspense and distress he must have been in till more definite news could be obtained; and what a burst of despair must have been heard through the camp when it became known to his followers that the worst that could be conceived had happened – that their houses were all destroyed, their property seized, and their wives and children carried off, to be disgraced, or sold, or butchered, as might suit the fancy of their masters! And then, that remorse- less massacre that they had lately inflicted on the kinsmen of their invaders, how likely it would be to exasperate their passions against them! What mercy would they show whose neighbours had received no mercy? What a dreadful fate would these helpless women and children be now experiencing!
It was probably one of the bitterest of the many bitter hours that David ever spent. First there was the natural feeling of disappointment, after a long and weary march, when the comforts of home had been so eagerly looked forward to, and each man seemed already in the embrace of his family, to find home utterly obliterated, and its place marked by blackened ruins. Then there was the far more intense pang to every affectionate heart, caused by the carrying off of the members of their families; this, it appears, was the predominant feeling of the camp: “the soul of the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters.” And somehow David was the person blamed, partly perhaps through that hasty but unjust feeling that blames the leader of an expedition for all the mishaps attending it, and partly also, it may be, because Ziklag had been left utterly undefended. “What business had he to march us all at the heels of these uncircumcised Philistines, as if we ought to make common cause with them only to march us back again just as we came, to gain nothing there and to lose everything here!” To all this was added a further element of excitement: it was not merely calamities known and seen that worked in the minds of the people; the gloom of dreaded but uncertain horrors helped to excite them still more. Imagination would quickly supply the place of evidence in picturing the situation of their wives and children. The feelings of the troops were so fearfully excited against David that they spoke of stoning him. The very men that had lately approached him with the beautiful salutation, “Peace, peace be to thee, and peace be to thine helpers, for thy God helpeth thee,” now spoke of stoning him. How like the spirit and the conduct of their descendants a thousand years later, shouting at one time, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” and but a few days after, ”Crucify Him, crucify Him.” The state of David’s feelings must have been all the more terrible for the uneasy conscience he had in the matter, for he had too much cause to feel that the dissembling policy which he had been pursuing had caused another massacre, more frightful than that of the priests after his visit to Nob.
It is probable that at this awful moment the mind of David was visited by a blessed influence from above. The wail of woe that spread through his camp, and the dismal ruins that covered the site of his recent home, seem to have spoken to him in that tone of rebuke which the words of the prophet afterwards conveyed, “Thou art the man!” Under great excitement the mind works with great rapidity, and passes almost with the speed of lightning from one mood to another. It is quite possible that under the same electric shock, as we may call it, that brought David to a sense of his sin he was guided back to his former confidence in the mercy and grace of his covenant God. In one instant, we may believe, the miserable hollowness of all those carnal devices in which he had been trusting would flash upon his mind, and God – his own loving Father and covenant God – would appear waiting to be gracious and longing for his return. And now the prodigal son is in his Father’s arms, weeping, sobbing, confessing, but at the same time feeling the luxury of forgiveness, rejoicing, trusting and delighting in His protection and blessing.
It may indeed be objected that we are proceeding too much on mere imagination in supposing that David’s return to a condition of holy trust in God was effected in this rapid way. The view may be wrong, and we do not insist on it. What we found on is the very short interval between his last act of dissimulation in professing to desire to accompany Achish to battle, and his manifest restoration to the spirit of trust, evinced in the words, applied to him when the people spoke of stoning him, “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (1Sa 30:6). These words show that he has got back to the true track at last, and from that moment prosperity returns. What a blessed thing it was for him that in that hour of utmost need he was able to derive strength from the thought of God, – able to think of the Most High as watching him with interest, and still ready to deliver him I
It was a somewhat similar incident, though not preceded by any such previous backsliding – a similar manifestation of the magical power of trust – that took place in the life of a more modern David, one who in serving God and doing good to man had to encounter a life of wandering, privation, and danger seldom surpassed – the African missionary and explorer, David Livingstone. In the course of his great journey from St. Paul de Loanda on the west coast of Africa to Quilimane on the east, he had to encounter many an angry and greedy tribe, whom he was too poor to be able to pacify by the ordinary method of valuable presents. On one occasion, in the fork at the confluence of the river Loangwa and the river Zambesi, he found one of those hostile tribes. It was necessary for him to have canoes to cross – they would lend him only one. In other respects they showed an attitude of hostility, and the appearances all pointed to a furious attack the following day. Livingstone was troubled at the prospect, – not that he was afraid to die, but because it seemed as if all his discoveries in Africa would be lost, and his sanguine hopes for planting commerce and Christianity among its benighted and teeming tribes knocked on the head. But he remembered the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, “Go ye therefore into all the world, and preach the gospel unto every creature, and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” On this promise he rested, and steadied his fluttering heart. “It is the word of a gentleman,” he said, “the word of one of the most perfect honour. I will not try, as I once thought, to escape by night, but I will wait till to-morrow, and leave before them all. Should such a man as I be afraid? I will take my observations for longitude tonight, though it should be my last. My mind is now quite at rest, thank God.” He waited as he had said, and next morning, though the arrangements of the natives still betokened battle, he and his men were allowed to cross the river in successive detachments, without molestation, he himself waiting to the last, and not a hair of their heads being hurt. It was a fine instance of a believing Christian strengthening himself in his God. When faith is genuine, and the habit of exercising it is active, it can remove mountains.
The first result of the restored feeling of trust in David was his giving honour to God’s appointed ordinance by asking counsel of Him, through Abiathar the priest, as to the course he should follow. It is the first time we read of him doing so since he left his own country. At first one wonders how he could have discontinued so precious a means of ascertaining the will of God and the path of duty. But the truth is, when a man is left to himself he cares for no advice or direction but his own inclination. He is not desirous to be led; he wishes only to go comfortably. Indifference to God’s guidance explains much neglect of prayer.
David has now made his application, and he has got a clear and decided answer. He can feel now that he is treading on solid ground. How much happier he must have been than when driving hither and thither, scheming and dissembling, and floundering from one device of carnal wisdom to another! As for his people, he can think of them now with far more tranquility; have they not been all along in God’s keeping, and is it not true that He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps?
We need not dwell at great length on the incidents that immediately followed. No events could have fallen out more favourably. One-third of his troops was indeed so exhausted that they had to be left at the brook Besor. With the other four hundred he set out in search of the foe. The special providence of God, so clearly and frequently displayed on this occasion, provided a guide for David in the person of an Egyptian slave, who, having fallen sick, had been abandoned by his master, and had been three days and nights without meat or drink. Careful treatment having resuscitated this young man, and a solemn assurance having been given him that he would neither be killed nor given back to his master (the latter alternative seems to have been as terrible as the other), he conducts them without loss of time to the camp of the Amalekites. Each day’s journey brought them nearer and nearer to the great wilderness where, some five or six hundred years before, their fathers had encountered Amalek at Rephidim, and had gained a great victory over them, after not a few fluctuations, through the uplifted arms of Moses, the token of reliance on the strength of God. Through the same good hand on David, the Amalekites, surprised in the midst of a time of careless and uproarious festivity, were completely routed, and all but destroyed. Every article they had stolen, and every woman and child they had carried off, were recovered unhurt. Such a deliverance was beyond expectation. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Ziklag, they were like men that dream.
The happy change of circumstances was signalized by David by two memorable acts, the one an act of justice, the other an act of generosity. The act of justice was his interfering to repress the selfishness of the part of his troops who were engaged in the fight with Amalek, some of whom wished to exclude the disabled portion, who had to remain at the brook Besor, from sharing the spoil. The objectors are called ”the wicked men and the men of Belial.” It is a significant circumstance that David had been unable to inspire all his followers with his own spirit – that even at the end of his residence in Ziklag there were wicked men and men of Belial among them. No doubt these were the very men that had been loudest in their complaints against David, and had spoken of stoning him when they came to know of the calamity at Ziklag. Complaining men are generally selfish men. They objected to David’s proposal to share the spoil with the whole body of his followers. Their proposal was especially displeasing to David at a time when God had given them such tokens of undeserved goodness. It was of the same sort as the act of the unforgiving servant in the parable, who, though forgiven his ten thousand talents, came down with unmitigated ferocity on the fellow-servant that owed him an hundred pence.
The act of generosity was his distribution over the cities in the neighbourhood of the spoil which he had taken from the Amalekites. If he had been of a selfish nature he might have kept it all for himself and his people. But it was “the spoil of the enemies of the Lord.” It was David’s desire to recognize God in connection with this spoil, both to show that he had not made his onslaught on the Amalekites for personal ends, and to acknowledge, in royal style, the goodness which God had shown him. That it was an act of policy as well as recognition of God may be readily acknowledged. Undoubtedly David was desirous to gain the favourable regard of his neighbours, as a help toward his recognition when the throne of Israel should become empty. But we may surely admit this, and yet recognize in his actions on this occasion the generosity as well as the godliness of his nature. He was one of those men to whom it is more blessed to give than to receive, and who are never so happy themselves as when they are making others happy. The Bethel mentioned in 1Sa 30:27 as first among the places benefited can hardly be the place ordinarily known by that name, which was far distant from Ziklag, but some other Bethel much nearer the southern border of the land. The most northerly of the places specified of whose situation we are assured was Hebron, itself well to the south of Judah, and soon to become the capital where David reigned. The large number of places that shared his bounty was a proof of the royal liberality with which it was spread abroad.
And in this bounty, this royal profusion of gifts, we may surely recognize a fit type of “great David’s greater Son.” How clearly it appeared from the very first that the spirit of Jesus Christ exemplified His own maxim which we have just quoted, ”It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Once only, and that in His infancy, when the wise men laid at His feet their myrrh, frankincense, and gold, do we read of anything like a lavish contribution of the gifts of earth being given to Him. But follow Him through the whole course of His earthly life and ministry, and see how just was the image of Malachi that compared Him to the sun – “the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings.” What a gloriously diffusive nature He had, dropping gifts of fabulous price in every direction without money and without price! “Jesus went about in all Galilee” (it was now the turn of the north to enjoy the benefit), “teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of diseases and all manner of sickness among the people.” Listen to the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount; what a dropping of honey as from the honeycomb we have in those beatitudes, which so wonderfully commend the precious virtues to which they are attached! Follow Jesus through any part of His earthly career, and you find the same spirit of royal liberality. Stand by Him even in the last hour of His mortal life, and count His deeds of kindness. See how He heals the ear of Malchus, though He healed no wounds of His own. Listen to Him deprecating the tears of the weeping women, and turning their attention to evils among themselves that had more need to be wept for. Hear the tender tones of His prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Observe the gracious look He casts on the thief beside Him in answer to his prayer – ”Verily I say unto thee, this day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” Mark how affectionately He provides for His mother. See Him after His resurrection saying to the weeping Mary, Woman, why weepest thou? Count that multitude of fishes which He has brought to the nets of His disciples, in token of the riches of spiritual success with which they are to be blessed. And mark, on the day of Pentecost, how richly from His throne in glory He sheds down the Holy Spirit, and quickens thousands together with the breath of spiritual life. “Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.”
It is a most blessed and salutary thing for you all to cherish the thought of the royal munificence of Christ. Think of the kindest and most lavish giver you ever knew, and think how Christ surpasses him in this very grace as far as the heavens are above the earth. What encouragement does this give you to trust in Him! What a sin it shows you to commit when you turn away from Him! But remember, too, that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. Remember that He came to reveal the Father. Perhaps we are more disposed to doubt the royal munificence of the Father than that of the Son. But how unreasonable is this! Was not Jesus Christ Himself, with all the glorious fullness contained in him, the gift of God – His unspeakable gift? And in every act of generosity done by Christ have we not just an exhibition of the Father’s heart? Sometimes we think hardly of God’s generosity in connection with His decree of election. Leave that alone; it is one of the deep things of God; remember that every soul brought to Christ is the fruit of God’s unmerited love and infinite grace; and remember too what a vast company the redeemed are, when in the Apocalyptic vision, an early section of them – those that came out of “the great tribulation” – formed a great multitude that no man could number. Sometimes we think that God is not generous when He takes away very precious comforts, and even the most cherished treasures of our hearts and our homes. But that is love in disguise; “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.” And sometimes we think that He is not generous when He is slow to answer our prayers. But He designs only to encourage us to perseverance, and to increase and finally all the more reward our faith. Yes, truly, whatever anomalies Providence may present, and they are many; whatever seeming contradictions we may encounter to the doctrine of the exceeding riches of the grace of God, let us ascribe all that to our imperfect vision and our imperfect understanding. Let us correct all such narrow impressions at the cross of Christ. Let us reason, like the Apostle: “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” And let us feel assured that when at last God’s ways and dealings even with this wayward world are made plain, the one conclusion which they will go to establish for evermore is – that GOD IS LOVE.