Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 30:13
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 ago I fell sick.
13. To whom belongest thou ] His appearance shewed that he was a slave.
servant ] Slave: captured in some Amalekite foray.
three days agone ] So that more than three days had elapsed since the sack of Ziklag, for they had gone at least one long day’s march before he was deserted. “Agone,” now usually written ago, is the past participle of an obsolete verb agon, to go away.
my master left me ] “A barbarous act, to leave him there to perish, when they had camels good store, for the carriage of men as well as of their spoil ( 1Sa 30:17): but this inhumanity cost them dear; for by this means they lost their own lives.” Patrick.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 13. My master left me, because three days agone I fell sick.] This was very inhuman: though they had booty enough, and no doubt asses sufficient to carry the invalids, yet they left this poor man to perish; and God visited it upon them, as he made this very person the means of their destruction, by the information which he was enabled to give to David and his men.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I am a young man of Egypt; God by his providence so ordering it, that he was not one of that cursed race of the Amalekites, who were to be utterly destroyed, but an Egyptian, who might be spared.
My master left me, in this place and condition; which was barbarous inhumanity; for he ought, and easily might have carried him away with the prey which they had taken. But he paid dearly for this cruelty, for this was the occasion of the ruin of him and of all their company. And God by his secret providence ordered the matter thus for that very end. So that there is no fighting against God, who can make the smallest accidents serviceable to the production of the greatest effects.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And David said unto him, to whom [belongest] thou?…. To what country or people? and to whom among them?
and whence [art] thou? of what nation? where wast thou born? what countryman art thou? for his being called an Egyptian before seems to be by anticipation, unless it was guessed at by his habit; for until he had eaten and drank he could not speak, and so could not be known by his speech:
for he said, I [am] a young man of Egypt; that was the country he belonged to, and came from; he was an Egyptian by birth:
servant to an Amalekite; one of those that had invaded the country, and burnt Ziklag, as it follows:
and my master left me, because three days agone I fell sick; which was very barbarous and cruel to leave him at all, when they had camels with them, 1Sa 30:17; and no doubt carriages for their arms, provision, and spoil, and men; and more so to leave him without anybody with him to take care of him, and without any food, when he capable of eating any; but so it was ordered by the providence of God, that should be left to be the instrument of the just ruin of his master, and of the whole troop.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
When David asked him whence he had come (to whom, i.e., to what people or tribe, dost thou belong?), the young man said that he was an Egyptian, and servant of an Amalekite, and that he had been left behind by his master when he fell sick three days before (“to-day three,” sc., days): he also said, “ We invaded the south of the Crethites, and what belongs to Judah, and the south of Caleb, and burned Ziklag with fire.” , identical with (Eze 25:16; Zep 2:5), denotes those tribes of the Philistines who dwelt in the south-west of Canaan, and is used by Ezekiel and Zephaniah as synonymous with Philistim. The origin of the name is involved in obscurity, as the explanation which prevailed for a time, viz., that it was derived from Creta, is without sufficient foundation (vid., Stark, Gaza, pp. 66 and 99ff.). The Negeb “belonging to Judah” is the eastern portion of the Negeb. One part of it belonged to the family of Caleb, and was called Caleb’s Negeb (vid., 1Sa 25:3).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
1Sa 30:13 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.
Ver. 13. And my master left me, because three days agone. ] He should the rather have looked to him, and taken order for his carriage and cure; as did the good Samaritan for a mere stranger. But this is merces mundi, the world’s wages: and Eucherius here observeth, that the world usually serveth her servants in this sort, casting them off when at worst: and then God taketh them up, those that belong to his election, and not only relieveth them, but maketh great use of them in the Christian warfare.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
my master: Though they had booty enough, and this poor sick slave might have been carried on an ass or a camel, yet they inhumanely left him to perish; but, in the righteous providence of God, this cruelty was the occasion of their destruction; whilst David’s kindness to a perishing stranger and slave was the means of his success, and proved the truest policy. Job 31:13-15, Pro 12:10, Jam 2:13
Reciprocal: 1Sa 30:12 – three days 2Sa 1:8 – an Amalekite 1Ch 18:11 – Amalek Jon 1:8 – What is thine