1 Samuel 30:16-31

Contemporary English Version

¹⁶ He led David to the Amalekites. They were eating and drinking everywhere, celebrating because of what they had taken from Philistia and Judah. ¹⁷ David attacked just before sunrise the next day and fought until sunset.^[a] Four hundred Amalekites rode away on camels, but they were the only ones who escaped.

¹⁸ David rescued his two wives and everyone else the Amalekites had taken from Ziklag. ¹⁹ No one was missing—young or old, sons or daughters. David brought back everything that had been stolen, ²⁰ including their livestock.

David also took the sheep and cattle that the Amalekites had with them, but he kept these separate from the others. Everyone agreed that these would be David's reward.

²¹ On the way back, David went to the 200 men he had left at Besor Gorge, because they had been too tired to keep up with him. They came toward David and the people who were with him. When David was close enough, he greeted the 200 men and asked how they were doing.

²² Some of David's men were good-for-nothings, and they said, “Those men didn't go with us to the battle, so they don't get any of the things we took back from the Amalekites. Let them take their wives and children and go!”

²³ But David said:

My friends, don't be so greedy with what the Lord has given us! The Lord protected us and gave us victory over the people who attacked. ²⁴ Who would pay attention to you, anyway? Soldiers who stay behind to guard the camp get as much as those who go into battle.

²⁵ David made this a law for Israel, and it has been the same ever since.

²⁶ David went back to Ziklag with everything they had taken from the Amalekites. He sent some of these things as gifts to his friends who were leaders of Judah, and he told them, “We took these things from the Lord's enemies. Please accept them as a gift.”

^27-31 This is a list of the towns where David sent gifts: Bethel,^[b] Ramoth in the Southern Desert, Jattir, Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa, Racal, the towns belonging to the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites, Hormah, Bor-Ashan, Athach, and Hebron. He also sent gifts to the other towns where he and his men had traveled.