³ and his men and their families all moved to Judah, and they settled in the villages near Hebron.

Warriors Join David’s Army

12 The following men joined David at Ziklag while he was hiding from Saul son of Kish. They were among the warriors who fought beside David in battle. ² All of them were expert archers, and they could shoot arrows or sling stones with their left hand as well as their right. They were all relatives of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin. ³ Their leader was Ahiezer son of Shemaah from Gibeah; his brother Joash was second-in-command. These were the other warriors:

David Destroys the Amalekites

30 Three days later, when David and his men arrived home at their town of Ziklag, they found that the Amalekites had made a raid into the Negev and Ziklag; they had crushed Ziklag and burned it to the ground.

² So David took his 600 men and went over and joined Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath. ³ David and his men and their families settled there with Achish at Gath. David brought his two wives along with him—Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, Nabal’s widow from Carmel.

⁹ So David and his 600 men set out, and they came to the brook Besor. ¹⁰ But 200 of the men were too exhausted to cross the brook, so David continued the pursuit with 400 men.

² Then others began coming—men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented—until David was the captain of about 400 men.

¹¹ Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), in the hill country of Judah, along with its surrounding pasturelands. (Arba was an ancestor of Anak.) ¹² But the open fields beyond the town and the surrounding villages were given to Caleb son of Jephunneh as his possession.