seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
1 Samuel 30:1 David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, 2 and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.
3 When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. 5 David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.
7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him, 8 and David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?”
“Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.”
9 David and the six hundred men with him came to the Besor Valley, where some stayed behind. 10 Two hundred of them were too exhausted to cross the valley, but David and the other four hundred continued the pursuit.
11 They found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David. They gave him water to drink and food to eat— 12 part of a cake of pressed figs and two cakes of raisins. He ate and was revived, for he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and three nights.
13 David asked him, “Who do you belong to? Where do you come from?”
He said, “I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me when I became ill three days ago. 14 We raided the Negev of the Kerethites, some territory belonging to Judah and the Negev of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag.”
15 David asked him, “Can you lead me down to this raiding party?”
He answered, “Swear to me before God that you will not kill me or hand me over to my master, and I will take you down to them.”
16 He led David down, and there they were, scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking and reveling because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from Judah. 17 David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled. 18 David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. 19 Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back. 20 He took all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock, saying, “This is David’s plunder.”
21 Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him and who were left behind at the Besor Valley. They came out to meet David and the men with him. As David and his men approached, he asked them how they were. 22 But all the evil men and troublemakers among David’s followers said, “Because they did not go out with us, we will not share with them the plunder we recovered. However, each man may take his wife and children and go.”
23 David replied, “No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord has given us. He has protected us and delivered into our hands the raiding party that came against us. 24 Who will listen to what you say? The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.” 25 David made this a statute and ordinance for Israel from that day to this.
26 When David reached Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, who were his friends, saying, “Here is a gift for you from the plunder of the Lord’s enemies.”
27 David sent it to those who were in Bethel, Ramoth Negev and Jattir; 28 to those in Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa 29 and Rakal; to those in the towns of the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites; 30 to those in Hormah, Bor Ashan, Athak 31 and Hebron; and to those in all the other places where he and his men had roamed.
Here's the link to the commentary I read.Just so you know.... Amalekites are the grandkids and great grandkids of Esau. Remember Esau??? He was the older brother of Jacob. You remember Jacob right? He's the one who stole Esau's birthright and then stole his blessing and then ran. Esau vowed to kill Jacob. He didn't get around to it after Isaac, their father, died. Jacob evaded his brother.
Now Esau's grandkids and kids have been fighting, plundering, and murdering Jacob's grandkids since then. The Amalekites were some of Esau's kids and grandkids.
Moses fought the Amalekites. That was when he had to hold the staff above his head. When he lowered the staff, the Israelites lost and when he held it high the Israelites won.
I found an article from Christianity Today that reminds us who the Amalekites are. Besides being Esau's family, the Amalekites are the people God wanted Saul to destroy. Saul didn't do what God ordered him to do concerning the Amalekites.
Putting this in current events... Some of the articles I read compared Hamas to the Amalekites. Not all the Jews are happy with Mr. Netanyahu because he compared Hamas to the Amalekites and called for the total destruction of Hamas.
The story here is about how the Amalekites wiped out the Philistine town David and his men were staying in while hiding from Saul. The story says the Amalekites took all the women and children, slaves and livestock, murdered some, and burned the town to the ground.
God told Saul this would happen. Saul didn't follow directions. Now David has to fight the Amalekites to get his two wives back. Yep... The Amalekites took David's wives, Ahinoan and Abigail. Now they've done it!
Some of David's men wanted to stone him for letting this happen. David took 400 of his men and rescued all the hostages from the Amalekites.
So now look at verse 7, please. Before David went to war... David went to the priest.
Please bring the ephod here: David sought God with the help of the priest, almost certainly using the Urim and Thummim that were part of the priest’s ephod. An ephod was a special apron that priests would wear, to cover over their clothing, so the sacrificial blood and gore would splash on the ephod, not so much on their clothing.
Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them: At one time David would not bother to even ask these questions. He would simply do it because when a soldier is attacked he attacks back. But in returning from his backsliding, David brings everything to the LORD. Nothing is done just because it was done before. He asks God about everything.
David asked God what to do. God told David he would be successful.David went after the Amalekites. David rescued his wives, and the rest of the hostages, then he killed all the Amalekites [well almost all].
David went in with 400 men, rescued the hostages, and killed everyone else, except for 400 young men who escaped on camels [verse 17].
So, my online Bible titled this story "David Destroys the Amalekites".
God said it was ok!
