¹It happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag, and struck Ziklag and burned it with fire.

²They had taken captive the women who were in it, from small to great; they had not put to death anyone, but drove them away and went on their way.

³David and his men came to the city, and look, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.

⁴David and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until there was no strength left in them to weep.

⁵And the two wives of David had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

⁶David was distressed exceedingly, for the people spoke of stoning him, for the being of all the people was bitter, each man over his sons and over his daughters; but David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God.

⁷David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, "Bring near the ephod to me, please." And Abiathar brought near the ephod to David.

⁸David inquired of Yahweh, saying, "Shall I run after this marauding band? Shall I overtake it?" And he said to him, "Run after it, for you will surely overtake and surely rescue them."

⁹David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the wadi of the Besor; and those who were left behind stood.

¹⁰David ran after them, he and four hundred men; but two hundred men stood, who were too exhausted to cross the wadi of the Besor.

¹¹They found an Egyptian man in the field, and took him to David, and gave him food, and he ate; and they made him drink water.

¹²They gave him a slice of fig cake and two bunches of raisins, and he ate, and his breath returned to him; for he had not eaten food and had not drunk water for three days and three nights.

¹³David said to him, "To whom do you belong, and where are you from?" And he said, "I am a boy, an Egyptian, a slave to an Amalekite man; and my lord abandoned me, because I fell sick three days ago.

¹⁴We stripped off the South of the Kerethites, and over which belongs to Judah, and over the South of Caleb; and Ziklag we made a burn in the fire."

¹⁵David said to him, "Will you bring me down to this marauding band?" He said, "Swear to me by God that you will not put me to death, and that you will not hand me over into my lord's hand, and I will bring you down to this marauding band."

¹⁶He took him down, and look, they were spread abroad over the face of all the land, eating and drinking and celebrating, with all the great plunder that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

¹⁷David struck them down from the twilight until the evening of their next day; not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on the camels and fled.

¹⁸David recovered all that Amalek had taken, and David rescued his two wives.

¹⁹And nothing was lacking to them, from the small to the great, even to sons and daughters, and from the plunder, even to all that they had taken for themselves; David brought back everything.

²⁰David took all the flock and the cattle; they drove them in front of that livestock and said, "This is David's plunder."

²¹David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to go after David, and whom they had made dwell in the wadi of the Besor; and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. David drew near to the people and asked them about their wholeness.

²²Every evil and worthless man, from among the men who had gone with David, answered and said, "Since they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the plunder that we recovered, except each man his wife and his sons; let them lead them away and go."

²³David said, "You must not do so, my brothers, with what Yahweh has given us. He has kept us, and has given the marauding band that came against us into our hand.

²⁴Who will listen to you about this word? For the share of the one who goes down into battle is like the share of the one who dwells with the baggage; they will share alike."

²⁵And it was so from that day and upward: he made it a statute and a justice for Israel, to this day.

²⁶David came to Ziklag and sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, his friends, saying, "Here is a blessing for you from the plunder of the enemies of Yahweh" —

²⁷to those who were in Beth-el, and to those in Ramoth of the Negev, and to those in Jattir,

²⁸and to those in Aroer, and to those in Siphmoth, and to those in Eshtemoa,

²⁹and to those in Racal, and to those in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to those in the cities of the Kenites,

³⁰and to those in Hormah, and to those in Bor-ashan, and to those in Athach,

³¹and to those in Hebron, and to all the places where David had gone about there, he and his men.