30 David and his men got back to Tsiklag three days later and found that the Amalekites had raided Tsiklag and other parts of the southern Judean wilderness. They had attacked Tsiklag then burnt it down, 2 capturing the women and children and everyone else. They hadn’t killed anyone, but had taken them away with them, 3 so when David and his men arrived at the town, wow, it had been burnt down and their wives, and sons and daughters had been taken captive. 4 David and his men cried loudly until they didn’t have the strength to cry any more. 5 Ahinoam (from Yezreel) and Abigail (Nabal’s widow from Carmel), David’s two wives, had been taken captive with the others.[ref]

6 David was in a tight spot because the men were considering throwing rocks at him to kill him, because they were very upset about their children, but he found strength in his God Yahweh. 7 Then David asked the priest Evyatar (Ahimelek’s son), “Please get the sacred apron and come back to me.” So Evyatar got the sacred apron and went back to David.[ref] 8 Then David asked Yahweh, “If I chase after these raiders, will I catch up to them”

“Chase them because you’ll definitely catch up and you’ll certainly be able to rescue the captives,” Yahweh answered.

9 So David and the six hundred men who were with him took off and they reached the Besor riverbed, where some of the slower ones remained. 10 David and four hundred men continued, but two hundred more of the men who were exhausted stopped at the far end of the Besor riverbed. 11 They found an Egyptian man in the countryside and took him to David. They gave him water to drink and bread to eat, 12 along with a slice of fig cake and two raisin clusters. He ate it and felt stronger again because he hadn’t eaten or drunk for three full days. 13 “Who do you belong to?” David asked. “And where are you from?”

“I am an Egyptian,” he replied. “I’m an Amalekite man’s slave but my master left me three days ago because I got sick. 14 We’d raided the southern area of the Kerethites as well as part of Yehudah and the south of Caleb. And we burnt down Tsiklag.”

15 David asked him, “Can you lead us to them?”

“I’ll take you to them,” he answered, “if you promise by God that you won’t kill me and won’t hand me back over to my master.” 16 So he took David down to the plain, and sure enough, there were the Amalekites spread out, eating and drinking and celebrating because of all the plunder that they had taken from the Philistine and Yehudah regions. 17 David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day, and none of the Amalekites were able to escape except for four hundred young men who jumped on camels and fled. 18 So David was able to rescue everyone that the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. 19 None of their sons or daughters were missing, and they also recovered all the animals and all the plunder—nothing was missing—big or small. 20 David took all the flocks and herds and they drove them in front of the other livestock, saying, “This is David’s spoil.”

21 Then David got back to the two hundred men who’d been too exhausted to go all the way with them. They’d stayed at the Besor riverbed, and they went out to meet David and his men. As David approached to greet them, 22 all the evil and worthless men who’d gone with David complained, “Because they didn’t go with us, we won’t give them any of the plunder that we recovered, except that each man can get his wife and children then take them away and leave.”

23 “No, my brothers,” David said. “You won’t do that with what Yahweh has given to us. He’s protected us and helped us defeat the raiders who came against us. 24 Who’ll listen to you all when you talk like that? The portion for the ones who went and fought will be the same as for those who stayed with the equipment. They’ll all share alike. 25 So from that time onwards, it’s been a custom and law in Israel.