The Amalekites Raid Ziklag

1And it will be in the going up of David to Ziklag, and his men, in the third day, and the Amalekites plundered to the south, and to Ziklag, and they will strike Ziklag and burn it with fire. 2And they will take the women captive who are in it: from small and even to great they slew not a man, and they will lead away and go to their way. 3And David will come, and his men, to the city, and behold, it burnt with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captive. 4And David will lift up, and the people with him, their voice, and they will weep till power was not in them to weep. 5And the two wives of David were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 6And it will press upon David greatly, for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was bitter, each for his sons and for his daughters: and David will be strengthened in Jehovah his God.

David Destroys the Amalekites

7And David will say to Abiathar the priest, son of Ahimelech, Bring now near to me the ephod. And Abiathar will bring near the ephod to David. 8And David will ask in Jehovah, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I hedge it in? and he will say, Pursue: and hedging, thou shalt hedge in, and taking away, thou shalt take away. 9And David will go, and six hundred men which were with him, and they will come to the torrent of Bezor, and those remaining, stood. 10And David will pursue, he and four hundred men: and two hundred men will stand, which were faint from passing over the torrent of Bezor.

11And they will find a man, an Egyptian, in the field, and they will take him to David, and they will give to him bread, and he will eat; and they will give him water to drink; 12And they will give to him a piece of a cake of dried figs and two bunches of dried grapes: and he will eat and his spirit will turn back to him, for he ate not bread and drank not water three days and three nights. 13And David will say to him, To whom thou? and from whence thou? and the boy, the Egyptian, will say, I servant to a man, an Amalekite; and my lord left me because I was sick the the third day. 14We plundered the south of the Cherethite, and upon that to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb; and Ziklag we burnt with fire. 15And David will say to him, Wilt thou bring me down to this troop? And he will say, Swear to me by God if thou wilt kill me, and if thou wilt deliver me into the hand of my master, and I will bring thee down to this troop.

16And he will bring him down, and behold them spread out upon the face of all the earth, eating and drinking and keeping a festival, for all the great spoil which they took from the land of the rovers, and from the land of Judah. 17And David will smite them from the dawn and even to the evening to their morrow: and a man escaped not from them, except four hundred men of youth who rode upon camels, and they will flee. 18And David will deliver all that Amalek took: and David took away his two wives. 19And nothing was wanting to them from small even to great, and even to sons and daughters, and spoil, and even to all which they took to them: David turned back all. 20And David will take all the sheep and the oxen they drove before those cattle, and they will say, This David's spoil.

The Spoils Are Divided

21And David will come to the two hundred men which were faint from going after David, and they will cause them to dwell by the torrent of Bezor: and they will come forth to meet David and to meet the people which are with him: and David will draw near to the people and will ask to them of peace. 22And every evil man will answer, and Belial, of the men who went with David, and they will say, Because they went not with me, we will not give to them of the spoil which we took away, except each his wife and his sons, and they shall lead and go. 23And David will say, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with what Jehovah gave to us, and he will watch us and give the troop coming against us into our hand. 24And who will hear to you for this word? for as the part of him going clown in the war, and so the part of him sitting by the vessels: together shall they divide. 25And it will be from that day and over, and he will set it for a law and for a judgment to Israel even to this day.

26And David will come to Ziklag, and he will send from the spoil to the old men of Judah, to his neighbors, saving, Behold, to you a blessing from the spoil of the enemies of Jehovah. 27To those in Bethel, and to those in south Ramah, and to those in Jattir, 28And to those in Aroer, and to those in Siphmoth, and to those in Eshtemoa. 29And to those in Rachel, 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 Chor-Ashan, and to those in Athach, 31And to those in Hebron, and to all the places where David went about there, he and his men.