1 Samuel 30:23

_THEN ANSWERED ALL THE WICKED MEN AND MEN OF BELIAL, OF THOSE THAT WENT WITH DAVID, AND SAID, BECAUSE THEY WENT NOT WITH US, WE WILL NOT GIVE THEM OUGHT OF THE SPOIL THAT WE HAVE RECOVERED, SAVE TO EVERY MAN HIS WIFE AND HIS CHILDREN, THAT THEY MAY LEAD THEM AWAY, AND DEPART._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

21-31 What God gives us, he designs we should do good with. In distributing the spoil, David was just and kind. Those are men of Belial indeed, who delight in putting hardships upon their brethren, and care not who is starved, so that they may be fed to the full. David was generous and kind to all his friends. Those who consider the Lord as the Giver of their abundance, will dispose of it with fairness and liberality....

Verse 1 Samuel 30:23. _THAT WHICH THE LORD HATH GIVEN US_] He very properly attributes this victory to God; the numbers of the Amalekites being so much greater than his own. Indeed, as many fled away on camels as were in the whole host of David....

DAVID RESCUES HIS WIVES FROM THE AMALEKITES (1 Samuel 30:1). EXPOSITION DAVID UPON HIS RETURN FINDS ZIKLAG BURNT BY THE AMALEKITES (1 Samuel 30:1). 1 SAMUEL 30:1 ON THE THIRD DAY. David evidently could not have gone with the Philistines As far as to Shunem; for, as noticed in the previous chapter, it would have been impossible to march back to Ziklag in so short a time

THEN SAID DAVID, YE SHALL NOT DO SO, MY BRETHREN,.... Though he saw through their wickedness, and disapproved of the bad sentiments they had embraced, yet he deals gently with them, calling them brethren, being of the same nation and religion, and his fellow soldiers; yet at the same time keeps up and maintains his dignity and authority as a general, and declares it should not be as they willed, and gives his reasons for it, that it was not fit they should do as they pleased: WITH THAT WHICH THE LORD HATH GIVEN US; what they had was given them, and therefore, as they had freely received, they should freely give; and what was given them, was not given to them only, but to the whole body, by the Lord: WHO HATH PRESERVED US, AND DELIVERED THE COMPANY THAT CAME AGAINST US INTO OUR HAND; it was not by their own power and might that they got the victory over the enemy, and the spoil into the...

CHAPTER 30 _ 1. The Amalekites destroy Ziklag (1 Samuel 30:1)_ 2. David's distress and return unto the Lord (1 Samuel 30:6) 3. David pursues the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30:9) 4. The young Egyptian and the defeat of the enemy (1 Samuel 30:11) 5. The threatening dissension and David's decision (1 Samuel 30:21) 6. The spoil sent to Judah (1 Samuel 30:26) The chastening hand of the Lord now rests heav

1 SAMUEL 30. AMALEKITE RAID ON ZIKLAG._ Cf._ above. 1 SAMUEL 30:1. On reaching Ziklag, David found that the Amalekites had sacked the town and carried off the families and property of himself and his followers. Apparently he had taken his whole force to Achish, leaving Ziklag without any adequate garrison. 1 SAMUEL 30:7. Encouraged by an oracle from Yahweh, David went in pursuit, probably southwards, overtook the raiders, annihilated them all but 400, and recovered the captives and the spoil. 1 SAMUEL 30:14. CHERETHITES: a tribe in the South or Negeb (_cf._ 1 Samuel 27:10), pr

The division of the spoil 22. _Then answered_, &c. THEN ANSWERED EVERY WICKED MAN AND EVERY WORTHLESS MAN … BECAUSE THEY WENT NOT WITH ME. Each spoke for himself, in the true spirit of selfishness....

YE SHALL NOT DO SO, MY BRETHREN— David pronounced, in contrariety to the inhuman resolutions of some evil men who attended him, that they who went down to battle, and they who stayed behind to guard the goods and provisions of the army, should share alike in the enemy's spoil; well knowing that there was as much merit in contributing to save a citizen, as in destroying an enemy; and that those who now stayed behind had no other demerit than that of a weaker constitution. Chalcondylas tells us, (lib. 5:) that the Pisidians went further, and gave part of the spoil to those who staid at home and guarded the houses; and God himself appointed half to those who staid at home in the war with Midian. Numbers 31. This determination of David's became a law among the Israelites from that day: and we have reason to believe, that it lasted as long as the Jewish polity did, and was restored with it; a...

_David's Goodwill Toward Judah._ 1 Samuel 30:21-31 21 And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besor: and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that _were_ with him: and when David came near to the people, he saluted them. 22 Then answered all the wicked men and _men_ of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will not give them _aught_ of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead _them_ away, and depart, 23 Then said David, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand. 24 For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but