Blessed and Protected

Achish had wanted David to help the Philistines fight Israel, and David had felt forced to take part.  After a day of discussion, fearing his loyalty might still lie with Israel, the other Philistine kings had refused, preventing him being forced to commit treason. The next morning David and his men started back to Ziklg, arriving the third day.  While they were away, Amalekite raiders had attacked the city, according to I Samuel 30:1-5.  “And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.  So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.  Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.  And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.”

Descendants of an illegitimate grandson of Easu, the Amalekites was a warlike nomadic people who ranged throughout northern Arabia, southern Jordan, and the Sinai Peninsula.  In I Samuel 15, Saul had attacked the Amalekites, destroying their villages along a line from the Shur Desert east of the Gulf of Sues to Havilah, near the Persian Gulf, and capturing their king, but having little effect on most of the groups of nomads.  It was one of these groups that attacked Ziklag. 

His men blamed David for taking them to help the Philistines and not being there to protect their families.   David asked for guidance whether they could catch the Amalekites, and God directed him to follow, in  I Samuel 30:6-8.  “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.  And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.

And David inquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them?

And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.”

Assured they would recover everything, David and his men pursued the Amalekites, but after several days of travel and the emotional shock of losing their families, a third of his forces soon reached their limits and were unable to maintain the pace.  They were left at the brook Besor to guard the stuff while the others continued their pursuit, in I Samuel 30:9-10.  “So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed.  But David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.”

Finding an Egyptian man who was about to die, David and his men stopped to help him, and learned that he had been a slave to one of the Amalekites who had raided far into Jewish territory, including Ziklag.   Because he was sick and couldn’t keep up, the Amalekites had left him without food or water, as I Samuel 30:11-14 describes.  “And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water; And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.  And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou?

And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick.  We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.

Angry at being left to die, and knowing where they were headed, the Egyptian readily agreed to guide David and his men, as long as they promised not to kill him or turn him back over to the Amalekites.   That night the Amalekites stopped early to celebrate their victories.  With the Egyptian man to guide them, David and his men caught them by surprise just after sundown.  The resulting battle lasted throughout the night and until sundown the following day.  Only about four hundred of the Amalekites were able to escape, according to I Samuel 30:15-20.  “And David said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this company?

And he said, Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company.

And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah.  And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.  And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives.  And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all.  And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David's spoil.

Not only did the Philistine’s refusal to allow David to fight prevent him from committing treason against Israel, it enabled him to recover his men’s families and strike another blow against the Amalekites when they were not prepared.  A few days later, they would not have had the Egyptian to guide them and would have found it much harder to surprise the Amalekites.