1 Samuel 30
David returns to Ziklag to find it burned and every woman and child taken. His men speak of stoning him. He pursues and recovers everything.
Summary
Chapter 30 gives David his severest test as a leader and shows him at his most effective. He arrives at Ziklag three days after dismissal from the Philistine army to find the city destroyed and every person taken — the Amalekites have raided during his absence. His men weep until they have no strength left. They then begin to speak of stoning David: he brought them to this situation, his leadership is responsible, they have nothing left. David strengthens himself in the Lord his God — the phrase is spare and exact. He does not argue with his men or plead. He asks Abiathar to bring the ephod and consults the Lord: shall I pursue? Will I overtake? The Lord: pursue, for you will certainly overtake and will certainly rescue.
David leads the pursuit with four hundred men; two hundred are too exhausted to cross the Besor ravine and stay behind with the equipment. A providential finding guides the expedition: an Egyptian servant of an Amalekite raider, left behind sick three days earlier, is found in the field. He agrees to guide David to the Amalekite camp in exchange for a promise of safety. The camp is found celebrating their great raid, eating and drinking and dancing. David attacks from twilight until evening of the next day and kills everyone except four hundred young men who escape on camels. He recovers everything — all the captives, all the flocks and herds. On the return, some of the four hundred who fought want to exclude the two hundred who stayed at the ravine from the spoil. David overrules them with a ruling that becomes a standing statute: the share is equal whether you stayed or went. He then sends portions of the spoil to elders throughout the towns of Judah — laying groundwork.
- 1 Samuel 1Chapter 1 opens at the sanctuary at Shiloh, where Elkanah of Ephraim brings his household each year to worship.
- 1 Samuel 2Chapter 2 opens with the Song of Hannah, one of the most influential poems in the Hebrew Bible — my heart exults in the Lord, the mighty brought low, the hungry fed, the barren bearing seven.
- 1 Samuel 3Chapter 3 is one of the most carefully paced call narratives in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 4Chapter 4 is the disaster that the previous chapters have been building toward.
- 1 Samuel 5Chapter 5 is the ark narrative in Philistine territory, told with something close to sardonic comedy.
- 1 Samuel 6Chapter 6 is the ark's return to Israel, engineered by Philistine priests who want to know whether their afflictions are the Lord's doing or mere coincidence.
- 1 Samuel 7Chapter 7 is the closing movement of the Samuel-as-judge arc.
- 1 Samuel 8Chapter 8 is the pivot of the entire book.
- 1 Samuel 9Chapter 9 introduces Saul, and the introduction is built on irony.
- 1 Samuel 10Chapter 10 is Saul's anointing and public selection.
- 1 Samuel 11Chapter 11 is Saul's first military action and the only chapter of his reign where he functions without any reservation or failure.
- 1 Samuel 12Chapter 12 is Samuel's formal farewell as Israel's judge, a speech that occupies the whole chapter.
- 1 Samuel 13Chapter 13 begins the decline.
- 1 Samuel 14Chapter 14 is a chapter of action and its costs.
- 1 Samuel 15Chapter 15 is the final disqualification.
- 1 Samuel 16Chapter 16 is the introduction of David and one of the most carefully constructed scenes of divine election in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 17Chapter 17 is the book's most famous chapter.
- 1 Samuel 18Chapter 18 is where the book's two great relationships crystallize.
- 1 Samuel 19Chapter 19 is the escalation from hostility to overt murderous intent.
- 1 Samuel 20Chapter 20 is the central scene of the David-Jonathan friendship and one of the great parting scenes in ancient literature.
- 1 Samuel 21Chapter 21 is a chapter of disguise and desperation.
- 1 Samuel 22Chapter 22 is one of the darkest chapters in the book.
- 1 Samuel 23Chapter 23 is a chapter of pursuit and one extraordinary meeting.
- 1 Samuel 24Chapter 24 is the first of two episodes in which David has Saul's life in his hands and refuses to take it.
- 1 Samuel 25Chapter 25 opens with Samuel's death — mourned by all Israel — and then turns to a story of David's near loss of self-control and the woman who stops it.
- 1 Samuel 26Chapter 26 is the second episode in which David refuses to kill Saul and, like chapter 24, it is structured to make the refusal as emphatic as possible.
- 1 Samuel 27Chapter 27 is the chapter of David's double game among the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 28Chapter 28 is one of the strangest and most debated passages in the Hebrew Bible.
- 1 Samuel 29Chapter 29 is the resolution of a problem the narrative has been building toward: David, marching with Achish and the Philistine forces to fight against Israel.
- 1 Samuel 30Chapter 30 is the crisis of David's time among the Philistines.
- 1 Samuel 31Chapter 31 is the last chapter of 1 Samuel and the end of Saul's story.