And it happened when David and his men came to Tsiklag on the third day, and the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Tsiklag, and they struck Tsiklag and burned it with fire.

And they captured the women who were in it, from young to old; they did not kill a single person, and they took them and went their way.

And 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 captured.

And David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep.

And David's two wives were captured, Ahinoam the Yizre'elite, and Abigail, the wife of Naval the Karmelite.

And it was very distressing to David, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was bitter, each man for his sons and for his daughters. And David strengthened himself in יהוה his Elohim.

And David said to Evyatar the priest, son of Aḥimelekh, 'Bring me the ephod, please.' And Evyatar brought the ephod to David.

And David inquired of יהוה, saying, 'Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?' And He said to him, 'Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and rescue.'

And David went, he and his six hundred men, and they came to the Wadi Besor, and those remaining stopped.

And David pursued, he and four hundred men, and two hundred men stopped, who were too exhausted to cross the Wadi Besor.

And they found an Egyptian man in the field, and they took him to David, and they gave him bread, and he ate, and they gave him water to drink.

And they gave him a piece of dried figs and two clusters of raisins, and he ate, and his spirit returned to him, for he had not eaten bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights.

And David said to him, 'To whom do you belong, and from where are you?' And he said, 'I am an Egyptian youth, a servant to an Amalekite man, and my master abandoned me because I became sick three days ago.'

We raided the Negev of the Keretites, and on Yehudah, and on the Negev of Kelev, and Tsiklag we burned with fire.

And David said to him, 'Will you bring me down to this troop?' And he said, 'Swear to me by Elohim that you will not kill me, and that you will not hand me over to my master, and I will bring you down to this troop.'

And he brought him down, and behold, they were scattered over the face of all the land, eating and drinking and celebrating because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Pelishtim and from the land of Yehudah.

And David struck them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and not one of them escaped except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled.

And David rescued all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives.

And nothing was missing from them, from the least to the greatest, and from sons and daughters, and from spoil, and from all that they had taken for themselves; David returned everything.

And David took all the flocks and the herds; they drove this livestock ahead of the other livestock and said, 'This is David's spoil.'

And David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to go after David, and he settled them in the Wadi Besor. And they came out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And David greeted the people and asked them about their well-being.

And all the wicked and worthless men among the men who had gone with David answered and said, 'Because they did not go with me, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have rescued, except for each man his wife and his sons; they shall drive them and go.'

And David said, 'You shall not do so, my brothers, with what יהוה has given us, and He has protected us and given into our hand the troop that came against us.'

And who will listen to you in this matter? For as is the share of the one who goes down into battle, so shall be the share of the one who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike.'

And it was from that day forward that he established it as a statute and a custom for Yisra'el until this day.

And David came to Tsiklag and sent from the spoil to the elders of Yehudah, to his friends, saying, 'Here is a blessing for you from the spoil of the enemies of יהוה.'

To those in Beit-El, and to those in Ramot-Negev, and to those in Yatir,

And to those in Aro'er, and to those in Sifmot, and to those in Eshtemo'a,

And to those in Rakkal, and to those in the cities of the Yerachme'elite, and to those in the cities of the Keinite,

And to those in Hormah, and to those in the villages of Ashan, and to those in Atakh,

And to those in Hevron, and to all the places where David and his men had walked.