Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of 1 Samuel
Chapter 30: David Encouraged Himself in the LORD His God
David returns from Gath to find Ziklag burned and everyone he loves carried off. His own men speak of stoning him. At the lowest point of his life, David does the one thing that turns everything: 'David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.' He enquires, he pursues, and God gives him back everything, David recovered all.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of 1 Samuel chapter 30. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Chapter 30 is the great turning point of David's exile, where the lowest hour becomes the doorway back to faith, enquiry, and full restoration. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Ziklag in Ashes (1 Samuel 30:1-6)
David comes home to find his city burned and his family gone, and even his own men turn against him, until he strengthens himself in God.
David Encouraged Himself in the LORD His God
"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. 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."
Word Study
"encouraged himself," Hebrew chazaq (חָזַק), "to strengthen, make strong, take hold, be firm." This is the pivot of the whole chapter, and one of the great phrases of Scripture: "David encouraged (chazaq) himself in the LORD his God." It is the same word used when Jonathan "strengthened his hand in God" (chapter 23), but here there is no Jonathan; David must lay hold of God for himself. Everything is gone, home, family, and even the loyalty of his men, who speak of stoning him. There is nothing left to encourage him from without, so he takes hold of God from within. Note the possessive, "the LORD his God", in his darkest hour David clings to a covenant relationship that no fire and no enemy can burn. To encourage oneself in the LORD is deliberate, active faith, preaching to one's own soul the truth of who God is when all feeling and circumstance say despair. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?... hope thou in God" (Psalm 42:11). This is the turning point of David's exile, and it is the turning point available to every believer at rock bottom.
Explanation
David and his men, sent home from the Philistine muster, arrive at Ziklag after three days to find catastrophe: the Amalekites have raided the town, burned it, and carried off every woman and child, including David's own two wives. Mercifully, no one was killed, but the loss is overwhelming. The battle-hardened men "wept, until they had no more power to weep." Then grief turns to fury against their leader: "the people spake of stoning him." David is at the absolute bottom, bereaved, blamed, betrayed by his own, with no human comfort anywhere. And here, in the single most important sentence of the chapter, the text turns: "but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God." He does not despair, does not lash out, does not (as in chapter 27) reason his way into another compromise. He takes hold of God. From that act of faith, everything else in the chapter flows.
Gospel Focus
Chapter 30 stands in deliberate contrast to chapter 27. There, under pressure, David "said in his heart" the language of fear and fled to the enemy; here, under far greater pressure, he "encouraged himself in the LORD his God" and found his way back to faith. The difference between sinking and standing is often just this: whether, at the bottom, we reason with our fears or take hold of our God. Every believer will face a Ziklag, an hour when all earthly props are gone and even friends turn away. In that hour there is one thing to do, and David shows it: strengthen yourself in the LORD. Rehearse His promises, His character, His covenant; "hope thou in God." This is not denial of the loss, David wept till he could weep no more, but faith beyond the loss. And it points us to the Man of Sorrows, who in His darkest hour, forsaken and alone, still cried, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). When you have nothing else, you still have Him, and He is enough.
Pursue, and Recover All (1 Samuel 30:7-20)
David enquires of the LORD, pursues the raiders by the help of a forsaken slave, and recovers everything that was lost.
Without Fail Recover All
"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 enquired 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. 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. 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 agone 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. 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."
Word Study
"enquired at the LORD," Hebrew sha'al ba-YHWH (שָׁאַל בַּיהוָה), "asked of, enquired of the LORD." The moment David is strengthened in God, the first thing he does is what he had failed to do throughout his Philistine exile: he calls for the ephod and "enquired at the LORD" (sha'al). In sixteen months at Ziklag there is no record of David enquiring of God; he acted on his own reasoning. Now, restored in faith, he seeks God's word before he moves, and God answers with a full promise: "Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all." This is the fruit of encouraging oneself in the LORD, it leads at once to seeking His will. And note the twice-repeated verdict of the chapter: "David recovered all... David recovered all." Not a soul, not a child, not a possession was lost. God's grace to the returning believer is a full recovery. Even in the pursuit, David and his men show mercy to a dying Egyptian slave, and that discarded man, revived by kindness, becomes the very key to the victory, a reminder that the God of restoration works through mercy shown to the least.
Explanation
Strengthened in God, David acts in faith. He summons Abiathar and the ephod and enquires of the LORD, and receives a clear, encouraging word: pursue, overtake, recover all. So David sets out with his six hundred. At the brook Besor, two hundred are too exhausted to continue and stay with the baggage; David presses on with four hundred. In the field they find a half-dead Egyptian, a slave abandoned by his Amalekite master when he fell sick. David's men revive him with food and water, and in gratitude he leads them to the raiders, who are sprawled across the countryside, feasting and dancing over their plunder, utterly off guard. David falls on them and fights from twilight to the next evening; only four hundred escape on camels. The victory is total: "David recovered all", every wife, every child, every possession, plus the enemy's own flocks and herds as spoil. What seemed the end of everything becomes the fullest recovery of David's life.
Gospel Focus
Restoration follows the return to God. The instant David encouraged himself in the LORD, he began enquiring of the LORD, and the enquiring led to recovery. This is ever the pattern of grace: the believer who has wandered, once he takes hold of God again and seeks His face, finds that God restores. "He restoreth my soul" (Psalm 23:3); "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten" (Joel 2:25). David "recovered all", and though our wanderings have real cost, the God of all grace is a God who gives back, who redeems the lost years, who makes the ashes of Ziklag the ground of a greater triumph. See too the mercy shown the forsaken Egyptian: the man the world discarded, revived by kindness, became the means of David's victory. God delights to work His salvation through the least and the cast-off, and He calls His people to the same compassion. Take hold of God, seek His face, and show mercy as you go, and you will find Him a restorer who recovers all.
The Statute of the Spoil (1 Samuel 30:21-31)
David decrees that those who stayed by the baggage share equally with those who fought, and he sends gifts to the elders of Judah.
As His Part Is That Goeth Down to the Battle
"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. 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. 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. For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike. And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day. And when David came to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, Behold a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of the LORD; To them which were in Bethel, and to them which were in south Ramoth, and to them which were in Jattir, And to them which were in Aroer, and to them which were in Siphmoth, and to them which were in Eshtemoa, And to them which were in Rachal, and to them which were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to them which were in the cities of the Kenites, And to them which were in Hormah, and to them which were in Chorashan, and to them which were in Athach, And to them which were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt."
Word Study
"they shall part alike," Hebrew yachdav yachaloqu (יַחְדָּו יַחֲלֹקוּ), "together they shall divide." When greedy "men of Belial" want to deny the exhausted two hundred any share of the spoil, David lays down a principle of grace: "as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike." Those who guarded the baggage shared the danger and the cause, though not the front line, and so they share the reward equally. David grounds this not in the men's deserving but in God's gift: "that which the LORD hath given us." It became a lasting statute in Israel. Here is a beautiful gospel principle. In the kingdom of God, reward is not a wage earned by comparison but a gift shared by grace. Those who labor in ways the world counts small, who "tarry by the stuff," who serve unseen, share fully in the victory won. It echoes the Lord's own parable where the last-hired receive the same as the first (Matthew 20:1-16), for the Master gives "as he will" out of His own goodness. And David's further generosity, sending spoil to the elders of Judah, shows a king who shares his blessing widely, the open hand of the man after God's heart.
Explanation
Returning to the brook Besor, David is met by the two hundred who had been too faint to fight. At once the "wicked men and men of Belial" among his four hundred want to give the stay-behinds nothing but their own rescued families. David firmly overrules them. The victory, he says, was the LORD's doing, not theirs to hoard: "that which the LORD hath given us." Therefore all shall share alike, the guards of the baggage with the men of the sword. He makes it a permanent statute in Israel. Then, back at Ziklag, David acts with wide generosity, sending portions of the spoil to the elders of Judah in town after town, places that had sheltered him in his wanderings, calling it "a present... of the spoil of the enemies of the LORD." It is a masterstroke of grace and of statesmanship: David binds the hearts of Judah to himself even as he honors God, and the list ends fittingly at Hebron, the very city where, in the next book, he will be crowned king.
Gospel Focus
David's statute of the spoil preaches the grace of the kingdom. Against the grasping spirit of the men of Belial, who measured reward by their own effort, David set the generosity of God, who gives the victory and shares it freely with all who are His, front-line warrior and weary baggage-guard alike. So in Christ's kingdom, "they shall part alike": the one who can only "tarry by the stuff," the sick, the small, the hidden servant, shares fully in the triumph of the King. Reward is grace, not wage; the victory is the Lord's gift, and He shares it with His whole people. This is the mind our Lord taught, that in His household the last are equal with the first (Matthew 20:16), for all is of grace. And David's open-handed gifts to Judah, ending at Hebron where he will soon reign, show the coming king already blessing his people, a shadow of the greater King who, having won the victory alone, shares the whole spoil with those He redeemed, "if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17).
Chapter 30 in Review
1 Samuel 30 is the great turning point of David's exile. Returning from the Philistine muster, he finds Ziklag burned and every wife and child carried off, and his own grieving men speak of stoning him. At the absolute bottom, David does the one thing that changes everything: "he encouraged himself in the LORD his God." Restored in faith, he enquires of the LORD for the first time in his long compromise, receives the promise "without fail recover all," and pursues the raiders, guided by a forsaken Egyptian slave whom his men had revived with kindness. The victory is total, "David recovered all." Then, against the greed of the men of Belial, David decrees that those who guarded the baggage share equally with those who fought, and he sends generous gifts to the elders of Judah.
For the Apostolic reader, the chapter is a portrait of restoration and grace. In deliberate contrast to chapter 27, David meets a far greater crisis not by reasoning with his fears but by taking hold of his God, and from that act flow enquiry, recovery, and generosity. The God who "restoreth my soul" gives back all that was lost; He works His salvation through mercy shown to the least; and He shares His victory freely, so that in His kingdom the weary who "tarry by the stuff" part alike with the mighty. It all points to the greater Son of David, who won the victory alone and shares the whole spoil with those He redeemed.
- At rock bottom, "David encouraged himself in the LORD his God", the turning point available to every believer.
- Strengthened in God, David enquired of the LORD again; faith restored leads at once to seeking His will.
- "David recovered all", the God of grace restores the wandering soul and redeems the lost years.
- "They shall part alike", in the kingdom, reward is grace shared, not wage earned; the least share the victory.
Questions for Reflection
- When you hit bottom, do you reason with your fears, or encourage yourself in the LORD your God?
- Is there a wandering you need to return from by enquiring of God and seeking His face again?
- Do you, like David, share the victory freely, or, like the men of Belial, measure reward by your own effort?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- Ziklag in ashes; encouraging oneself in the LORD: 1 Samuel 30:1-6; Psalm 42:11; Luke 23:46.
- Enquiring of the LORD; full recovery; mercy to the least: 1 Samuel 30:7-20; Psalm 23:3; Joel 2:25.
- The statute of the spoil; grace shared alike; the King's generosity: 1 Samuel 30:21-31; Matthew 20:1-16; Romans 8:17.