So then, rise early in the morning, [you] and the servants of your lord who came with you. When you rise early in the morning and it is light [enough] for you, leave.

{Now} when David and his men came [to] Ziklag on the third day, [the] Amalekites had raided [the] Negev and Ziklag. When they attacked Ziklag, they burned it with fire.

When David and his men came to the city, {they saw}, and [it] was burned with fire, and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive.

And {David was in a very precarious situation}, for the people spoke of stoning him, for the souls of all the people were bitter, each [one] over his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God.

Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, "Please bring the ephod here for me." So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.

And David inquired of Yahweh, saying, "Should I pursue after this band [of raiders]? Will I overtake them?" He said to him, "Pursue [them], for you will certainly overtake them, and you will certainly rescue them."

David pursued, he and four hundred men; but two hundred men stayed because they were too exhausted to pass over the Wadi Besor.

They gave him a slice of fig cake and two raisin cakes; he ate and {this revived him}, because he had not eaten food or drunk water [for] three days and three nights.

We raided the Negev of the Kerethites and that [which belongs] to Judah and then the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire."

Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped {except} four hundred young men who rode [off] on camels and fled.

None of theirs [was] missing {from the smallest to the greatest}, even sons and daughters, from [the] plunder up to everything they had taken for themselves; David brought back everything.

And who would listen to you regarding this matter? For as the share of the one who went down into the battle, so the share of the one who remained with the baggage will be. They will share alike."

So from that day and beyond, he made it a rule and a regulation for Israel until this day.

Then David came to Ziklag, and he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, "{Here is} a gift for you from the plunder of the enemies of Yahweh!"

[It was] for those in Bethel, for those in Ramoth of the Negev, for those in Jattir,

for those in Aroer, for those in Siphmoth, for those in Eshtemoa,

for those in Racal, for those in the towns of the Jerahmeelites, for those in the towns of the Kenites,

for those in Hormah, for those in Bor Ashan, for those in Athach,

for those in Hebron, and for all the places {where David and his men had roamed}.

Then they took their bones and buried [them] under the tamarisk in Jabesh, and they fasted [for] seven days.