from 1Sa 30:26-31, where he is said to have sent portions of the booty of the enemies of Jehovah to different places in the land. If this explanation be not accepted, there is no other course open than to follow the Vulgate, alter לפני into לפניו, and render the middle clause thus: “they drove those cattle (viz., the sheep and oxen already mentioned) before him,” as Luther has done. But even in that case we could hardly understand anything else by the sheep and oxen than the cattle belonging to the Amalekites, and taken from them as booty.
Verse 21
When David came back to the two hundred men whom he had left by the brook Besor (יושׁיבם, they made them sit, remain), they went to meet him and his warriors, and were heartily greeted by David.
Verse 22
Then all kinds of evil and worthless men of those who had gone with David to the battle replied: “Because they have not gone with us (lit. with me, the person speaking), we will not give them any of the booty that we have seized, except to every one his wife and his children: they may lead them away, and go.”
Verses 23-24
David opposed this selfish and envious proposal, saying, “Do not so, my brethren, with that (את, the sign of the accusative, not the preposition; see Ewald, §329, a.: lit. with regard to that) which Jehovah hath done to us, and He hath guarded us (since He hath guarded us), and given this troop which came upon us into our hand. And who will hearken to you in this matter? But (כּי, according to the negation involved in the question) as the portion of him that went into the battle, so be the portion of him that stayed by the things; they shall share together.” הורד is a copyist's error for היּרד.
Verse 25
So was it from that day and forward; and he (David) made it (this regulation as to the booty) “the law and right for Israel unto this day.”
Verses 26-29
When David returned to Ziklag, he sent portions of the booty to the elders of Judah, to his friends, with this message: “Behold, here ye have a blessing of the booty of the enemies of Jehovah” (which we took from the enemies of Jehovah); and this he did, according to 1Sa 30:31, to all the places in which he had wandered with his men, i.e., where he had wandered about during his flight from Saul, and in which he had no doubt received assistance. Sending these gifts could not fail to make the elders of these cities well disposed towards him, and so to facilitate his recognition as king after the death of Saul, which
