1 Samuel 30:21

THE KEEPERS OF THE BAGGAGE SHARED THE PLUNDER ALONG WITH THE FIGHTERS

"Then David came to the two hundred men, who had been too exhausted to follow David, and who had been left at the brook Besor; and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him; and when David drew near to the people he saluted them. Then all the wicked and base fellows among the men who had gone with David said, "Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil which we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children, and depart." But David said, "You shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us; he has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage; they will share and share alike." And from that day forward he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day."

"All the wicked and base fellows who had gone with David" (1 Samuel 30:22). We believe this to have been a small minority of David's men; and, "Possibly David's question in 1 Samuel 30:24 implies this, `Who (i. e., of the rest of the men who continued) would listen to you in this matter'? The proposal that the two hundred depart apparently meant that they would no longer be allowed to be David's soldiers."[16] Thus that wicked minority in David's men were willing to treat two hundred of their fellow-soldiers just like the cruel Amalekites had treated that Egyptian slave.

"They shall share and share alike" (1 Samuel 30:24). H. P. Smith, and apparently Briggs, classified these words among the almost countless "additions"[17] and "interpolations" they pointed out in First Samuel, but true to the knee-jerk conduct of radical critics, they missed the only expression in the whole paragraph that most probably is an interpolation. As we have frequently pointed out, any expression such as the words, "to this day" should be viewed with suspicion as an addition from some copyist. Caird gives us an excellent example of the critical use of a passage like 1 Samuel 30:25.

"David here initiates a piece of case law, which, once promulgated, became a precedent for all future occasions. This is quite obviously the first time that the question has arisen in Israel, and David's pronouncement is the source and not a repetition of the law found in Numbers 31:27-47."[18] A comment like this has only one purpose, the establishment of the false theory of a late date for the Pentateuch, which is the darling of radical critics. We thank God that a very high ranking scholar in the person of John Willis has effectively denied and refuted such allegations.

"The principle that those who fight must share the spoil with the people appears in Numbers 31:27-47 and in Joshua 22:8. David is not establishing a new law here, but enforcing an earlier law or principle which had been established long before his time."[19]

Thus, Caird's comment that, "This was the first time the question had arisen in Israel," can be explained only as a denial of what God's Word plainly says. Joshua (and he was a long time before David) sent the troops back home with the command that they were to, "Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers"! (Joshua 22:8). It is the apparent implication of 1 Samuel 30:25 that this action of David was some kind of a precedent that strongly supports the proposition that the passage might be an interpolation.

Another very questionable line in 1 Samuel 30:25 is the mention that "from that day" David made it a statute and an ordinance in Israel. Indeed! Indeed! How could an outlaw have done that? David was not yet king, but a fugitive, a vassal of a Philistine overlord; and the proposition that "from that day" David enforced a law over all Israel is simply not true. It was a prior injunction in the Law of Moses that David here honored.