7 David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Please bring me here the ephod.”
Abiathar brought the ephod to David. 8 David inquired of Yahweh, saying, “If I pursue after this troop, shall I overtake them?”
He answered him, “Pursue; for you shall surely overtake them, and shall without fail recover all.” 9 So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed. 10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind, who were so faint that they couldn’t go over the brook Besor. 11 They found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he ate; and they gave him water to drink. 12 They gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins. 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. 13 David asked him, “To whom do you belong? Where are you from?”
He said, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick. 14 We made a raid on the South of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on the South of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.” 15 David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this troop?”
He said, “Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me, nor deliver me up into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this troop.”
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Samuel 30:7-15
Commentary on 1 Samuel 30:7-15
(Read 1 Samuel 30:7-15)
If in all our ways, even when, as in this case, there can be no doubt they are just, we acknowledge God, we may expect that he will direct our steps, as he did those of David. David, in tenderness to his men, would by no means urge them beyond their strength. The Son of David thus considers the frames of his followers, who are not all alike strong and vigorous in their spiritual pursuits and conflicts; but, where we are weak, there he is kind; nay more, there he is strong, 2 Corinthians 12:9,10. A poor Egyptian lad, scarcely alive, is made the means of a great deal of good to David. Justly did Providence make this poor servant, who was basely used by his master, an instrument in the destruction of the Amalekites; for God hears the cry of the oppressed. Those are unworthy the name of true Israelites, who shut up their compassion from persons in distress. We should neither do an injury nor deny a kindness to any man; some time or other it may be in the power of the lowest to return a kindness or an injury.