Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Samuel · About this commentary
They Shall Share Alike
1 Samuel 30:16-31
16 When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread around over all the ground, eating, drinking, and dancing, because of all the great plunder that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah. · WEB
Everything recovered, and then a quarrel over the spoils that David settles with a rule Israel keeps for centuries.
Behold, they were spread around over all the ground, eating, drinking, and dancing, because of all the great plunder 1 Samuel 30:16.
The raiders are found mid-celebration, and the attack runs from twilight to the next evening 1 Samuel 30:17. The report is emphatic on the point that matters: there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters 1 Samuel 30:19. The promise had said without fail recover all, and all is what came back.
"Because they didn't go with us, we will not give them anything of the plunder" 1 Samuel 30:22.
Then the ugly moment, and it comes from inside. The four hundred who fought want the two hundred who collapsed at the brook to take their families and go — the logic of pure desert, and the men making the argument are the same men who were weeping in the ashes yesterday. Success sours faster than defeat does.
"Do not do so, my brothers, with that which Yahweh has given to us, who has preserved us" 1 Samuel 30:23.
David's answer overturns the premise before it argues the case. The plunder is not wages earned by the strong; it is a gift from the God who did the preserving, and nobody negotiates the distribution of a gift as though he had produced it. Then the ruling: as his share is who goes down to the battle, so shall his share be who stays with the baggage. They shall share alike 1 Samuel 30:24 — and it becomes a statute and an ordinance for Israel 1 Samuel 30:25, quoted for centuries. The men who guard the gear are in the same battle; a company's reward belongs to the company. The principle outlives its occasion, and Paul's argument about the parts of one body that cannot say they have no need of each other stands on the same ground 1 Corinthians 12:21–25.
"Behold, a present for you from the plunder of Yahweh's enemies" 1 Samuel 30:26.
The closing list of towns is easy to skim and worth reading twice. David sends portions to the elders of Judah — Bethel, Jattir, Eshtemoa, Hebron and a dozen more, all the places that had sheltered him as a fugitive. Two things are happening at once, and the account does not pretend otherwise: real gratitude to people who took real risks, and the careful groundwork of a man about to be offered a throne. Within days Judah will anoint him at Hebron 2 Samuel 2:4, and the elders voting will be holding his gifts.
The same week, on a mountain to the north, the other king is fighting his last battle.
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