4. So David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no strength in them to weep.
5. Now David’s two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
6. David was greatly distressed, for the people talked of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in spirit, each over his sons and daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
7. And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Please bring the ephod to me.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.
8. David inquired at the Lord, saying, “Should I pursue after this raiding party? Will I overtake them?”And He answered him, “Pursue them, for you will surely overtake them and will surely recover all.”
9. So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him. And they came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind remained.
10. But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred who were too exhausted to cross over the brook Besor remained behind.
11. They found an Egyptian in the field and took him to David. He gave him bread and he ate, and they made him drink water.
12. And they gave him a part of a cake of figs and two cakes of raisins. When he had eaten, his spirit came back to him, for he had not eaten bread or drunk any water for three days and nights.
13. Then David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?”And 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 raided the south of the Kerethites, the south of Judah, and the south of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag with fire.”
15. David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this raiding party?”And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hand of my master, and I will bring you down to this raiding party.”