15. And Dawiḏ said to him, “Could you bring me down to this marauding band?” And he said, “Swear to me by Elohim that you neither kill me nor surrender me into the hands of my master, then I bring you down to this marauding band.”
16. And he brought him down and saw they were spread out over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Yehuḏah.
17. And Dawiḏ smote them from twilight until the evening of the next day. And none of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled.
18. And Dawiḏ rescued all that the Amalĕqites had taken. Dawiḏ also rescued his two wives.
19. And there was none missing to them, whether small or great, whether sons or daughters, or spoil or whatever they had taken from them. Dawiḏ recovered all.
20. Besides, Dawiḏ captured all the flocks and herds they had driven before those livestock, and they said, “This is Dawiḏ’s spoil.”
21. And Dawiḏ came to the two hundred men who were too faint to follow Dawiḏ, who had also been left at the wadi Besor. And they went out to meet Dawiḏ and to meet the people who were with him. And when Dawiḏ came near the people, he greeted them.
22. And all the evil and worthless men of those who went with Dawiḏ answered and said, “Because they did not go with us, we do not give them any of the spoil that we have rescued, except for every man’s wife and children, and let them take them and go.”
23. But Dawiḏ said, “My brothers, do not do so with what יהוה has given us, who has protected us and gave into our hand the band that came against us.
24. “And who would listen to you in this matter? For as his portion is who goes down to the battle, so is his portion who remains with the baggage, they share alike.”
25. And it came to be, from that day forward, he appointed it for a law and a right-ruling for Yisra’ĕl to this day.
26. And when Dawiḏ came to Tsiqlag̅, he sent some of the spoil to the elders of Yehuḏah, to his friends, saying, “Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of יהוה,”
27. to those in Bĕyth Ěl, and to those in Ramoth of the South, and to those in Yattir,