six (as an overplus beyond five or the fingers of the h… · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular absolute
hundred
מֵא֥וֹתme.'ot
H3967
a hundred · noun, common feminine plural absolute
men
אִישׁ֙'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
came
וַיָּבֹ֖אוּvai.ya.Vo.'u
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
brook
נַ֣חַלNa.chal
H5158
a stream · noun, common masculine singular construct
Besor
הַבְּשׂ֑וֹרha.be.Sor
H1308
Besor · definite article + proper noun, a place name
behind
וְהַנּֽוֹתָרִ֖יםve.ha.no.ta.Rim
H3498
to jut over or exceed · conjunction + definite article + verb, niphal active participle, masculine plural absolute
stayed
עָמָֽדוּ'a.Ma.du
H5975
to stand · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Samuel 27:2 And David arose, and he passed over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 30:7-20
Solomon observes that the righteous is delivered out of trouble and the wicked cometh in his stead, that the just falleth seven times a-day and riseth again; so it was with David. Many were his troubles, but the Lord delivered him out of them all, and particularly out of this of which we have here an account.
I. He enquired of the Lord both concerning his duty - Shall I pursue after this troop? and concerning the event - Shall I overtake them? Sa1 30:8. It was a great advantage to David that he had the high priest with him and the breast-plate of judgment, which, as a public person, he might consult in all his affairs, Num 27:21. We cannot think that he left Abiathar and the ephod at Ziklag,…
came to the brook Besor--now Wady Gaza, a winter torrent, a little to the south of Gaza. The bank of a stream naturally offered a convenient rest to the soldiers, who, through fatigue, were unable to continue the pursuit.
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 30:9
The brook Besor - This had its source in the mountain of Idumea, and fell into the Mediterranean Sea beyond Gaza. Some suppose it to have been the same with the river of the wilderness, or the river of Egypt. The sense of this and the following verse is, that when they came to the brook Besor, there were found two hundred out of his six hundred men so spent with fatigue that they could proceed no farther. The baggage or stuff was left there, Sa1 30:24, and they were appointed to guard it.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 30:9
So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him,.... Encouraged by the oracle of the Lord:
and came to the brook Besor; which Adrichomius (q) places in the tribe of Simeon; it is thought to be near Gaza. Aristaeus (r) speaks of brooks that flowed by Gaza and Ashdod, places that belonged to the Philistines; some take it to be the river of the wilderness in Amos; see Gill on Amos 6:14,
where those that were left behind stayed: or a part of them were left, as the Targum; all the six hundred came to this brook, but two hundred of them were left here, 1 Samuel 30:10 shows, and stayed here till the rest returned; for this is not to be understood of any that were left behind at Zikla…
The Church Fathers
David himself therefore went, and six hundred men who were with him, etc. The Brook Besor, which is interpreted as announcement or flesh, or the carnal sense of heretics difficult to correct, or signifies the redundancy of secular eloquence, and equally rapid and violent in its flow, not easily overcome except by the most perfect doctors. Therefore our desirable king, truly strong in hand, went to fight by the word of truth against the stubbornness of those erring, he and his chosen ones proved by the integrity of their work and the certainty of their hope, which the number six, by which the Lord completed His works, and one hundred, which in the reckoning first asks for the right hand in confession, clearly denote. Finally, in the hundredth psalm, the distinction of the final judgment, where the hope of all rightly hoping burns, is openly described, where, with mercy and judgment sung, the faithful of the earth and those walking in the immaculate way are by mercy promoted to the seat of eternal blessedness and the ministry of their Redeemer; but all sinners of the earth by the just judgment in the morning of declared action, which had long been hidden, are mentioned to be killed and destroyed from the city of supreme peace. However, while his saints accompany the Lord on the path of truth, when it comes to the point of disputing and overcoming heretics, some often even great men, though not from the purity of believing, yet tired from the skill of speaking, desist. For not all who know how to believe rightly also know how to overcome by reasoning those who think contrary to the right faith. For often the torrent of announcement, or flesh, or their carnal sense, who are unable to grasp spiritual matters, or the urge to pronounce the carnal things they feel stands in the way; which those less skilled may not know how to overcome and, like Elijah or Elisha, break through and disperse by the power of their discretion. This was especially evident in the Nicene Council, where among so many and such great doctors gathered from the whole world, hardly anyone at first, except Athanasius, the deacon of the Church of Alexandria, could be found who knew how to contend with Arius, immediately detect his evasions and deceits, and defeat them. Where a certain pagan philosopher, much armed with Aristotelian arguments, challenging the Christians very frequently, could be…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Amalekites — a nomadic tribe of uncertain origin, which occupied the peninsula of Sinai and the wilderness intervening between the southern hill-ranges of Palestine and the border of Egypt. (Numbers 13:29; 1…
Besor — Cold, a ravine or brook in the extreme south-west of Judah, where 200 of David’s men stayed behind because they were faint, while the other 400 pursued the Amalekites (1 Sam. 30:9, 10, 21). Probably…
Besor, The Brook — (cool), a torrent-bed or wady in the extreme south of Judah. (1 Samuel 30:9,10,21)
Camp — During their journeys across the wilderness, the twelve tribes formed encampments at the different places where they halted (Ex. 16:13; Num. 2:3). The diagram here given shows the position of the…
Encamp — An encampment was the resting-place for a longer or shorter period of an army or company of travellers (Ex. 13:20; 14:19; Josh. 10:5; 11:5). The manner in which the Israelites encamped during their…
Ittai — Near; timely; or, with the Lord. (1.) A Benjamite, one of David’s thirty heroes (2 Sam. 23:29). (2.) A native of Gath, a Philistine, who had apparently the command of the six hundred heroes who…
Jediael — Known by God. (1.) One of the sons of Benjamin, whose descendants numbered 17,200 warriors (1 Chr. 7:6, 10, 11). (2.) A Shimrite, one of David’s bodyguard (1 Chr. 11:45). Probably same as in 12:20.…
Robbery — Practised by the Ishmaelites (Gen. 16:12), the Chaldeans and Sabeans (Job 1:15, 17), and the men of Shechem (Judg. 9:25. See also 1 Sam. 27:6-10; 30; Hos. 4:2; 6:9). Robbers infested Judea in our…
Abiathar · .Consults the ephod for David — .Consults the ephod for David
Abigail · .Taken — .Taken
Amalekites · General references — General references
During David's absence the Amalekites had invaded the south country, smitten Ziklag and burnt it down, and carried off the women and children whom they found there; whereat not only were David and his men plunged into great grief on their return upon the third day but David especially was involved in very great trouble, inasmuch as the people wanted to stone him. But he strengthened himself in the Lord his God (Sa1 30:1-6).
Sa1 30:1-5
Sa1 30:1-4 form one period, which is expanded by the introduction of several circumstantial clauses. The apodosis to "It came to pass, when," etc. (Sa1 30:1), does not follow till Sa1 30:4, "Then David and the people," etc. But this is formally attached to Sa1…
Besor was a large brook in Philistine territory that emptied into the Mediterranean southwest of Gaza.
Rashi on 1 Samuel 30:9
And they came to the Nachal Besor. [The] six hundred men.
Some of them remained behind. When they reached the Nachal Besor, there were among them some who were faint, and some of those remained there.
Brooks · Mentioned in scripture: Besor — Mentioned in scripture: Besor
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
