1st Samuel Chapter 30 verse 20 Holy Bible
And David took all the flocks and the herds, `which' they drove before those `other' cattle, and said, This is David's spoil.
read chapter 30 in ASV
And they took all the flocks and herds, and driving them in front of him, said, These are David's.
read chapter 30 in BBE
And David took all the flocks and the herds, [which] they drove before the other cattle, and said, This is David's spoil.
read chapter 30 in DARBY
And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David's spoil.
read chapter 30 in KJV
And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before those other cattle, and said, This is David's spoil.
read chapter 30 in WBT
David took all the flocks and the herds, [which] they drove before those [other] cattle, and said, This is David's spoil.
read chapter 30 in WEB
and David taketh the whole of the flock, and of the herd, they have led on before these cattle, and they say, `This `is' David's spoil.'
read chapter 30 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 20. - This verse, which is made unintelligible in the A.V. by the insertion of the unauthorised word which, is really free from difficulty. After David, as related in vers. 18, 19, had recovered the cattle carried oft by the Amalekites, he also took all the flocks and herds belonging to them; and his own men "made these go in front of that body of cattle, and said, This is David's spoil," i.e. they presented it to him by acclamation. It was this large booty which he distributed among his friends (vers. 26-31). DAVID ENACTS A LAW FOR THE DIVISION OF THE SPOIL (vers. 21-25).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(20) The flocks and the herds, which they drave.--In the English translation the word "which," inserted in italics, obscures the sense; the literal reading is, "And David took all the flocks and the herds; they drove them before their cattle, and said, this is David's spoil." David took, no doubt, by popular acclamation as his share of the plunder, all the flocks and herds belonging to the Amalekites, mostly acquired, no doubt, in the late raid; these were driven in front of "those cattle" thus particularising the cattle of Ziklag belonging to David's own people. Of course, this plunder went back to the original Israelitish owners. The drovers, as they marched behind the vast herds of Amalekite cattle, sung of the prowess of their leader in words long remembered, "See all this. This is David's spoil." It was "these herds"--numerically, probably very great--that David distributed among the friendly cities of the south. (See 1Samuel 30:26; 1Samuel 30:31.) All the other plunder of the camp--arms, accoutrements, ornaments, jewels, camels' cloths, &c.--was divided, as Bishop Hervey well suggests, among the little army. David's motive in choosing the sheep and oxen (for his warriors certainly the least desirable part of the Amalekite possession) is evident from 1Samuel 30:26-31. They were the most acceptable presents he could make to his friends in Judah.
