Victory and Defeat: 30:1–5 Although a small group could have traveled more quickly, it took David’s army of about six hundred men three days to travel the fifty or so miles back to Ziklag. They almost certainly would have been away for at least a week, leaving plenty of time for the Amalekites to take advantage of their absence. David’s previous activities against groups including the Amalekites (27:8) must have been noted, but his policy of destruction meant that there was no evidence against him. This attack on Ziklag appears to be opportunistic rather than special vengeance. The writers note that although all the women and children had been captured, no one had been killed. The approach of the Amalekite army was rather more forbearing than that of David’s troops, which indicates that th…