1 Samuel 30:12

a piece of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins. So he ate and was revived, for he had not had any food or water for three days and three nights.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — David’s men have located a starving Egyptian slave in the field and are administering water and food to him. The moment occurs immediately after the men bring the man to camp and before David interrogates him about his master and origin.

The words — The text records that he ate (וַ/יֹּ֔אכַל, va/i.Yo.khal) and his spirit returned (וַ/תָּ֥שָׁב רוּח֖/וֹ, va./Ta.shov ru.Ch/o) after consuming a fig cake (פֶ֨לַח דְּבֵלָ֜ה, Fe.lach de.ve.Lah) and two clusters of raisins. These terms describe the physical restoration of his vitality rather than a metaphorical renewal.

The thread — This pattern of physical sustenance reversing extreme depletion appears in Judges 15:19 when Samson drinks from a hollow place and in 1 Samuel 14:27 when Jonathan eats honey and regains strength. Each passage documents a leader recovering from exhaustion through direct nourishment before resuming activity.

Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that human weakness requires concrete provision before any further action or revelation is possible. It establishes that physical revival precedes the disclosure of strategic information.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.

Cross-references

Judges 15:19 So God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he was revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, and it remains in Lehi to this day.
1 Samuel 14:27 Jonathan, however, had not heard that his father had bound the people with the oath. So he reached out the end of the staff in his hand, dipped it into the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes brightened.
1 Samuel 30:13 Then David asked him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” “I am an Egyptian,” he replied, “the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me three days ago when I fell ill.
Esther 4:16 “Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!”
Isaiah 40:29 He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak.
Jonah 1:17 Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
Matthew 27:63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while He was alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’