1 Samuel 30:3
So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.
The passage stands in 1 Samuel 29 to 31 within the books of Samuel about the establishment of a monarchy, with Samuel, Saul, and David as the three leading characters, tracing the leadership from Eli to Samuel to Saul to David. It belongs to the account of David's battle with the Amalekites before he became king, and his victory there was soon followed by his accession to the kingship of Judah. The raid happened during David's absence while he was away with the Philistine army. When David and his men returned to Ziklag, they found the city burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters taken captive by the Amalekites.
The loss left them in grief and disappointment, overwhelming even strong warriors until they wept till they had no more power to weep. David's own men turned on him as the cause of the calamity and threatened him with death, leaving him cut off from every human support, driven from his country by Saul and from the camp by the Philistines.
The disaster was a seeming misfortune that tested their trust in God. It drove David to review his past life and see his mistake, and he encouraged himself in the Lord, called for the priest to inquire of the Lord, was heard, and was promised deliverance. Following God's direction, the loss prompted them to pursue the raiders and recover everything taken, both the captives and the spoil.