1 Chronicleschapter 11
47 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Now David had said, “Whoever is the first to strike down a Jebusite will become chief commander.” And Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, and he became the chief.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 1 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for people living in Jerusalem while its walls still lay broken. It tells how the whole nation came to David at Hebron and how he took the city that became his capital. The compiler then lists the warriors who stood with him, rank by rank, each with a line of honour. Listen for how often the chapter says all Israel, and for the story of the water from Bethlehem. The first hearers learned how their ruined city had first been won, and by whom.
Context
- Who
- People living in that same city, inside walls that were still in ruins
- What
- The anointing of David as king over all Israel, the capture of Jerusalem, and the roll of David's mighty men.
- Where
- Hebron in the Judean hills, then the Jebusite stronghold above the Gihon spring in Jerusalem.
- When
- About 1003 BC, at the end of David's seven and a half years at Hebron recorded in 2 Samuel 5:5.
- Why
- To show the whole nation united under David and to honour the men who made his kingdom secure.
Historical context
1 Chronicles names no author, and it names its own sources at 29:29, the histories of Samuel the seer, Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer. The Babylonian Talmud at tractate Bava Batra 15a assigns the book to Ezra the scribe, and C. F. Keil follows that tradition. Sara Japhet, H. G. M. Williamson and Gary Knoppers hold instead that an anonymous writer of the Persian period compiled it. The chapter covers the making of David king over the whole nation, about 1003 BC, a date reckoned from the Hebron figure at 2 Samuel 5:5. The places are Hebron in the Judean hills and the Jebusite stronghold on the narrow spur above the Gihon spring in Jerusalem. A first hearer knew that making a king was a contract, so the elders stated their claim, cited the LORD's word through Samuel, cut a covenant before the LORD, and then anointed him. He knew Jerusalem was chosen because it was hard to take and belonged to no tribe, and that its water came from a spring outside the wall reached by a rock-cut system. Joab is said to have gone up by the watercourse, which many read as that shaft, while others read the Hebrew word as a weapon or a grappling hook. The Millo David repaired is most likely the stepped stone terrace on the eastern slope that held the buildings above it from sliding into the valley. The rest of the chapter is a formal military order with ranks, the Three and then the Thirty, each man carrying his own citation.
Significance
The first hearers lived in that city with its wall still broken, and hearing how it was taken, by whom and at what cost gave a rubble heap a history worth rebuilding. The phrase all Israel is repeated on purpose, because the whole nation made David king. For a province that amounted to one tribe and a half, that was a memory and a claim.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The making of David king has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for this book, and no festival reading.
The corpus joins the chapter to the portion Shemot through Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 7:1, which sits under the second verse, where the tribes tell David that he shepherded Israel before he was king. Shemot is the portion in which Moses is a shepherd before he is a deliverer, and the two callings are read together there. The taking of Jerusalem in the fourth to sixth verses is met in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 36, a work read in the study house rather than in the service, at 36:16, 36:18 and 36:20.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. His note on the second verse turns the tribes' word into an exchange. They tell David that he will shepherd Israel, and Rashi has David answer with the opening of Psalm 23. The shepherding does not rest on him, and the one who shepherds him is the Lord (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:2:1). He sets a second exchange beside it from 2 Samuel, where David is called the lamp of Israel and answers that the Lord is his lamp. The reading makes both titles gifts rather than qualities.
The covenant at Hebron he reads through a later one. David's covenant with the elders is like the covenant Jehoiada made in 2 Kings 11:17. It binds the people to the Lord, and binds king and people to each other, the people to serve and the king to fight their wars (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:3:1). The going to war immediately after the coronation has a reason too. David moved at once so that Israel could not say his victories under Saul had been Saul's luck and that he now feared to fight (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:4:1).
The taking of Jerusalem carries the longest note in the chapter, and it explains a verse this book leaves bare. Rashi fills it from 2 Samuel 5:6, where the Jebusites set blind and lame men at the gate. He reads it as a calculation. They knew they could not hold the city, and they knew a king would find it shameful to fight such men, so they put them in the way to turn him back. David took the tower rather than the gate. The saying about the blind and the lame is read as David's own care not to be spoken of that way (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:5:1). The tradition reads the line as a point of honour rather than as contempt for the men at the gate.
The roll of the mighty men is glossed closely. The word for their rank Rashi takes from Exodus 14:7 (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:11:1). The three named here are two, and he notes that 2 Samuel 23:11 supplies the third, Shammah the son of Agee (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:12:1). Pas-Dammim is the Ephes-Dammim of 1 Samuel 17:1 (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:13:1). The three who broke through were the heads of the thirty (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:15:1). Abishai was chief of those three, and Rashi explains that Joab is left out of the count because the general of the whole army stands above such a list (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:20:1). Of Abishai's own standing he is exact. His heroism equalled two of them and fell short of the three (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:21:1).
Two notes on the water of Bethlehem are worth a reader's time. Rashi reads David's longing plainly, that he wanted the water he had grown up on, since water and air a person is used to do him good (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:17:1). He then tells the story from the opening of Josiphon about a queen who sickened away from her birthplace and was cured by the water of her own country. What the three men did he states without ornament. They risked being killed for the water (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:19:1). The Philistine governor in Bethlehem he places at the start of David's reign, when the Philistines still ruled the land (Rashi on I Chronicles 11:16:1).
The corpus carries seven further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. Six stand cited and unquoted at Metzudat David on I Chronicles 11:1:1, 11:6:1, 11:9:1, 11:10:1, 11:14:1 and 11:24:1, and one at Malbim on I Chronicles 11:7:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries twenty-nine rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the second verse, the shepherd made king, it holds Bereshit Rabbah 59:5, Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 7:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 776:9. On the fourth it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 36:16 and 36:18. On the fifth, the stronghold of Zion, it holds Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 23:18:1 and a passage of Otzar Midrashim from the Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair, at 1:37.
The taking of the city carries the next run. On the sixth verse, where Joab wins the command, the corpus holds Midrash Tehillim 18:23, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 36:20, Sifrei Bamidbar 139:2, Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 27:17:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 776:8. On the eighth, the building of the city, it holds Sanhedrin 49a:16, Jerusalem Talmud Makkot 2:6:8 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 6:20.
The mighty men and the water carry the rest. On the thirteenth verse, the stand in the barley field, it holds Bava Kamma 60b:22, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 2:5:3, Midrash Shmuel 20:1, Ruth Rabbah 5:1 and Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 5:1:1. On the seventeenth, the longing for the water, it holds Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 2:5:4 and 2:6:7, and on the eighteenth, the pouring out of it, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 2:5:6 with Ruth Rabbah (Lerner) 5:1:2. On the twentieth it holds Tractate Soferim 6:6, and on the twenty-first a passage of Otzar Midrashim from the Baraita of Samuel HaKatan at 1:6. On the twenty-second it holds Tractate Soferim 7:2, on the twenty-third Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 95:4, and on the forty-fourth Tractate Soferim 6:7. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Chronicles 11:2:1 to 11:23:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Chronicles 11:1:1, 11:6:1, 11:9:1, 11:10:1, 11:14:1 and 11:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on I Chronicles 11:7:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-chronicles/11.json, the 29 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
All Israel anoints David king at Hebron
1 Chronicles 11:1-3
all Israel came together to David at Hebron: Chronicles opens David's reign already unified. The civil war against Ish-bosheth that fills 2 Samuel 2 to 4 is never retold, and all Israel came to David at Hebron. Verse 3 grounds the anointing in the word of the LORD through Samuel, the choice made at 1 Samuel 16.
1 Chronicles 11:1
“This chapter runs parallel with 2 Sam. 5 as far as 1Ch 11:9, after which it is to be compared with 2 Sam. 23:8-39 as far as 1Ch 11:40, the remainder 1Ch 11:41-47 being an addition, to which Samuel has nothing corresponding. Compare throughout the notes in Samuel.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Chronicles 11:1
“The convention of the estates of the kingdom, the public and solemn homage of the representatives of the people, and the repeated anointing of the new king in their presence and by their direction, seem to have been necessary to the general acknowledgment of the sovereign on the part of the nation (compare 1Sa 11:15).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leading Israel out and bringing them back is the language of a war leader, and David earned it in 1 Samuel 18:13 to 16. David kept his father's sheep (1 Samuel 16:11), and the LORD names him shepherd of His people. Ezekiel 34:23 uses the figure for the coming David.
David made a covenant with: This is David's third anointing: by Samuel in Bethlehem (1 Samuel 16:13), by Judah at Hebron (2 Samuel 2:4), and by all Israel. The clause about the word through Samuel is the Chronicler's own, and 2 Samuel 5:3 ends at the anointing. The covenant bound the king to his people.
1 Chronicles 11:3
“If God had said, David shall rule, it is in vain to oppose it. Men that have long stood in their own light, when they have long wearied themselves with their lying vanities, it is to be hoped, will understand the things that belong to their peace and return to their own mercies. Between prince and people there is an original contract, which both ought religiously to observe.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The stronghold of Zion taken and renamed
1 Chronicles 11:4-6
marched to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus): Jerusalem falls to David, and the text keeps the city's older name, Jebus. Joab son of Zeruiah went up first and won the chief command David had offered. This passage alone credits him with the feat, for 2 Samuel 5:8 records the siege without naming who led it.
1 Chronicles 11:4
“Farewell likewise, grand and renowned temple, our new inheritance, whose greatness is now due to the Word, which once was a Jebus and has now been made by us a Jerusalem.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · The Last Farewell, Oration 42.26patristic
2 Samuel 5:6 to 8 gives the Jebusite taunt about the blind and the lame, and the saying that grew from it. Chronicles keeps only the boast and the capture. Zion names the Jebusite fortress, and the name later spread to the temple mount and the whole city.
1 Chronicles 11:5
“You have a great intellect and an inexhaustible store of language, your diction is fluent and pure, your fluency and purity are mingled with wisdom. Your head is clear and all your senses keen. Were you to add to this wisdom and eloquence a careful study and knowledge of Scripture, I should soon see you holding our citadel against all comers; you would go up with Joab on the roof of Zion and sing on the housetops what you had learned in the secret chambers.”
Jerome · written before 420 · LETTER 58.11patristic
Barnes reads this verse as filling a gap in 2 Samuel 5:8, where the text breaks off. Joab had already led David's men at Gibeon in 2 Samuel 2:13, and this feat wins him the rank of chief over the whole army. Zeruiah was David's sister (1 Chronicles 2:16).
1 Chronicles 11:6
“The narrative here given fills out a manifest defect in 2Sa 5:8 where something has evidently dropped out of the text. The prowess of Joab on this occasion, and the part which he took in the building of the city of David 1Ch 11:8, are known to us only from this passage of Chronicles.”
1 Chronicles 11:7-9
So David took up residence in the fortress: David took up residence in the fortress, and that is why it was called the City of David. Joab restored the rest of the city while David built the city around it. Verse 9 states the reason: David became greater and greater, for the LORD of Hosts was with him.
while Joab restored the rest: The supporting terraces render the Hebrew Millo, the built-up fill that held the city on its ridge. 2 Samuel 5:9 credits David alone with the building. Barnes notes that Joab restored the rest of the city according to this verse alone.
David became greater and greater: 2 Samuel 5:10 closes the capture of Jerusalem the same way. The LORD of Hosts names God as commander of the armies of heaven and of Israel. Henry ties the verse to the list that follows: David was great because great men stood around him.
1 Chronicles 11:9
“David waxed greater and greater, and these were his mighty men. Much of the strength and honour of great men is borrowed from their servants and depends upon them, which cannot but somewhat diminish pomp and power in the opinion of those that are wise. David is great because he has great men about him; take these away, and he is where he was.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The three, and water drawn from Bethlehem's well
these were the chiefs of David’s mighty men: The same roll stands in 2 Samuel 23:8 to 39, near the end of the account of David's reign. Chronicles sets it at the front, after Jerusalem is taken. Verse 10 gives the reason: these men bolstered and strengthened his kingdom, according to the word of the LORD concerning Israel.
1 Chronicles 11:10
“Strengthened themselves - Or “exerted themselves” - “strenuously assisted with all Israel in making David king.” This list of David’s principal heroes belongs, therefore, to his reign at Hebron. In Samuel the list is not given until nearly the end of David’s reign 2 Sam. 23:8-39.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 11:10
“In the original form of the list, and the connection in which it occurs in Samuel, there is no reference to the choice of a king; and even in this passage it is only in the clause introduced into the superscription that such a reference occurs [KEIL].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 11:11-14
against three hundred men: Jashobeam heads the roll with three hundred men killed, against eight hundred at 2 Samuel 23:8, a variant the older commentators treat as textual. Eleazar's stand at Pas-dammim answers to 2 Samuel 23:9 to 10. Verse 14 gives the verdict: the LORD brought about a great victory.
1 Chronicles 11:11
“Jashobeam, an Hachmonite--or, "son of Hachmoni." He is called also son of Zabdiel (1Ch 27:2), so that, strictly speaking, he was the grandson of Hachmoni (compare 1Ch 27:32). lifted up his spear against three hundred slain by him at one time--The feat is said (2Sa 23:8) to have been a slaughter of eight hundred in one day.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
1 Chronicles 11:11
“Slain - By his own hand, five hundred more being slain by others then joining with him, who pursued the victory, both which sums make up the eight hundred, numbered 2 Sam. xxiii, 8. The slaughter of all is justly ascribed to him, because it was the effect of his valour.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Chronicles 11:11
“Chief of the captains - Or, “of the thirty,” according to another and better reading (see 1Ch 11:15, 1Ch 11:25; compare 2Sa 23:8 note). Jashobeam was the commander of the first monthly course of 24,090 soldiers 1Ch 27:2. He is probably the warrior of the name who joined David at Ziklag 1Ch 12:6.”
Eleazar son of Dodo the: 2 Samuel 23:9 to 12 names three men as the Three: Jashobeam, Eleazar and Shammah. Chronicles names only two. The field defended in verses 13 and 14 matches the field Shammah holds in 2 Samuel 23:11 to 12.
He was with David at: Pas-dammim is the Ephes-dammim of 1 Samuel 17:1, where the Philistines camped before David met Goliath. The field grows lentils in 2 Samuel 23:11 and barley here. Barnes explains the difference by the close likeness of the two Hebrew words.
1 Chronicles 11:13
“Compare this passage with 2Sa 23:9-10. Barley - In 2Sa 23:11, “lentiles.” The words for barley and lentils are so similar in the Hebrew that we may fairly explain the diversity by an accidental corruption.”
stationed themselves in the middle: In 2 Samuel 23:12 one man takes his stand in the field, and here the verbs are plural with David beside him. Both accounts give the victory to the LORD.
1 Chronicles 11:15-19
Three of the thirty chief men went down: The Three broke through the Philistine camp to draw water from the well at the gate of Bethlehem, as 2 Samuel 23:13 to 17 tells. They risked their lives for a longing David never gave as a command. David refused to drink it and poured it out to the LORD.
1 Chronicles 11:15
“It is probable that, when uttering the wish, David had no recollection of the military posted at Beth-lehem. It is generally taken for granted that those who fought a way to the well of Beth-lehem were the three champions just mentioned [see on 1Ch 11:13]. But this is far from being clear.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
David was in the stronghold: The stronghold is David's refuge near the cave of Adullam named in verse 15, where he gathered his followers in 1 Samuel 22:1 to 4. A Philistine garrison held Bethlehem, David's own town.
David longed for water and: Bethlehem was David's hometown, and the well by its gate belonged to the town of his youth. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that David spoke the wish without thinking of the Philistine garrison posted there. He gave no order.
1 Chronicles 11:17
“David longed - See the notes on 2Sa 23:15-17 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 11:17
“The observance of Lent becomes not the curbing of old passions but an opportunity for new pleasures. Take measures in advance with as much diligence as possible to prevent these attitudes from creeping on you. Let frugality be joined to fasting. As satisfying the stomach is to be censured, so stimulants of the appetite must be eliminated. It is not that certain kinds of food are to be detested but that bodily pleasure is to be checked.… And holy King David repented of having excessively desired water.”
Augustine of Hippo · written before 430 · SERMON 207.2patristic
he poured it out to: The poured water becomes a drink offering to the LORD. Gregory the Dialogist reads the act as penance: having taken what was unlawful, David refused even what was lawful. Henry sees a king who would not spend his men's lives cheaply.
1 Chronicles 11:18
“But David, who had taken to himself another man's wife, and had been sorely scourged for his fault, desired long afterwards to drink water from the cistern of Bethlehem; which when his bravest soldiers had brought to him, he refused to drink it, and poured it out as a libation to the Lord. For it was lawful for him to drink it, had he been so minded; but, because he remembered having done what was unlawful, he laudably abstained even from what was lawful.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Register of Epistles, Book 11, Epistle 45patristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 11:18
“It put him into the greatest confusion imaginable to think that three brave men should hazard their lives to fetch water for him. In his account it turns the water into blood. It is the honour of great men not to be prodigal of the blood of those they employ, but, in all the commands they give them, to put their own souls into their souls' stead.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
drink the blood of these: The law gave blood to God alone and told Israel to pour it out on the ground (Deuteronomy 12:16). David counts the water as the men's blood and gives it the treatment the law gives blood. Henry puts it that David's reckoning turns the water into blood.
1 Chronicles 11:19
“I must tell you that I have been led to praise God the more for your work by what I have learnt from the report of my most beloved son Probinus the presbyter; namely that, your Excellency having issued a certain ordinance against the perfidy of the Jews, those to whom it related attempted to bend the rectitude of your mind by offering a sum of money; which your Excellency scorned, and, seeking to satisfy the judgment of Almighty God, preferred innocence to gold.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Register of Epistles, Book 9, Epistle 122patristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 11:19
“Shall I drink the blood, &c. - It put him into the utmost confusion, to think three brave men should hazard their lives, to fetch water for him. In his account, it turns the water into blood. It is to the honour of great men, not to be prodigal of the blood of those they employ.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Chronicles 11:20-21
was chief of the Three: Abishai, the brother of Joab, was chief of the Three, and he lifted his spear against three hundred men, matching Jashobeam's feat in verse 11. Verse 21 marks the line the roll draws: he was doubly honored above the Three, even though he was not included among the Three.
He was doubly honored above: Abishai's rank rests on a long record at David's side. He went with David into Saul's camp (1 Samuel 26:6 to 9) and saved him from the giant Ishbi-benob (2 Samuel 21:16 to 17). Chronicles credits him with 18,000 Edomites in 1 Chronicles 18:12.
1 Chronicles 11:22-25
He struck down two champions of Moab: Benaiah struck down two champions of Moab, killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day, and killed an Egyptian. David appointed him over his guard before he took Joab's post under Solomon. The Targum reads him as valiant and fearing sin, a righteous man of the second sanctuary.
1 Chronicles 11:22
“Benaiah - slew two lion-like men of Moab - The Targum says, “Benaiah was a valiant man, fearing sin, and of a righteous conduct in Kabzeel; he slew two of the nobles of Moab, who were like two strong lions. He was a great and righteous man as any in the second sanctuary.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
He also killed an Egyptian: 2 Samuel 23:21 describes the Egyptian only as imposing, and Chronicles adds his height of five cubits, and his spear like a weaver's beam. The same comparison describes Goliath's spear in 1 Samuel 17:7. Benaiah wins with the giant's own weapon.
1 Chronicles 11:23
“Plucked the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and slew him with his own spear - See the note on 2Sa 23:21.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 11:23
“Five cubits high - About 7 ft. 6 in. high. The height is not so great as that recorded of other giants.”
These were the exploits of: Benaiah outlived David's reign in high office. He backed Solomon's accession, and Solomon later made him commander of the army in Joab's place (1 Kings 1:38 and 2:35). His father Jehoiada was a priest, according to 1 Chronicles 27:5.
David appointed him over his: The guard was the royal bodyguard, the Cherethites and Pelethites whom Benaiah commands in 1 Chronicles 18:17. Those names are usually taken as Cretans and Philistines, foreign soldiers bound to the king. 2 Samuel 23:23 gives the same appointment.
1 Chronicles 11:25
“David set him over his guard - “Made him chief ruler over his disciples.” - T. For other particulars, see the notes on the parallel places, where the subject is farther considered.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The long roll of David's mighty men
1 Chronicles 11:26-31
Asahel the brother of Joab: The roll opens with Asahel the brother of Joab, killed in 2 Samuel 2:23. Chronicles' list numbers forty-seven names against Samuel's thirty-one at 2 Samuel 23:24 to 39. Four names appear only here and five only there, and the rest vary enough that one original list could stand behind both.
1 Chronicles 11:26
“Also the valiant men of the armies--This was the third degree of military rank, and Asahel was their chief; the names of few of those mentioned are historically known.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Shammoth the Harorite: and Helez the Pelonite are the third and fourth of the mighty men in the list from verse 26. In 2 Samuel 23:25 to 26 the names read Shammah the Harodite and Helez the Paltite, with Elika between them. Chronicles has no Elika.
Ira son of Ikkesh the: Tekoa in Judah was the home of Amos (Amos 1:1). The Anathothite came from Anathoth in Benjamin, the priests' town where Jeremiah was born (Jeremiah 1:1). Ira son of Ikkesh and Abiezer each commanded a division of David's army.
Sibbecai the Hushathite: 2 Samuel 23:27 to 28 has Mebunnai where Chronicles has Sibbecai, and Zalmon for Ilai. Sibbecai killed a descendant of the giants in 1 Chronicles 20:4. Ilai shares the Ahohite clan with Eleazar of verse 12.
Maharai the Netophathite: Netophah was a town near Bethlehem, paired with it in Nehemiah 7:26. Both men command monthly divisions in 1 Chronicles 27:13 and 15, where Heled appears as Heldai. 2 Samuel 23:29 spells him Heleb.
Ithai son of Ribai from: Ithai came from Saul's own town, Gibeah of Benjamin. Benaiah the Pirathonite came from Pirathon in Ephraim, home of the judge Abdon in Judges 12:13 to 15. He commands the division of the eleventh month in 1 Chronicles 27:14.
1 Chronicles 11:32-38
Hurai from the brooks of Gaash: The names continue in the same terse form Samuel gives them. Each man is marked only by father, hometown or clan, as in Hurai from the brooks of Gaash and Ahiam son of Sachar the Hararite. Chronicles keeps the list as a roll of honor.
Azmaveth the Baharumite: Baharumite is usually read as a man of Bahurim, the Benjamite village where Shimei cursed David (2 Samuel 16:5). 2 Samuel 23:31 spells the name Barhumite. Shaalbim was a town in the allotment of Dan that the Amorites held for a time (Judges 1:35).
the sons of Hashem the: Barnes finds the sons of Hashem impossible in a list of single warriors. He reads it with the sons of Jashen in 2 Samuel 23:32 as the trace of one man's name, now lost. The Gizonite appears nowhere else in Scripture.
1 Chronicles 11:34
“The sons of Hashem - It is impossible that this can be the true reading, since an individual warrior must be spoken of. Comparing 2Sa 23:32, perhaps the most probable conjecture is that the “Beni-Hashem” of Chronicles and the “Beni Jashen” of Samuel alike conceal some single name of a man which cannot now be recovered.”
Ahiam son of Sachar the: 2 Samuel 23:33 to 34 names Ahiam's father Sharar, and Eliphal appears there as Eliphelet son of Ahasbai the Maacathite. Maacah was a small Aramean kingdom north of Bashan (2 Samuel 10:6). The two lists often differ in fathers' names.
Hepher the Mecherathite: 2 Samuel 23:34 names Eliam son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, and Chronicles has Hepher and Ahijah in this part of the list. Ahithophel was David's counselor who joined Absalom's revolt (2 Samuel 15:12). Mecherathite appears nowhere else.
Hezro the Carmelite: came from Carmel in the hill country of Judah, the town of Nabal (1 Samuel 25:2). 2 Samuel 23:35 lists the second of these mighty men as Paarai the Arbite. Naarai and Paarai differ by one Hebrew letter.
Joel the brother of Nathan: 2 Samuel 23:36 reads Igal son of Nathan of Zobah and Bani the Gadite. Son of Hagri and the Gadite look alike in Hebrew. Zobah was an Aramean kingdom that David later defeated (1 Chronicles 18:3).
1 Chronicles 11:39-41
the armor-bearer of Joab son of Zeruiah: Naharai the Beerothite was the armor-bearer of Joab, and Joab stands in none of the ranks. The last name the roll shares with Samuel is Uriah the Hittite, whose wife and death fill 2 Samuel 11. Chronicles omits David's sin with Bathsheba, yet it keeps Uriah among the mighty men.
1 Chronicles 11:39
“Naharai--armorbearer to Joab (2Sa 23:37). The non-occurrence of Joab's name in any of the three catalogues is most probably to be accounted for by the circumstance that his office as commander-in-chief raised him to a position superior to all these orders of military knighthood.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ira the Ithrite: The Ithrites were a clan of Kiriath-jearim in Judah, listed in 1 Chronicles 2:53. Two men of one clan stand side by side. This Ira is a different man from Ira son of Ikkesh in verse 28.
Uriah the Hittite: Uriah is the last name in 2 Samuel 23:39, and Wesley marks the names after him as men of valour added from outside the thirty. Chronicles omits David's sin against Uriah in 2 Samuel 11. Zabad opens the sixteen names Jamieson, Fausset and Brown count as unique to Chronicles.
1 Chronicles 11:41
“The number of the names at 1Ch 11:26-41 (exclusive of Asahel and Uriah, who were dead) is thirty, and at 1Ch 11:41-47 is sixteen--making together forty-eight (see on 1Ch 27:1-34).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 11:41
“Uriah - The last of that catalogue in 2 Sam. xxiii, 39. But here some others are added to the number, because though they were not of the thirty, yet they were men of great valour and renown amongst David's commanders.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Chronicles 11:42-47
Adina son of Shiza the Reubenite: From here to the end of the chapter the roll has no parallel in Samuel, and these names are Chronicles' own addition. They include Adina son of Shiza the Reubenite, chief of the Reubenites, and the thirty with him. Ithmah the Moabite stands among them in verse 46.
Hanan son of Maacah: The added names lean to the lands east of the Jordan: a Reubenite chief in verse 42, men of Ashtaroth and Aroer, and a Moabite. Maacah is read as Hanan's parent or as the small region north of Bashan. Mithnite appears only here.
Uzzia the Ashterathite: Ashtaroth was Og's royal city in Bashan (Deuteronomy 1:4), later given to the clans of Machir son of Manasseh (Joshua 13:31). Aroer names more than one town, and the Reubenite Aroer on the Arnon appears in 1 Chronicles 5:8. Hotham's two sons served together.
Jediael son of Shimri and: Jediael and Joha are one of three pairs of brothers in these closing verses, with the sons of Hotham and the sons of Elnaam. Tizite appears nowhere else in Scripture. A Jediael of Manasseh joins David at Ziklag in 1 Chronicles 12:20.
Ithmah the Moabite: stands in David's roll though Deuteronomy 23:3 barred Moabites from the assembly of the LORD. Henry reads his place as a sign that the Son of David would have Gentiles among His worthies. David's great-grandmother Ruth was a Moabite (Ruth 4:13 to 17).
1 Chronicles 11:46
“These, it is likely, had approved themselves so hearty for the interest of Israel that in their case it was thought fit to dispense with that law, and the rather because it was an indication that the Son of David would have worthies among the Gentiles: with him there is neither Greek nor Jew.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Eliel, Obed, and Jaasiel: 2 Samuel 23:39 closes its roll with a total of thirty-seven, and the Chronicler's longer roll ends on these three names. Mezobaite appears only here in Scripture. The next chapter lists more men who joined David before he became king.
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative and roll of honour, a coronation and a capture followed by a formal military register, as table classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The roll in three tiers, honour inside honour | The register runs the Three at verses 11 to 14, then Abishai and Benaiah at verses 20 to 25, then the valiant men of the armies from verse 26. Verse 21 draws the line with care, that Abishai was honoured above the other two and still did not attain to the first three. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown name the last group as the third degree of military rank. The site's published exposition reads the whole as a structure of honour within honour rather than one flat list.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on 1 Chronicles 11:26. | 1 Chronicles 11:11, 1 Chronicles 11:21, 1 Chronicles 11:26 |
| The unseen cause and the named means, set side by side | Verse 9 gives the reason for everything the chapter has told so far, that David grew greater and greater because the LORD of hosts was with him. Verse 10 opens the roll of the men who strengthened themselves with him to make him king. The site's published exposition reads the mighty men as the visible means the writer credits alongside that unseen cause, and the two verses stand next to each other so the reader takes both. | 1 Chronicles 11:9, 1 Chronicles 11:10 |
| Jebus, and then the city of David | Verse 4 carries the city's older name in the text unglossed, Jerusalem which is Jebus, and verse 7 records that David lived in the stronghold and therefore they called it the city of David. The place is named twice in four verses and the name changes with the owner. Gregory of Nazianzus takes up the same turn in his farewell oration, that what was once a Jebus has now been made a Jerusalem. | 1 Chronicles 11:4, 1 Chronicles 11:5, 1 Chronicles 11:7 |
The numbers that differ between the two accounts
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
Jashobeam heads the roll with a feat the two books number differently, three hundred slain at one time here against eight hundred at 2 Samuel 23:8. The site's published exposition treats the difference as textual rather than resolving it. John Wesley offers a reading in which five hundred more were slain by others who joined the pursuit, so that the whole slaughter is justly credited to the man who began it. Albert Barnes prefers the reading chief of the thirty over chief of the captains, and identifies Jashobeam as the commander of the first monthly course at 1 Chronicles 27:2.
The dossier for this book carries the size of the numbers as one of its six contested points, with three positions named. C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch and the conservative tradition following them read copying damage in the Hebrew numeral notation, noting that numbers were the most fragile element in ancient copying. John Wenham, in "Large Numbers in the Old Testament", Tyndale Bulletin 18, 1967, reads the Hebrew word eleph as a unit or a clan rather than always a literal thousand. A third position reads vast round totals as the ordinary ancient way of stating magnitude. The page states no verdict.
Barley or lentils, and the names that vary
Eleazar's stand at Pas-dammim parallels 2 Samuel 23:9 and 23:10 closely, and the crop differs between them. Albert Barnes reads barley here and lentils there, and explains the divergence by the closeness of the two Hebrew words, which he takes as an accidental corruption.
The roll's names vary in the same way. Albert Barnes counts forty-seven names in this account against thirty-one at 2 Samuel 23:24 to 39. He records that four names stand only here and five only there, and that the rest vary enough in spelling for one original list to stand behind both. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown count differently, thirty names at verses 26 to 41 and sixteen more at verses 41 to 47, which they make forty-eight together. Both counts are printed here because they were reached by different men on different boundaries.
Two names the roll handles carefully
Joab's own name stands in none of the three catalogues of honour. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown account for the absence by his office as commander in chief, which set him above the classes the lists name.
Uriah the Hittite is the last of the names this account shares with Samuel. His wife and his death fill 2 Samuel 11. This book omits David's sin with Bathsheba entirely and still keeps Uriah in the honour he earned. The site's published exposition reads the silence around what became of him as the same selective hand that shapes the whole book, working here on a single name inside a list.
The ground under verses 4 to 9
The dossier for this book carries the Stepped Stone Structure and the Large Stone Structure in the City of David, excavated by Kathleen Kenyon in the 1960s and by Eilat Mazar from 2005. It records massive terracing and a large public building on the ridge above the Gihon spring, in the oldest inhabited part of Jerusalem. Mazar identified the building as David's palace, and other archaeologists date the remains later. The dossier names this site as the ground verses 4 to 9 describe David taking.
The same section carries the Tel Dan Stele, an Aramaic victory inscription of about 840 to 835 BC found by the Tel Dan expedition under Avraham Biran, which names the house of David. It carries Khirbet Qeiyafa, excavated by Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor between 2007 and 2013 and radiocarbon dated by its excavators to roughly 1020 to 980 BC. It states that the dating and the identification are both contested and the argument live. A reader who wants the finds argued should open that section rather than take them from this row.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, on 1 Chronicles 11:1; This site's published book guide, src/components/book/guides/1-chronicles/Book1ChroniclesGuide.tsx, the BANDS table, the band "Saul's End, David's Rise" at 10:1 to 12:40 and This site's published book sections table, src/lib/bible/book-sections.ts, the entry "1 Chronicles": "history".
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Berean Standard Bible; Gregory the Dialogist, Register of Epistles, Book 11, Epistle 45; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.