1 Chronicleschapter 11
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Speaks with:2 Samuel 23×181 Chronicles 27×82 Samuel 5×4Joshua 15×41 Samuel 17×41 Chronicles 11×3
Summary
Chapter summary
All Israel gathers to David at Hebron ('Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh') and anoints him king according to the word of Jehovah by Samuel. He takes the stronghold of Zion, Joab going up first and becoming chief; David dwells in the castle, 'and he waxed greater and greater, for Jehovah of hosts was with him.' The rest is the roll of the mighty men: Jashobeam who lifted his spear against three hundred, Eleazar standing in a plot of barley, the three who broke through the Philistine host for water from the well of Bethlehem, which David refused to drink and poured out unto Jehovah, and Benaiah who slew a lion in a pit in time of snow.
Context
History · Ezra — 1 Chronicles overview
- A. 1–3 All Israel anoints David king at Hebron
- B. 4–9 The stronghold of Zion taken and renamed
- C. 10–25 The three, and water drawn from Bethlehem's well
- D. 26–47 The long roll of David's mighty men
The outline
A.All Israel anoints David king at Hebronvv. 1 to 3
Read vv. 1 to 3 →B.The stronghold of Zion taken and renamedvv. 4 to 9
Read vv. 4 to 9 →C.The three, and water drawn from Bethlehem's wellvv. 10 to 25
Read vv. 10 to 25 →D.The long roll of David's mighty menvv. 26 to 47
Read vv. 26 to 47 →
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 11The history
Making a king was a contract. The elders of all Israel came to Hebron, stated their claim ('we are your bone and your flesh'), cited the LORD's word through Samuel, cut a covenant with David before the LORD, and then anointed him. Anointing was the signing; the covenant was the deal.
Jerusalem was chosen because it was almost impossible to take and belonged to no tribe. The old city sat on a narrow spur with steep valleys on two sides, and its water came from the Gihon spring outside the wall — reached from inside by a rock-cut system that has been excavated. Joab is said to have gone up by the 'watercourse,' which many read as that shaft; others read the Hebrew word as a weapon or grappling hook. The text does not settle it.
The Millo, which David repaired, is most likely the huge stepped stone terrace on the eastern slope that held the buildings above from sliding into the valley — engineering, not decoration.
The rest of the chapter is a formal military order, with ranks: the Three, then the Thirty, each man with his citation. The story of the well by the gate of Bethlehem shows what such men were for — three of them broke through a Philistine garrison for a drink of water, and David refused it and poured it out on the ground as an offering, because it was bought with the price of blood.
What it meant to them
The first hearers lived in that city with its wall still broken. Hearing how it was taken, and by whom, and at what cost, gave a rubble heap a history worth rebuilding.
And the phrase 'all Israel' is repeated on purpose. The whole nation made David king. For a province that was one tribe and a half, that was a memory and a claim.
Sources cited
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 1 Chronicles 11. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.