1 Chronicleschapter 11
47 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Key verse
These also are the chief of the mighty men whom David had, who strengthened themselves with him in his kingdom, and with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel.
It stands in The three, and water drawn from Bethlehem's well, verses 10 to 25.
The chapter
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
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 11The history
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.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
What it meant to them
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.
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
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- This site's published dossier for 1 Chronicles
Where the chapter sits
1 Chronicles 11 falls in David's reign: temple-framed (chapters 10–29). Saul's death framed as judgment; David's consolidation; the ark brought to Jerusalem; the Davidic covenant (ch. 17); the military victories; the census and the threshing-floor site (ch. 21); temple preparation; Solomon's charge; David's doxology.
Before it: Genealogies from Adam to Saul, chapters 1–9.
The whole shape of 1 Chronicles→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. All Israel anoints David king at Hebronvv. 1-3
gathered themselves to David: Chronicles opens David's reign already unified. The seven years of civil war against Ish-bosheth that fill 2 Sam 2-4 are never retold; all Israel simply comes to Hebron and the elders make a covenant with David there. Verse 3 grounds the anointing not in the tribes' own choice but in the word of the Lord by Samuel, the selection already made at 1 Sam 16 and only now confirmed by the nation.
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
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
B. The stronghold of Zion taken and renamed
1. (vv. 4-6)
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
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
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.”
which is Jebus: Jerusalem falls to David and all Israel together, and the city's older name stands in the text unglossed, Jebus, before it becomes the city of David. Joab earns the captaincy David offered to whoever struck the Jebusites first, and this passage is the only place in Scripture that credits him with the feat; 2 Sam 5:8 records the siege without naming who led it. Chronicles gives Joab, David's own commander for most of the reign, the honor Samuel's account leaves anonymous.
2. (vv. 7-9)
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
they called it the city of David: David's move into the captured stronghold gives it its lasting name, and Joab's building work on Millo and the rest of the city follows in the same two verses. Verse 9 states the reason for all of it plainly, David waxed greater and greater, for the Lord of hosts was with him. The mighty men whose roll begins next verse are named as the visible means the Chronicler credits alongside that unseen cause.
C. The three, and water drawn from Bethlehem's well
1. (v. 10)
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
strengthened themselves with him in his kingdom: The list of mighty men that follows stands in 2 Sam 23:8-39 near the very end of David's reign, an appendix to forty years of history. Chronicles moves the same roll to the front, immediately after Jerusalem is taken, so that the kingdom is shown founded on named faithful men before a single act of the reign is told. Verse 10 states the reason directly: these are the men who strengthened themselves with David in his kingdom, with all Israel, to make him king.
2. (vv. 11-14)
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.”
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.”
against three hundred slain by him at one time: Jashobeam heads the roll with a feat Samuel and Chronicles number differently, three hundred here against eight hundred at 2 Sam 23:8, a variant the bench treats as textual rather than resolves. Eleazar's stand at Pas-dammim, where the army fled and he held a plot of barley alone, parallels 2 Sam 23:9-10 closely enough that the word for barley there is read by some as lentiles, the two Hebrew words being easily confused. The Lord saved them by a great deliverance, verse 14's own verdict on a fight two men held after everyone else ran.
3. (vv. 15-19)
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
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
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
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. With regard to this what was done by King David recurs to my mind, who, when the longed for water from the cistern of Bethlehem, which was wedged in by the enemy, had been brought him by obedient soldiers, said, God forbid that I should drink the blood of righteous men. And, because he poured it out and would not drink it, it is written, He offered it a libation to the Lord. If, then, water was scorned by the armed king, and turned into a sacrifice to God, we may estimate what manner of sacrifice to Almighty God has been offered by the king who for His love has scorned to receive, not water, but gold. Wherefore, most excellent son, I will confidently say that thou hast offered as a libation to the Lord the gold which thou wouldest not have in opposition to Him.”
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
went down to the rock to David: The scene of the three breaking through the Philistine garrison to draw water from the well of Bethlehem is told at length at 2 Sam 23:13-17, where the exposition carries its full weight; here the same words stand almost unchanged. Its placement in Chronicles matters as much as its content: set inside the roll of mighty men before the roll finishes naming them, it gives one concrete picture of what mighty means, men who would risk death for a longing David never spoke as a command. David's refusal to drink it, poured out instead to the Lord, is the only note in this chapter of a king's restraint answering another man's courage.
4. (vv. 20-21)
he was chief of the three: Abishai, Joab's brother, matches Jashobeam's feat against three hundred and stands as chief of the three, but verse 21 marks the line the roll draws with care: honored above the other two, he still did not attain to the first three. Chronicles keeps the ranking Samuel records, a structure of honor within honor rather than one flat list of the mighty.
5. (vv. 22-25)
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
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.”
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
slew two lionlike men of Moab: Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, is the roll's third-ranked man: he kills two lion-like champions of Moab, a lion itself in a pit on a day of snow, and an Egyptian giant of five cubits whom he disarms and kills with the man's own spear. Verse 25 records the reward David gives him, command over his own guard, a position Benaiah still holds at David's death, 1 Ki 1:38, before he inherits Joab's post under Solomon. The Targum reads him as valiant and fearing sin, a righteous man of the second sanctuary, a tradition the bench notes without adopting.
D. The long roll of David's mighty men
1. (vv. 26-31)
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
Asahel the brother of Joab: The roll's third tier, the valiant men of the armies, opens with Asahel, Joab's brother killed years earlier in 2 Sam 2:23, named in the honor roll though already dead when Chronicles was written, and this unit closes with a different Benaiah, the Pirathonite. Chronicles' full list numbers forty-seven names against Samuel's thirty-one at 2 Sam 23:24-39; four names appear only here, five appear only there, and the rest vary enough in spelling that one original list could stand behind both without either being simply wrong.
2. (vv. 32-38)
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.”
of the brooks of Gaash: The names continue in the same terse form Samuel gives them, men marked only by father, hometown or clan: Hurai of the brooks of Gaash, Ahiam the son of Sacar the Hararite, Eliphal the son of Ur. Chronicles keeps the list exactly as a roll of honor rather than a narrative, each name a life the record holds that the story never mentions again.
3. (vv. 39-41)
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
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
the armourbearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah: Naharai carries Joab's armor, and the text never once places Joab's own name in any of the three catalogues of honor, his rank as commander already set above the classes they list. The roll's last parallel name is Uriah the Hittite, whose wife and death fill 2 Sam 11 in ugly detail; Chronicles, which omits David's sin with Bathsheba entirely, still cannot omit Uriah from the honor he earned among the mighty men. The silence around what became of him is the same selective hand that shapes the whole book, working here on a single name inside a list.
4. (vv. 42-47)
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
the son of Shiza the Reubenite: From here to the chapter's end the roll has no parallel in Samuel at all: thirty names stand behind it at verses 26-41, and sixteen more follow that Samuel's list never carried, Chronicles' own addition to the record. The tail draws from beyond Israel's own tribes, Reubenites under Adina's captaincy and Ithmah the Moabite at verse 46 among David's own mighty men. Matthew Henry reads the Moabite's presence in the honor roll as a sign kept for the greater son of David, with him there is neither Greek nor Jew, a use of the verse the page marks as the commentator's own.
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 →
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 exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson Fausset and 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.