2 Samuel23chapter 23

2 Samuel 23:8-12

These be the names of the mighty men: The kingdom was won by named men, and the book writes their names down before it closes. The first three carry one refrain, the LORD wrought a great victory, said over Eleazar whose hand clave unto the sword and over Shammah who held a lentil field alone, so the roll of heroes credits God in its own words. The exploits are told without ornament: a weary hand, a bean patch, and the people returning only to spoil.

Albert Barnes shows that the parallel in 1 Chronicles 11 has lost the words from here to the troop of verse 11, which gives Shammah's victory to Eleazar and drops Shammah. The Samuel list is the fuller one. Matthew Henry notes that several of these men later led David's monthly courses at 1 Chronicles 27.

His hand stuck to his sword in a cramped grip. Matthew Henry observes that troops who leave the field when work is to be done return when there is plunder to take. Charles Spurgeon notes that these mighty men joined David when he was counted an outlaw and stayed faithful all their lives.

The parallel at 1 Chronicles 11:13 has a field full of barley, and Adam Clarke suspects a copyist confused the two Hebrew words. Others, Clarke notes, think the field held both crops and the Philistines banded together to plunder it. Albert Barnes takes Hararite to mean mountaineer.

Matthew Henry holds that the annals record more of David's blemishes than his glories after Uriah, so his reign was greater than it appears. He gives the praise for the victory to God, since these men fought and God wrought it. Shammah held one field.

2 Samuel 23:13-17

came to David in the harvest time: The scene is set in the outlaw years, the cave of Adullam, with a Philistine garrison holding Bethlehem and their troop camped in the valley of Rephaim, the valley that bears the giants' name. David speaks a longing for the water of his home well and three men treat it as an order, breaking through the host to draw it. He will not drink what cost blood to fetch and pours it out unto the LORD, the only offering fit for a devotion that great, and the older writers read the scene as the measure of what his men would do for him unasked.

the garrison of the Philistines: John Gill reports two views of the stronghold: Josephus placed it at Zion, and others place it on a rock near the cave of Adullam, as 1 Chronicles 11:15 suggests. Albert Barnes reads the garrison as a sign of Philistine strength. They held a post deep inside Judah.

Matthew Henry places the scene at harvest, with David longing for the water he drank as a boy in Bethlehem. John Wesley hears a wish with no order in it. Albert Barnes reports a cistern north of Bethlehem that monks called the well of David.

John Wesley reads it as a drink offering. Albert Barnes notes that the road from Adullam to Bethlehem crossed the Valley of Rephaim, where the Philistine camp stood. Gregory the Dialogist reads David, taught by earlier chastening, reproaching himself for a wish that put his three mighty men in danger.

the blood of the men: Matthew Henry ties the act to the law of blood: if the water was these men's blood, it belonged to God, for the blood was always His (Leviticus 17:11). The water became an offering. Augustine of Hippo cites David's blame of his own craving for water in his lessons on desire.

2 Samuel 23:18-19

Abishai, the brother of Joab: Abishai heads the second rank of three, honourable above the thirty and short of the first three, and the list says both without embarrassment. Joab himself, commander of the whole army, appears in this roll only as his brothers' relative and his armourbearer's master, and the narrator leaves that silence unexplained.

Albert Barnes reads two triads here, the first of Jashobeam, Eleazar and Shammah, and a second headed by Abishai, though only five names are given. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown fill the second triad with Abishai, Benaiah and Asahel. Abishai led the lower rank.

2 Samuel 23:20-23

the son of a valiant man, of Kabzeel: Benaiah's three exploits are a soldier's resume told in one breath: two lionlike men of Moab, a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow, and an Egyptian disarmed with a staff and killed with his own spear, the enemy's weapon turned as Goliath's sword was. David set him over his guard, and under Solomon he rises to command the whole host in Joab's place at 1 Kings 2:35. The list is also a preview of the next reign for those reading on.

with his own spear: The parallel at 1 Chronicles 11:23 gives the height of this huge Egyptian as five cubits, which Adam Clarke reckons at about seven feet six inches. Clarke adds that he had seen a man armed only with a staff beat the weapon from a soldier's hand. The club of Benaiah was a real defence against a spear.

John Gill names the second three as Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Abishai and Asahel, the same grouping Jamieson, Fausset and Brown give. Gill reports the view of Abarbinel that the third was Adina the Reubenite of 1 Chronicles 11:42. The roll leaves the third without a name.

David appointed Benaiah, most honored among the Thirty, over what the Hebrew calls his hearing. John Gill takes it as the guard of David, the Cherethites and Pelethites who heard and obeyed. Albert Barnes and Adam Clarke read a seat on the council.

2 Samuel 23:24-38

Asahel the brother of Joab: The thirty are given as names and towns, and the roll keeps its dead: Asahel has been in his grave since Abner killed him at 2:23, and he stands first. The company is wider than Israel, with Zelek the Ammonite and Uriah's fellow foreigners on equal footing, drawn from the men who gathered to David in the cave days. At verse 34 stands Eliam the son of Ahithophel, and since Bathsheba is called the daughter of Eliam at 11:3, some draw the line that makes Ahithophel her grandfather; it is an inference from two verses, and the page says so.

Shammah the Harodite: The parallel at 1 Chronicles 11:27 spells the name Harorite, and John Gill explains that the Hebrew letters for R and D are confused. Gill places both Harodites, Shammah and Elika, at Harod, near the spring where Gideon camped at Judges 7:1. John Wesley notes that Chronicles lists more names of mighty men.

John Gill notes that 1 Chronicles 11:27 calls Helez the Pelonite where this roll has Helez the Paltite. Ira son of Ikkesh came from Tekoa, the town of the prophet Amos, which Gill places about twelve miles from Jerusalem and calls famous for oil. Tekoa also sent the wise woman of 14:2.

Abiezer the Anathothite, one of the Thirty, was from Anathoth, a Levite town of Benjamin and the home of Jeremiah. John Gill identifies Mebunnai the Hushathite with Sibbecai of 1 Chronicles 11:29, who killed a giant at 21:18. Gill traces the Hushathites to Hushah of Judah.

Maharai the Netophathite: John Gill identifies Zalmon with Ilai of 1 Chronicles 11:29, of the Ahohite family that also produced Eleazar in verse 9. Netophah lay near Bethlehem, and Nehemiah 7:26 lists the two together. Maharai was a neighbour of David's own town.

Gibeah was Saul's own town, and John Gill notes that naming it keeps this Ittai apart from Ittai the Gittite of 15:19. A man from Saul's home served among David's thirty. The King James spells the first name Heleb, and Gill cites the form Heled at 1 Chronicles 11:30.

Pirathon was in Ephraim, the town of the judge Abdon at Judges 12:15. Mount Gaash, where Joshua was buried at Joshua 24:30, was also in Ephraim, and John Gill places the brooks near it. Chronicles names Hiddai as Hurai.

Azmaveth the Barhumite: John Gill reads Barhumite as Bahurim with two letters transposed. Bahurim was the Benjamite town where Shimei cursed David at 16:5, so this soldier came from hostile ground. Gill also notes that Chronicles calls Abi-albon by the name Abiel.

the sons of Jashen: Eliahba the Shaalbonite came from Shaalbon in the tribe of Dan. The parallel at 1 Chronicles 11:34 reads the sons of Hashem the Gizonite. John Gill explains that the sons of Jashen can name a single man, as the sons of Dan at Genesis 46:23 name only Hushim.

The Targum reads Hararite as a man of the hill country, and John Gill reports that the Arabic and Syriac versions place him on the Mount of Olives. Chronicles names Ahiam's father Sacar. Two Hararites stand in one line.

John Gill reports that the Jews held this Eliam to be Bathsheba's father, and that Hillerus identified him with Ahijah the Pelonite of 1 Chronicles 11:36. Chronicles names Eliphelet as Eliphal son of Ur. Ahithophel, whose son stood among the thirty, went over to Absalom at 15:12.

Hezro the Carmelite came from Carmel in Judah, the town of Nabal at 1 Samuel 25:2, country David knew from his outlaw years. Paarai the Arbite came from Arab in Judah, John Gill notes. Hillerus, as Gill reports, took him for Naarai son of Ezbai of 1 Chronicles 11:37.

Zobah was the Aramean kingdom David defeated at 8:3. Albert Barnes counts several foreigners at this point of the list, Igal of Zobah, Zelek the Ammonite and Uriah the Hittite. John Gill notes that Chronicles has Mibhar son of Haggeri where this roll has Bani the Gadite.

Naharai the Beerothite: Naharai came from Beeroth, a Gibeonite town (Joshua 9:17). Zelek beside him is an Ammonite, so the roll holds men of peoples Israel had fought or sworn to spare. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown rank these men in the third class of David's champions, the thirty.

The Targum, as John Gill reports, traces the Ithrites to Jether of the line of Caleb in Judah. This Ira differs from Ira the Jairite, David's priest at 20:26, and from the Tekoite of verse 26. Two Ithrites stand together.

thirty and seven in all: The roll of David's faithful ends on Uriah the Hittite, the man David killed, one chapter before the book ends. The narrator adds nothing, and the placement carries the whole weight: every reader who has come through chapter 11 reads the last name and hears it. Scripture keeps the record of the wronged where the king must see it.