1 Chronicles 12: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter lists the fighting men who joined David before he became king. First come the ones who came to him at Ziklag and at his desert stronghold while he was hiding from Saul: Benjamites, Gadites, men of Benjamin and Judah, and men of Manasseh. Then comes a tribe-by-tribe count of the armed men who came to David at Hebron to hand Saul's kingdom over to him, as the LORD had said. The chapter ends with three days of eating and drinking at Hebron, supplied by the tribes.

Claim by Claim

1. 12:1
   • These are the men who came to David at Ziklag.
   • At that time David was shut off and restricted because of Saul son of Kish.
   • Saul was the son of Kish.
   • These men were among the mighty men.
   • These men were helpers in the war.
2. 12:2
   • They were equipped with bows.
   • They could use both the right hand and the left to sling stones.
   • They could use both the right hand and the left to shoot arrows with the bow.
   • They were from Saul's kinsmen, of Benjamin.
3. 12:3
   • Ahiezer was the chief.
   • Joash was with him.
   • Ahiezer and Joash were sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite.
   • Jeziel and Pelet were sons of Azmaveth.
   • Beracah was among them.
   • Jehu the Anathothite was among them.
4. 12:4
   • Ishmaiah the Gibeonite was among them.
   • Ishmaiah was a mighty man among the thirty.
   • Ishmaiah was over the thirty.
   • Jeremiah was among them.
   • Jahaziel was among them.
   • Johanan was among them.
   • Jozabad the Gederathite was among them.
5. 12:5
   • Eluzai was among them.
   • Jerimoth was among them.
   • Bealiah was among them.
   • Shemariah was among them.
   • Shephatiah the Haruphite was among them.
6. 12:6
   • Elkanah was among them.
   • Isshiah was among them.
   • Azarel was among them.
   • Joezer was among them.
   • Jashobeam was among them.
   • These men were Korahites.
7. 12:7
   • Joelah and Zebadiah were among them.
   • Joelah and Zebadiah were sons of Jeroham of Gedor.
8. 12:8
   • Some of the Gadites separated themselves and went over to David.
   • They came to David at the stronghold in the wilderness.
   • They were men of might.
   • They were men of war fit for battle.
   • They could handle the large shield and the spear.
   • Their faces were like the faces of lions.
   • They were as swift as gazelles on the mountains.
9. 12:9
   • Ezer was the first.
   • Obadiah was the second.
   • Eliab was the third.
10. 12:10
    • Mishmannah was the fourth.
    • Jeremiah was the fifth.
11. 12:11
    • Attai was the sixth.
    • Eliel was the seventh.
12. 12:12
    • Johanan was the eighth.
    • Elzabad was the ninth.
13. 12:13
    • Jeremiah was the tenth.
    • Machbanai was the eleventh.
14. 12:14
    • These men were of the sons of Gad.
    • They were captains of the army.
    • The least of them was reckoned to a hundred, and the greatest to a thousand; whether this means he commanded that number or was a match for that number is not stated plainly.
15. 12:15
    • These are the ones who crossed the Jordan in the first month.
    • At that time the Jordan was overflowing all its banks.
    • They put to flight all those of the valleys, toward the east and toward the west.
16. 12:16
    • Some of the children of Benjamin and of Judah came to David at the stronghold.
17. 12:17
    • David went out to meet them.
    • David spoke to them.
    • David said that if they had come peaceably to help him, his heart would be joined to them.
    • David said that if they had come to betray him to his enemies, though there was no violence in his hands, the God of their fathers should see it and rebuke it.
18. 12:18
    • The spirit came upon Amasai and clothed him.
    • Amasai was chief of the captains.
    • Amasai said they belonged to David.
    • Amasai said they were on David's side, calling him the son of Jesse.
    • Amasai declared peace to David.
    • Amasai declared peace to David's helpers.
    • Amasai said that David's God was helping him.
    • David received them.
    • David made them captains of the troop.
19. 12:19
    • Some men of Manasseh went over to David.
    • This happened when David came with the Philistines against Saul to battle.
    • They did not help the Philistines.
    • The lords of the Philistines took counsel and sent David away.
    • The lords of the Philistines said David would desert to his master Saul at the cost of their heads.
20. 12:20
    • As David went to Ziklag, men of Manasseh went over to him.
    • Adnah went over to him.
    • Jozabad went over to him.
    • Jediael went over to him.
    • Michael went over to him.
    • A second Jozabad went over to him.
    • Elihu went over to him.
    • Zillethai went over to him.
    • These men were captains of the thousands of Manasseh.
21. 12:21
    • They helped David against the raiding band.
    • They were all mighty men of valour.
    • They were captains in the army.
22. 12:22
    • At that time men came to David day by day to help him.
    • They came until his army was a great host, like the host of God.
23. 12:23
    • These are the numbers of the divisions armed for war.
    • They came to David at Hebron.
    • They came to turn the kingdom of Saul over to David.
    • This was according to the word of the LORD.
24. 12:24
    • The children of Judah bearing shield and spear numbered six thousand eight hundred.
    • They were armed for war.
25. 12:25
    • The children of Simeon were mighty men of valour for the war.
    • They numbered seven thousand one hundred.
26. 12:26
    • The children of Levi numbered four thousand six hundred.
27. 12:27
    • Jehoiada was the leader of the Aaronites.
    • With Jehoiada were three thousand seven hundred men.
28. 12:28
    • Zadok was a young man mighty of valour.
    • From Zadok's father's house came twenty-two captains.
29. 12:29
    • The children of Benjamin were kinsmen of Saul.
    • They numbered three thousand.
    • Until that time the greater part of them had kept their allegiance to the house of Saul.
30. 12:30
    • The children of Ephraim numbered twenty thousand eight hundred.
    • They were mighty men of valour.
    • They were men of renown in their fathers' houses.
31. 12:31
    • The half tribe of Manasseh numbered eighteen thousand.
    • They were designated by name to come and make David king.
32. 12:32
    • The children of Issachar were men who had understanding of the times.
    • They knew what Israel ought to do.
    • Their heads numbered two hundred.
    • All their brethren were under their command.
33. 12:33
    • Men of Zebulun went out to battle.
    • They were arrayed for war with all instruments of war.
    • They numbered fifty thousand.
    • They could keep rank.
    • They were not of a double heart.
34. 12:34
    • Of Naphtali there were a thousand captains.
    • With them were thirty-seven thousand men with shield and spear.
35. 12:35
    • Of the Danites, twenty-eight thousand six hundred were arrayed for battle.
36. 12:36
    • Of Asher, men went out to battle.
    • They were arrayed for war.
    • They numbered forty thousand.
37. 12:37
    • From beyond the Jordan came men of Reuben, of Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasseh.
    • They came with all manner of weapons of war for the battle.
    • They numbered one hundred twenty thousand.
38. 12:38
    • All these were men of war who could keep rank.
    • They came to Hebron with a whole heart.
    • They came to make David king over all Israel.
    • All the rest of Israel were also of one heart to make David king.
39. 12:39
    • They were there with David three days.
    • They ate and drank.
    • Their brethren had prepared provisions for them.
40. 12:40
    • Those who were near them, as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought food.
    • They brought it on donkeys, camels, mules, and oxen.
    • They brought food of flour.
    • They brought cakes of figs.
    • They brought clusters of raisins.
    • They brought wine.
    • They brought oil.
    • They brought oxen.
    • They brought sheep in abundance.
    • There was joy in Israel.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

12:1

Ziklag was a town in Philistine territory. While Saul was hunting him, David took service with a Philistine king and was given Ziklag as his base, so these men were crossing over to a fugitive living among Israel's enemies. The King James "kept himself close" means kept out of sight, in hiding; the Hebrew phrase is literally "shut off from the presence of Saul," which can mean either barred from court or in hiding from him.

12:2

A sling was a serious battlefield weapon, not a toy: a leather pouch on two cords, whirled and released to throw a stone hard enough to kill. Being able to use either hand with bow and sling was a prized skill, and the men of Benjamin were famous for it. The point of the verse is that these men were Saul's own kinsmen, from his own tribe, and they came over to David anyway.

12:3

"The Gibeathite," "the Antothite" and the rest are place-names used the way surnames are: the man from Gibeah, the man from Anathoth. Gibeah was Saul's own hometown, so the list opens with men from the king's home ground.

12:4

"The Thirty" was a named corps of David's elite fighters, a standing list of his best soldiers, recorded in full elsewhere (1 Chronicles 11). To be counted among them was a formal rank, not a description.

12:6

"Korhites" (Korahites) may mean descendants of Korah in the tribe of Levi, or men of a Judean family or place of the same name. The text does not say which, and both are possible.

12:8

A "hold" is a stronghold, a fortified refuge in rough country, of the kind David used while on the run. The two shields named are different pieces of equipment: a large one covering most of the body, and a small one carried on the arm. The animal in the King James, the "roe," is a gazelle, proverbial in Hebrew for speed.

12:9

The numbering that follows (first, second, third) is a ranked list. It may indicate order of command or simply the order in which the names were recorded; the text does not explain it.

12:14

The King James "one of the least was over an hundred" can be read two ways: that the lowest-ranking of them commanded a hundred men, or that he was a match for a hundred in a fight. Hebrew allows both, and translators divide over it.

12:15

The first month is spring, roughly March–April. The Jordan floods then with snowmelt from the northern mountains, so crossing it at that season was dangerous, the detail is there to show what these men were willing to do.

12:17

"My heart shall be knit unto you" is an idiom for being bound in loyalty and affection, the same language used for close friendship and alliance. "No wrong in mine hands" uses the hands to stand for a person's actions: David is saying he has done nothing to deserve betrayal. He is calling on God to act as judge between them, which is how oaths of this kind were framed.

12:18

The Hebrew says the Spirit "clothed itself with" Amasai, a vivid idiom for a person being taken over and speaking beyond himself. His reply is in verse form, which is why the words repeat. "Son of Jesse" was how Saul spoke of David contemptuously, refusing to use his name; here the same phrase is turned into a pledge of loyalty.

12:19

The background is in 1 Samuel 29. David, then living under Philistine protection, marched out with the Philistine army against Saul; their commanders refused to trust him and sent him home before the battle. "The lords of the Philistines" were the rulers of the five Philistine cities, who acted together in war. "He will fall to his master" means he will desert to Saul's side in the middle of the fight.

12:21

"Rovers" in 1611 English means raiders, armed bands who lived by plundering. The reference is to the raiding parties that operated around Ziklag, including the Amalekites who burned the town and carried off David's people (1 Samuel 30).

12:22

"The host of God" is a Hebrew way of saying an immense army, vast beyond ordinary reckoning. It can also be read as a comparison to God's own heavenly armies; the phrase carries both senses.

12:23

Hebron was the chief city of Judah, in the southern hill country, and the place where David was first made king. "According to the word of the LORD" points back to Samuel's anointing of David years earlier, when Saul was still on the throne.

12:24

The Hebrew word translated "thousand" can also mean a military unit or clan contingent, which need not have held a literal thousand men. The totals in this chapter come to well over three hundred thousand, and scholars disagree about whether the figures are literal head-counts or counts of units.

12:26

Levi was the tribe set apart for duties at the sanctuary rather than for land or war, which is why listing them among armed men is worth the chronicler's notice.

12:27

"Aaronites" means the descendants of Aaron, the branch of Levi from which priests were drawn.

12:28

This Zadok became the leading priest of David's reign and of Solomon's after him; the chronicler notes him here as a young man just entering the story.

12:29

"Kept the ward of the house of Saul" means held guard duty for, and so remained loyal to, Saul's family. The small number from Benjamin reflects that most of Saul's own tribe had not yet come over.

12:31

"Expressed by name" means enrolled individually, each man listed by name on a register rather than counted in a lump, a formal muster.

12:32

"Understanding of the times" is disputed. It may mean political judgment, knowing how to read the situation, or knowledge of the calendar and seasons, which the tribe of Issachar was later said to have. The Hebrew supports both readings.

12:33

"Keep rank" means holding a disciplined battle formation, which took training and was what separated an army from a mob. "Not of double heart" translates a Hebrew idiom, literally "without a heart and a heart": that is, not of two minds, undivided in loyalty.

12:37

The territory east of the Jordan belonged to Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh, outside the main body of the land, and the farthest of the tribes from Hebron.

12:38

"With a perfect heart" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning whole or undivided in purpose; it is about single-mindedness, not moral perfection.

12:39

A multi-day feast was the normal public form of making a king: the eating and drinking together sealed the agreement as much as it celebrated it.

12:40

"Meat" in 1611 English means food of any kind, not flesh; "meal" means ground flour. Figs and raisins were pressed into hard cakes, which kept for months and were standard provisions for traveling and for armies on the march.