2 Samuel 23: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The chapter opens with the last words of David, spoken as a message from God: a ruler who rules justly and with respect for God is like morning light, and God has made a lasting covenant with David's house, while worthless men are like thorns that get burned. The rest of the chapter lists David's mighty men, with the deeds of a few of them, beginning with the top three and their feats in battle. It includes the account of three men breaking through Philistine lines to bring David water from Bethlehem, which he poured out to the LORD instead of drinking. The list ends with the names of the thirty, thirty-seven in all, closing with Uriah the Hittite.

Claim by Claim

1. 23:1
   • These are the last words of David.
   • David son of Jesse spoke this oracle.
   • The man who was raised up on high spoke this oracle.
   • David was anointed by the God of Jacob.
   • David was the sweet psalmist of Israel.
2. 23:2
   • The Spirit of the LORD spoke by David.
   • The word of the LORD was on David's tongue.
3. 23:3
   • The God of Israel said this.
   • The Rock of Israel spoke to David.
   • One who rules over men must be just.
   • One who rules must rule in the fear of God.
4. 23:4
   • Such a ruler is like the light of the morning when the sun rises.
   • Such a ruler is like a morning without clouds.
   • Such a ruler is like the tender grass springing out of the earth after rain from the brightness.
5. 23:5
   • David says his house is not so with God.
   • God has made an everlasting covenant with David.
   • The covenant is ordered in all things and secure.
   • The covenant is all David's salvation and all his desire.
   • David says God does not make it grow.
6. 23:6
   • The worthless are all like thorns thrust away.
   • The worthless cannot be taken with the hand.
7. 23:7
   • A man who touches them must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear.
   • They will be utterly burned with fire in the place where they lie.
8. 23:8
   • These are the names of the mighty men whom David had.
   • The Tachmonite sat in the seat.
   • The Tachmonite was chief among the captains.
   • The Tachmonite was the same as Adino the Eznite.
   • He lifted up his spear against eight hundred.
   • He slew the eight hundred at one time.
9. 23:9
   • After him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite.
   • Eleazar was one of the three mighty men with David.
   • They defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle.
   • The men of Israel had gone away.
10. 23:10
    • Eleazar arose and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary.
    • His hand clung to the sword.
    • The LORD wrought a great victory that day.
    • The people returned after him only to plunder.
11. 23:11
    • After him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite.
    • The Philistines gathered together into a troop.
    • There was a piece of ground full of lentils there.
    • The people fled from the Philistines.
12. 23:12
    • Shammah stood in the midst of the piece of ground.
    • Shammah defended the piece of ground.
    • Shammah struck the Philistines.
    • The LORD wrought a great victory.
13. 23:13
    • Three of the thirty chief men went down.
    • They came to David at harvest time to the cave of Adullam.
    • The troop of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim.
14. 23:14
    • David was then in a stronghold.
    • The garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem.
15. 23:15
    • David longed and spoke.
    • David said he wished someone would give him a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem by the gate.
16. 23:16
    • The three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines.
    • They drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate.
    • They carried it and brought it to David.
    • David would not drink it.
    • David poured it out to the LORD.
17. 23:17
    • David said, Far be it from me, O LORD, that I should do this.
    • David asked whether this was not the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives.
    • David would not drink it.
    • These things the three mighty men did.
18. 23:18
    • Abishai was the brother of Joab.
    • Abishai was the son of Zeruiah.
    • Abishai was chief among the three.
    • Abishai lifted up his spear against three hundred.
    • Abishai slew the three hundred.
    • Abishai had a name among the three.
19. 23:19
    • Abishai was the most honorable of the three.
    • Abishai became their captain.
    • Abishai did not attain to the first three.
20. 23:20
    • Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada.
    • Benaiah was the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel.
    • Benaiah had done many acts.
    • Benaiah slew two lionlike men of Moab.
    • Benaiah went down and slew a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day.
21. 23:21
    • Benaiah slew an Egyptian.
    • The Egyptian was a man of impressive appearance.
    • The Egyptian had a spear in his hand.
    • Benaiah went down to him with a staff.
    • Benaiah snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand.
    • Benaiah slew the Egyptian with his own spear.
22. 23:22
    • These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did.
    • Benaiah had a name among the three mighty men.
23. 23:23
    • Benaiah was more honorable than the thirty.
    • Benaiah did not attain to the first three.
    • David set Benaiah over his guard.
24. 23:24
    • Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty.
    • Elhanan son of Dodo of Bethlehem was among them.
25. 23:25
    • Shammah the Harodite was among them.
    • Elika the Harodite was among them.
26. 23:26
    • Helez the Paltite was among them.
    • Ira son of Ikkesh the Tekoite was among them.
27. 23:27
    • Abiezer the Anethothite was among them.
    • Mebunnai the Hushathite was among them.
28. 23:28
    • Zalmon the Ahohite was among them.
    • Maharai the Netophathite was among them.
29. 23:29
    • Heleb son of Baanah the Netophathite was among them.
    • Ittai son of Ribai from Gibeah of the children of Benjamin was among them.
30. 23:30
    • Benaiah the Pirathonite was among them.
    • Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash was among them.
31. 23:31
    • Abialbon the Arbathite was among them.
    • Azmaveth the Barhumite was among them.
32. 23:32
    • Eliahba the Shaalbonite was among them.
    • Jonathan of the sons of Jashen was among them.
33. 23:33
    • Shammah the Hararite was among them.
    • Ahiam son of Sharar the Hararite was among them.
34. 23:34
    • Eliphelet son of Ahasbai son of the Maachathite was among them.
    • Eliam son of Ahithophel the Gilonite was among them.
35. 23:35
    • Hezrai the Carmelite was among them.
    • Paarai the Arbite was among them.
36. 23:36
    • Igal son of Nathan of Zobah was among them.
    • Bani the Gadite was among them.
37. 23:37
    • Zelek the Ammonite was among them.
    • Nahari the Beerothite was among them.
    • Nahari was armorbearer to Joab son of Zeruiah.
38. 23:38
    • Ira the Ithrite was among them.
    • Gareb the Ithrite was among them.
39. 23:39
    • Uriah the Hittite was among them.
    • They were thirty-seven in all.

Words Worth Explaining

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

23:1

"Said" here translates the Hebrew word *ne'um*, the formal term that introduces a prophet's oracle (as in "thus says the LORD"); the poem is being presented as inspired speech rather than ordinary conversation. "Anointed" means having had olive oil poured on the head, the ceremony that installed a king. The last phrase is ambiguous in Hebrew: it can mean "the sweet singer of Israel's songs" or "the favourite of Israel's songs," i.e. the man Israel sings about.

23:2

LORD in capital letters stands for God's own name. Israel treated that name as too holy to say out loud.

23:3

"The Rock" is a standard Hebrew title for God, drawn from a crag or cliff that gives shelter and a footing in war, not from stone as a material. "Fear of God" in older English means awe or reverence, not fright. The Hebrew of the second half has no main verb and can be read either as a rule ("whoever rules must be just") or as a description of the ideal ruler.

23:5

The Hebrew here can be read two ways, and translators are divided: either as a flat statement ("my house is not so with God") or as a question expecting the answer yes ("is not my house so with God?"). The last clause is equally uncertain, "he does not make it grow" or "will he not make it grow?" The "lasting agreement" is the covenant of 2 Samuel 7, a binding grant promising David a permanent dynasty.

23:6

The King James "sons of Belial" is a literal rendering of a Hebrew idiom. *Belial* is not a name here but a word meaning worthlessness or ruin; "a son of Belial" is Hebrew for a good-for-nothing or a scoundrel.

23:7

Farmers could not pull thorn bushes up bare-handed. They raked them into piles with iron tools and burned them where they lay.

23:8

The rest of the chapter uses two fixed military ranks: "the Three," an elite trio, and "the Thirty," a larger corps of picked soldiers. Statements about who did or did not "attain to the three" are about promotion between these two units. This verse is among the most damaged in the Hebrew Bible: the man's name appears as Josheb-basshebeth, which the King James translators read as a phrase, "that sat in the seat"; the parallel list at 1 Chronicles 11:11 calls him Jashobeam. "Adino the Eznite" may be a copyist's corruption of the words "he wielded his spear," and Chronicles gives the number he killed as three hundred, not eight hundred.

23:9

The Philistines were a people of the coastal plain to Israel's south-west, holding five main cities; through this period they were Israel's principal military rival. "Defied" in older English means challenged or taunted, shouting insults at the enemy line was a normal opening to battle.

23:10

"His hand clave unto the sword" describes muscles cramped shut around the grip after hours of fighting, so that he could not unfold his fingers afterward.

23:11

Lentils were a cheap staple crop, boiled into stew and eaten by ordinary families. The point of the story is the scale of it: one man refused to surrender an ordinary bean field after an entire army had run.

23:13

The cave of Adullam lay in the low hill country of Judah, the refuge David had used as an outlaw while Saul hunted him. The Valley of Rephaim is a broad fertile valley running south-west from Jerusalem, on the natural approach route from Philistine territory. "Harvest time" places this in the dry season, late spring or early summer.

23:14

A garrison is an occupying military post. Bethlehem was David's own home town, which is what gives the next few verses their edge: an enemy detachment was sitting in the village where he grew up, and the well he names is one he had drunk from all his life.

23:15

Towns were walled, and the well or cistern often lay just outside the gate, where the enemy post would be. Getting to it meant passing through the Philistine line.

23:16

Pouring a liquid out on the ground was a recognized form of offering, called a drink offering or libation. David is not throwing the water away; he is handing it over to God as something too costly for him to use himself.

23:17

"Is not this the blood of these men" is an idiom: in Hebrew thought blood stands for a person's life, so water bought at the risk of men's lives counts as their blood. Israelite law also forbade consuming blood, which sharpens the refusal.

23:18

Zeruiah was David's sister; Joab, Abishai and Asahel are consistently named after their mother rather than their father, which is unusual in Hebrew genealogy and may mean their father died early. Some Hebrew manuscripts read "chief of the Thirty" here rather than "chief of the Three," which would fit the following verses better.

23:19

The Hebrew of verses 18–23 is hard to line up: Abishai and Benaiah are said to be more honored than their group yet not to belong to "the first three." The likeliest sense is that they headed a second rank of officers, outranking the Thirty but never admitted to the original trio of verses 8–12.

23:20

Kabzeel was a town in the far south of Judah. "Lionlike men" translates *ari'el*, an obscure Hebrew word that appears to mean something like "lion of God"; it is usually taken as a term for a champion or outstanding warrior, but its meaning is genuinely uncertain. Moab was the kingdom east of the Dead Sea, a frequent enemy. The "pit" is a cistern or water-storage hole; snow falls in the Judean hills only rarely, which is why the detail is recorded.

23:21

"Goodly" in 1611 English means impressive or fine-looking rather than morally good; the Hebrew here simply says "a man of appearance," and 1 Chronicles 11:23 specifies that he was five cubits, about seven and a half feet, tall. The "staff" is a herdsman's club, not a walking stick.

23:23

The Hebrew word for what David put Benaiah in charge of can mean his bodyguard or, more literally, "those who obey him", his personal staff. Benaiah later commanded Solomon's army.

23:24

From here to the end the chapter is a roll of honor, a fixed list preserved from David's reign. The names ending in *-ite* are place or clan labels meaning "the man from (": a Netophathite is from Netophah, a Tekoite from Tekoa, and so on. Some of these men were long dead by the time of David's last words) Asahel was killed by Abner early in David's reign (2 Samuel 2), so the list records membership over the whole period, not a muster of the living.

23:25

Labels like "the Harodite" simply mean "from the town of Harod." Most of the tags in this list are home towns or clan names, and they mattered because a man's village identified him roughly the way a surname does now.

23:29

Gibeah was Saul's home town, in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. This soldier therefore came from the heartland of the family David had replaced on the throne.

23:32

The Hebrew text of verses 32 and 33 has been damaged in copying, which is why translations divide the names differently at this point. The parallel list in 1 Chronicles reads "Jonathan son of Shammah," joining the names the King James separates.

23:34

Ahithophel of Giloh was David's own counselor, who went over to Absalom's rebellion (2 Samuel 15–17); his son is here on David's roll of honor. Eliam is also named at 2 Samuel 11:3 as Bathsheba's father.

23:36

Gad was another one of the twelve big families of Israel.

23:37

An armor bearer carried a commander's shield and spare weapons into battle and fought alongside him. It was a position of trust handed to a promising soldier, not a servant's errand.

23:39

Uriah the Hittite is the officer whose wife was Bathsheba and whose death David arranged (2 Samuel 11); listing him last, among the men honored for loyalty, is pointed. "Hittite" marks him as of foreign descent, from a people of the north, though he bears a Hebrew name and serves in David's army. The total of thirty-seven does not match the number of names actually listed in the Hebrew text, which is a few short; "the Thirty" was a unit title with changing membership, and some names have probably dropped out in copying.