David’s Mighty Men: Profiles in Courage
The Three (23: 8-12) and the Thirty (23:13-39) The Three (vv 8-12)
8 These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb-basshebeth a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains, he was called Adino the Eznite, because of eight hundred slain by him at one time; 9 and after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there to battle and the men of Israel had withdrawn. 10 He arose and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary and clung to the sword, and the LORD brought about a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to strip the slain. 11 Now after him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered into a troop where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. 12 But he took his stand in the midst of the plot, defended it and struck the Philistines; and the LORD brought about a great victory.
The first of the “three” mighty men is named Josheb-basshebeth, chief of the captains. He is said to have killed 800 at one time. The parallel account in Chronicles differs somewhat:
These constitute the list of the mighty men whom David had: Jashobeam, the son of a Hachmonite, the chief of the thirty; he lifted up his spear against three hundred whom he killed at one time (1 Chronicles 11:11).
The differences in the names in the two accounts is neither surprising nor great. The numbers differ considerably.8 In our text in 2 Samuel, we read that this man killed 800 men at one time; in Chronicles we read that only 300 men were killed. It is difficult to tell which text may have suffered from the error of a copyist, but either way, any man who stands up to several hundred of the enemy and kills all of them in a day is a mighty man of war.
The next hero among the big three is Eleazar, the son of Dodo the Ahohite. Chronicles also describes his heroism:
12 After him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, who was one of the three mighty men. 13 He was with David at Pasdammim when the Philistines were gathered together there to battle, and there was a plot of ground full of barley; and the people fled before the Philistines. 14 They took their stand in the midst of the plot and defended it, and struck down the Philistines; and the LORD saved them by a great victory (1 Chronicles 11:12-14).
Eleazar was fighting with David against the Philistines. Apparently the Philistines were prevailing over the Israelites, at least through the eyes of many of the Israelite soldiers who fled before them. Eleazar seems to have been defending a field full of barley, which the Philistines may have intended to plunder or destroy (compare Judges 6:2-6, 11). From the “they” of 1 Chronicles 11:14, I would understand that Eleazar was not fighting alone, but alongside David, even though most everyone else had fled. The Philistines fell before Eleazar, and he continued to fight to the point that his hand cramped, frozen to the sword. The battle was won, due in part to the courage and perseverance of Eleazar, but ultimately thanks to God, who gave the victory. When the people returned to the site of the battle, all that remained to do was to strip the dead of the spoils -- that is, to clean up after Eleazar.
The third of the big “three” is Shammah, the son of Agee. On this occasion, the Philistines were once again doing battle with the Israelites. They gathered for battle where a plot of land had a crop of lentils growing. Once again, it seems the Philistines want to deprive the Israelites of their crops. To win this plot of ground was to obtain necessary supplies and to deprive Israel of them. The people fled from the Philistines, but Shammah stood his ground. The Lord gave the victory, and Shammah held his ground, striking a number of the Philistines.
The Thirty (vv 13-39)
13 Then three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam, while the troop of the Philistines was camping in the valley of Rephaim. 14 David was then in the stronghold, while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. 15 David had a craving and said, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate!” 16 So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water from the well of Bethlehem which was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink it, but poured it out to the LORD; 17 and he said, “Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?” Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did. 18 Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty. And he swung his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name as well as the three. 19 He was most honored of the thirty, therefore he became their commander; however, he did not attain to the three. 20 Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day. 21 He killed an Egyptian, an impressive man. Now the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but he went down to him with a club and snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. 22 These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and had a name as well as the three mighty men. 23 He was honored among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David appointed him over his guard. 24 Asahel the brother of Joab was among the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, 25 Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite, 26 Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, 27 Abiezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite, 28 Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite, 29 Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the sons of Benjamin, 30 Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash, 31 Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite, 32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, 33 Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite, 34 Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maacathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, 35 Hezro the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite, 36 Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite, 37 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, armor bearers of Joab the son of Zeruiah, 38 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, 39 Uriah the Hittite; thirty-seven in all.
Three Men and a Little Drink (vv 13-17)
The incident described in these verses could have occurred before David became king, while he was still fleeing from Saul. The “cave of Adullam” is first mentioned in 1 Samuel 22:1. This is where David located after he fled from Gath. It is where a number of his kinsmen joined him, along with others who were also out of favor with Saul. At some point in time, David and his men were in this cave while they were at war with the Philistines. The Philistines had taken possession of David’s hometown of Bethlehem and were garrisoned there. Perhaps as they were running out of water and David was thirsty, he verbalized what was meant only as a wish. If only he could have but a drink from that well in Bethlehem. No doubt he had drunk from it many times in his younger years and grown particularly fond of the water it provided.
Some of his men could not help but overhear what David said. He had given no orders to fetch him some water from that well. He had not even intended that anyone would be prompted by his words to attempt to get some water from it. But to these three brave men, David’s wish was their command. The men left the safety of the cave, marched some 12 miles or so to Bethlehem, broke through the enemy lines, drew water for David, and then marched back another 12 miles to bring it to him.
When presented with this water, David did what at first seems very unusual 9– he refused to drink the water, and instead poured it out on the ground. This is not because he disdained the efforts of these courageous men, nor because he did not wish to drink the water. I believe his actions demonstrated that he refused to drink the water because the courage of those who obtained it was too noble to do otherwise. David never intended to put these men’s lives at risk, merely to satisfy his own desires.10 The kind of devotion his men showed to him was the kind of devotion that belonged to God. Pouring this water out before the Lord was David’s highest expression of appreciation and regard for these men. The water was a symbol of the blood these men nearly shed, serving him. The highest use to which this water could be put was the worship of God, and so David poured it out to the Lord.
Abishai (vv 18-19)
Abishai was related to David, along with his brothers Joab and Asahel. These men were the sons of David’s sister, Zeruiah (verse 18; see 1 Chronicles 2:16). He must have been an enigma to David, as a review of his role in the life of David reveals. On the one hand, Abishai was a great warrior and military leader. He was the one who volunteered to accompany David into Saul’s camp in what appeared to be a virtual suicide mission (1 Samuel 26:6-12). He commanded some of David’s forces in a campaign against the Syrians and Ammonites (2 Samuel 10:9-14). He led a third of David’s troops against Absalom’s rebels (2 Samuel 18:2). He was given command of David’s troops in order to quell Sheba’s rebellion (2 Samuel 20:6). Under Abishai, the Israelite army was able to kill 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt (cf. 1 Chronicles 18:12).
On the other hand, Abishai was a thorn in David’s flesh. When he and David came upon Saul in his camp, Abishai was eager to kill the king, God’s anointed (1 Samuel 26:6-8). He and his brother Joab were responsible for killing Abner, in retaliation for the death of their brother Asahel in battle at the hand of Abner (see 2 Samuel 3:26-30). Abishai and Joab also wanted to put Shimei to death for harassing David as he fled from Absalom, even though David was willing to pardon him (2 Samuel 16:5-14). When David was returning to Jerusalem and Shimei met him in repentance, Abishai was not satisfied. He urged David to let him kill Shimei because he had cursed the king (2 Samuel 19:16-23).
In spite of all of Abishai’s flaws, he was a mighty man of valor, whose courage and skill in war could not be denied. Abishai was given a prominent place in Israel’s military “hall of fame” because he was a mighty man of valor. Our text informs us that Abishai one time swung his spear against 300 men of the enemy’s army and killed them. Among the 30, Abishai ranked at the top, but he did not attain to the elite group of the “big three” (above).
Benaiah, the Lion-hearted (vv 20-23)
I must confess, my favorite among David’s mighty men is Benaiah. This man is something else. He was the son of a valiant man, who had done mighty deeds himself (verse 20). Benaiah killed two sons of Ariel11 of Moab. In and of itself, this may not seem that impressive, but there’s more, much more. He also descended into a pit on a snowy day to kill a lion and succeeded! It may be that this “pit” was actually a cistern,12 and that the Israelite warriors could not get water from the cistern since the lion had fallen into it and now was unable to get out. Who wants to debate water rights with a lion? As important as water was to an army, Benaiah may have volunteered to go down into the cistern to bring the lion out, one way or the other. In spite of all the obstacles and difficulties, Benaiah succeeded.
But there is yet another incident which our author reports to show how great a hero Benaiah really was. A Goliath-sized Egyptian man confronted Benaiah on the battlefield. The problem for Benaiah was that he encountered this impressive fellow at a time when he had no weapons. The Egyptian had a spear like that of Goliath and was more than eager to do battle with Benaiah. Benaiah “went down” to the Egyptian, with only a club in his hand. David used this club to overpower the Egyptian warrior. Taking the Egyptian’s spear from his hand, Benaiah then proceeded to finish him off with his own weapon, not unlike the way David killed Goliath with his sword (1 Samuel 17:50-51).
The amazing thing about Benaiah is that he was the son of a levitical priest:
The third commander of the army for the third month was Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, as chief; and in his division were 24,000 (1 Chronicles 27:5).
We would not expect a levitical priest to take on lion-like men and real live lions. Here was a priest willing to dirty his hands and put his faith into practice. Perhaps it was as a reward for his faithful service that David put him in charge of his bodyguard, commanding the Cherethites and the Pelethites (2 Samuel 8:18; 20:23).
A Long List of Heroes (vv 24-39)
The author concludes his fighters hall of fame by listing at least 30 men who were mighty men of war. He tells us that there were 37 in all, and yet the actual count is less. Part of this is probably because we don’t know how many “sons of Jashen” (verse 32) there were. Also, some of these men (like Uriah) had died and were replaced by others. If there was a kind of honor guard of 30 of the bravest and most heroic soldiers, the ranks would probably be filled by a new inductee when one of the group died.
The mention of Uriah is certainly of interest to us. Uriah was not just a draftee, but one of the elite warriors who fought for David and for Israel. It hardly seems possible that David did not know Uriah fairly well, and yet he was willing to take his wife, to deceive this war hero, and to use his loyalty and skill as a warrior as the means by which he would kill him.
We are not told any details about the heroism of this list of men in verses 24-39, but Bergen13 has pointed out some interesting facts about these men as a group. Perhaps all but twelve of these men were Judahites. At least three came from Benjamin. Another two came from Ephraim. One man may be from Dan, and another from the tribe of Gad. Three of the cities of origin are not mentioned elsewhere, and two are the name of more than one place. Three (including Uriah) were Gentiles. Once again we find Gentiles playing a part in God’s salvation of His people. It looks to me as though a number of those named here are men who joined David early in his public life, before he had become king and while he was fleeing from Saul.
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