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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 11:10 - 11:10
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A register of the heroes who stood by him in the establishment of his kingdom. The greater part of this register is found in 2 Sam 23:8-39 also, though there are many divergences in the names, which for the most part have found their way into one or other of the texts by errors of transcription. The conclusion (1Ch 11:41-47 of the Chronicle) is not found in 2 Sam 23, either because the author of the Chronicle followed another and older register than that used by the author of the book of Samuel, or because the latter has not communicated all the names contained in his authority. The former of these is the more probable supposition. In the Chronicle the superscription of the register is enlarged by the insertion in 1Ch 11:10, before the simple superscription in 1Ch 11:11, cf. 2Sa 23:8, of a further superscription informing us of the design which the chronicler had in introducing the register at this place. “These are the chiefs of David's heroes who stood by him strongly (עִם הִתְחַזֵּק, as Dan 10:21) in his kingdom, with the whole of Israel to make him king, according to the word of Jahve, over Israel.” The collocation הַגִּבֹּרִים רָאשֵׁי is accounted for by the fact that הַגִּבֹּור is a designation of a valiant or heroic man in general, without reference to his position, whether co-ordinate with or subordinate to others. Among David's גִּבֹּרִים who helped to establish his kingdom, are not merely those who are mentioned by name in the following register, but also, as we learn from 1 Chron 12, the great number of valiant men of all the tribes, who, even during his persecution by Saul, crowded round him, and immediately after Saul's death came to him in Hebron to hail him king. The enumeration in our passage contains only the chiefs, רָאשִׁים, of those valiant men, i.e., those who held the first rank among them, and who were in great part leaders in the army of David, or became so. לְהַמְלִיכֹו is not to be confined to the mere appointment to the kingship, but includes also his establishment in it; for there follows an account of the heroic deeds which the men enumerated by name performed in the wars which David waged against his enemies in order to maintain and increase his kingly power. יהוה דְּבַר יהוה .rewop concerning Israel is the word of the Lord, the import of which is recorded in 1Ch 11:3, that David should feed His people Israel, and be ruler over them. The ipsissima verba are not found in the earlier history of David, but the substance of them has been deduced from 1Sa 16:13 and 1Sa 15:28; cf. herewith the remarks on 2Sa 3:18. The enumeration of these heroes is introduced in 1Ch 11:11 by a short supplementary superscription, “these the number of the heroes.” That מִסְפָּר should be used instead of the שֵׁמֹות of Samuel is surprising, but is explained by the fact that these heroes at first constituted a corps whose designation was derived from their number. They originally amounted to thirty, whence they are still called the thirty, הַשְּׁלשִׁים; cf. 1Ch 11:12, and the discussion on 2Sa 23:8. In both narratives three classes are distinguished.
Jashobeam, Eleazar, and Shammah hold the first place, and specially bold and heroic deeds performed by them are recorded, 1Ch 11:11-14, and 2Sa 23:8-12. For details as to themselves and their deeds, see on the last cited passage. There we have already remarked, that in 1Ch 11:13 of the text of the Chronicle, the three lines which in Samuel come between שָׁם נֶאֶסְפוּ בַּפְּלִשְׁתִּים (2Sa 23:9) and פְלִשְׁתִּים וַיֵּעָסְפוּ, 1Ch 11:11, have been, through wandering of the copyist's eye, omitted; and with them the name of the third hero, שַׁמָּה, has also been dropped, so that the heroic deed done by him, 1Ch 11:13, 1Ch 11:14, appears, according to our present text, to have been performed by Eleazar. In place of the words, “And the Philistines had gathered themselves together there to battle, and there was a parcel of ground full of barley,” 1Ch 11:13, the text, according to the narrative in 2Sa 23:11, must have stood originally thus: “The Philistines had gathered themselves together there to battle, and the men of Israel went up (sc., retreating from the Philistines up the mountain); he, however, stood firm, and smote the Philistines till his hand was wearied, and cleaved unto the sword (i.e., clung crampedly to his sword through fatigue): there wrought Jahve a great deliverance on that day, and the people returned (from their flight) behind him only to spoil. And after him was Shammah the son of Aga the Hararite, and the Philistines had gathered themselves together to battle,” etc. In 1Ch 11:14 the plural forms יִתְיַצְּבוּ, וַיַּצִּילוּהָ, וַיַּכּוּ, are incorrect, and should be changed into singulars, as in 2Sa 23:12, since only the deed of the hero Shammah is here spoken of. The plurals were probably introduced into the text after the missing lines had been dropped out by a reader or copyist, who, on account of the דָּיִיד עִם הָיָה הוּא (1Ch 11:13), understood the three clauses of 1Ch 11:14 to refer to Eleazar and David. וַיֹּושַׁע, on the contrary, is here perfectly appropriate, and is not to be altered to suit the וַיַּעַשׂ of Samuel, 1Ch 11:14, for the καὶ ἐποίησε of the lxx is not of itself a sufficient reason for doing so.