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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 12:1 - 12:1
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The Benjamites who came to David to Ziklag. - 1Ch 12:1. Ziklag was originally allotted to the Simeonites by Joshua (Jos 19:5; 1Ch 4:30), but at a later time came into possession of the Philistines, and was assigned and presented by king Achish to David, who had fled for refuge to him, as a dwelling-place for himself and his followers; see 1Sa 27:1-7. As to its situation, which has not yet been with certainty ascertained, see the discussion on Jos 15:31. In it David dwelt for a year and four months, until he went to Hebron on the death of Saul. During this time it was that the warriors of the tribe of Benjamin mentioned in the succeeding register went over to him, as we learn from the words עָצוּר עֹוד, “he was still held back before Saul,” a concise expression for “while he was still held back before Saul.” This last expression, however, does not signify, “hindered from coming before Saul” (Berth.), but inter Israelitas publice versari prohibitus (J. H. Mich.), or rather, “before Saul, imprisoned as it were, without being able to appear in a manner corresponding to his divine election to be ruler over Israel.” בגב וְהֵמָּה, and they were among the heroes, i.e., belonged to the heroes, the helpers of the war, i.e., to those who helped him in his former wars; cf. 1Ch 12:17., 21f.
1Ch 12:2-4
קֶשֶׁת נֹשְׁקֵי, “those preparing bows,” i.e., those armed with bows, synonymous with קֶשֶׁת דֹּרְכֵי (1Ch 8:40); cf. 2Ch 17:17; Psa 78:9. “With the right and left hand practised upon stones,” i.e., to hurl stones, cf. Jdg 20:16; “and in arrows on the bow,” i.e., to shoot therewith. שָׁאוּל מֵאֲחֵי, of Saul's brethren, i.e., of the men of the tribe, not “of his nearer relatives,” and consequently of Benjamin, has been added as an explanation; cf. 1Ch 12:29, where בִנְיָמִן בְּנֵי and שָׁאוּל אֲחֵי are synonyms. - In 1Ch 12:3. we have the names. הָרֹאשׁ, the head, i.e., the leader of this host of warriors; compare 1Ch 5:7, 1Ch 5:12. הַגִּבְעָתִי, cf. Gibeah of Saul or Benjamin, cf. 1Ch 11:31; and for its situation, see on Jos 18:28. הָעַנְתֹתִי, from the priests' city Anathoth, now Anata; see on Jos 18:24. In 1Ch 12:4 the Gibeonite Ismaiah is called “hero among the thirty, and over the thirty,” - words which can hardly have any other sense than that Ismaiah belonged also to David's corps of thirty heroes (1 Chron 11), and was (temporarily) their leader, although his name does not occur in 1 Chron 11. It is probable that the reason of the omission was, that at the time when the list was prepared he was no longer alive. הַגְּדֵרָתִי, of Gedera, a city of the tribe of Judah in the Shephelah, which, according to Van de Velde (Reise, ii. S. 166), was probably identical with the village Ghedera, which lies to the left of the road Tel-es-Safieh to Akir, about an hour to the south-west of Jabne. In any case, it corresponds well with the statements of the Onom. As to Gedrus, or Gaedur, see on Jos 15:36. Immediately afterwards in 1Ch 12:7 Gedor is mentioned, a city in the mountains of Judah, to the westward of the road which leads from Hebron to Jerusalem (see on Jos 15:58); and from that fact Bertheau imagines we must conclude that the men of Judah are enumerated as well as the Benjamites. But this conclusion is not valid; for from the very beginning, when the domains and cities were assigned to the individual tribes under Joshua, they were not the exclusive possession of the individual tribes, and at a later period they were still less so. In course of time the respective tribal domains underwent (in consequence of wars and other events) many alterations, not only in extent, but also in regard to their inhabitants, so that in Saul's time single Benjamite families may quite well have had their home in the cities of Judah.
1Ch 12:5-7
הַחֲרוּפִי (Keri הַחֲרִיפִי) is a patronymic, which denotes either one descended from Haruph, or belonging to the חָרִיף בְּנֵי mentioned in Neh 7:34 along with the Gibeonites. The קָרְחִים, Korahites, in 1Ch 12:6 are, without doubt (cf. Delitzsch, Ps. S. 300), descendants of the Levite Korah, one division of whom David made guardian of the thresholds of the tent erected for the ark of the covenant on Zion, because their fathers had been watchers of the entrance of the camp of Jahve, i.e., had in that earlier time held the office of watchers by the tabernacle; see on 1Ch 9:18. The names Elkanah and Azareel are thoroughly Levitic names, and their service in the porter's office in the holy place may have roused in them the desire to fight for David, the chosen of the Lord. But there is no reason why we should, with Bertheau, interpret the words as denoting descendants of the almost unknown Korah of the tribe of Judah (1Ch 2:43), or, with the older commentators, refer it to some other unmentioned Benjamite who bore this name. The explanation of the connection existing between these Levitic Korahites and the Benjamites, which is presupposed by the mention of them among the Benjamites, may be found in the fact that the Levites received no tribal domain of their own, and possessed only cities for dwelling in in the domains of the other tribes, with whom they were consequently civilly incorporated, so that those who dwelt in the cities of Benjamin were properly reckoned among the Benjamites. At the partition of the land under Joshua, it is true, only the priests received their cities in Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin; while, on the contrary, the Kohathites, who were not priests, among whom the Korahites were, received their cities in the tribal domain of Ephraim, Dan, and half-Manasseh (Josh 21:9-26). But when the tabernacle was transferred from Shiloh to Nob, and afterwards to Gibeon, the Korahite doorkeepers must, without doubt, have migrated to one of the Levitic cities of Benjamin, probably for the most part to Gibeon, and who were reckoned among the Benjamites. As to הַגְּדֹור מִן, vide 1Ch 12:4. If this be so, there remains no cogent reason for supposing that in our register, besides the Benjamites, men out of other tribes are also introduced. With that there falls away at once Bertheau's further conclusion, that the author of the Chronicle has considerably abridged the register, and that from 1Ch 12:4 onwards men of Judah also are named, the list of whom must certainly (?) have been originally introduced by special superscription similar to those in 1Ch 12:8, 1Ch 12:16, 1Ch 12:19. His further reason for his conjecture - namely, that our register makes use of the qualificative epithets, “the Gibeathite,” “the Anathothite,” etc., only in a few special cases-is of no force whatever; for we are not justified in assuming that we may expect to find here, as in the register in 1 Chron 11:26-47, such qualificatives after every individual name. The character of our register cannot be arrived at by a comparison with the list of David's heroes in 1 Chron 11; it should rather be sought for by comparing it with the succeeding list, whose contents are of a similar kind with its own. David's chosen corps of thirty heroes was much more important for the history of his reign, than the lists of the men who joined themselves to him and fought on his behalf before he ascended the throne. For that reason the thirty heroes are not only mentioned by name, but their descent also is told us, while that more detailed information is not given with regard to the others just mentioned. Only the names of the Gadites and Manassites are mentioned; of the Benjamites and men of Judah, who came to him in the mountain fastness (1Ch 12:16-18), the name of only one, Amasai, is given; while of the Benjamites who came to Ziklag, 1Ch 12:3-7, such qualificative statements are made in reference to only a few individuals, and in these cases the object probably was to distinguish them from other well-known persons of the same name.