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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 12:16 - 12:16
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There came to David in the mountain-fastness also men of Benjamin and Judah (cf. 1Ch 12:8). Their names are not in the lists, possibly because they were not handed down in the historical works made use of by the chronicler. At their head, as we learn from 1Ch 12:18, stood Amasai, chief of the thirty, i.e., of the corps formed of the thirty heroes (see 1Ch 11:11), although his name does not occur in the catalogue, 1 Chron 11. According to this, Amasai must have occupied a very important position under David; but since the name עֲמָשַׂי is not elsewhere mentioned in the history of David, the older commentators have conjectured that עֲמָשַׂי may have been the same person as עמשׂא, son of Abigail (1Ch 2:17), whom Absalom made captain in Joab's place, and whom David, after the victory over the rebels, wished to make commander-in-chief in the room of Joab, and whom for that reason Joab afterwards murdered (2Sa 17:25; 2Sa 19:14; 2Sa 20:4, 2Sa 20:8.); or identical with אַבְשַׁי the son of Zeruiah, 1Ch 2:16 and 1Ch 11:20. Of these conjectures the first is much more probable than the second. To meet these men, David went forth from his fastness, and asked them with what purpose they came to him. “If for peace,” to stand by him, “then shall there be to me towards you a heart for union,” i.e., I will be with you of one heart, be true to you. לְיַחַד לֵבָב is plainer than אֶחָד לֵב, 1Ch 12:38. “But if לְרַמֹּותַנִי, to practise deceit against me (to be guilty of a מִרְמָה) for mine enemies (to deliver me to them), although there be no wrong in my hands, the God of our fathers look thereon and punish;” cf. 2Ch 24:22. The God of our fathers, i.e., of the patriarchs (cf. Ezr 7:27; 2Ch 20:6, and Exo 3:13.), who rules in and over Israel, who shields the innocent and punishes the guilty.