Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 12:23 - 12:23
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
List of the warriors who made David king in Hebron. - The superscription (1Ch 12:23) runs: “These are the numbers of the bands of the men equipped for war, who came,” etc. הֶחָלוּץ is a collective noun, denoting the equipped manhood. רָאשֵׁי signifies here, not principes exercitus, as the Vulgate renders it, heads, i.e., leaders of the army (Berth.), but literally denotes sums, i.e., companies, bands of soldiers, as in Jdg 7:16, Jdg 7:20; Jdg 9:34, Jdg 9:37, Jdg 9:44; 1Sa 11:1; or it may perhaps also be heads for individuals, as רֹאשׁ in Jdg 5:30. Both these meanings are linguistically certain; so that we cannot say, with Bertheau, that רָאשֵׁי before הֶחָלוּץ denotes, according to the well-ascertained use of language, leaders of the army, and that גלגלת would have been used had it been wished to express the number by heads, e.g., 1 Chron 23:3-24. That use of the word is indeed also found, but it cannot be proved to be the only proper one. If we take רָאשֵׁי here to denote leaders, we bring the superscription into irreconcilable contradiction with the contents of the following catalogue, which gives the names of the heads and the number of the warriors (1Ch 12:27.) only in the case of the families of Aaron, and in that of Issachar the number of the princes; while in the case of the other tribes we have only the numbers of the bands or detachments. This contradiction cannot be got rid of, as Bertheau imagines, by the hypothesis that the superscription referred originally to a catalogue which was throughout similar in plan to that which we find in 1Ch 12:26-28, and that the author of the Chronicle has very considerably abridged the more detailed statements of the original documents which he used. This hypothesis is a mere makeshift, in which we have the less need “to take refuge,” as the catalogue has neither the appearance of having been abridged or revised by the author of our Chronicle. It is shown to be a faithful copy of a more ancient authority, both by the characteristic remarks which it contains on the individual tribes, and by the inequality in the numbers. Bertheau, indeed, derives support for his hypothesis “from the inequality of the statements of number, and their relation to each other,” and upon that ground throws doubt upon the accuracy and correctness of the numbers, but in both cases without sufficient warrant. If we place the respective statements together synoptically, we see that there came to David to Hebron -
Of the tribe of: Judah 6,800 men
Of the tribe of: Simeon 7,100 men
Of the tribe of: Levi 4,600 men
With Jehoiada the prince of Aaron 3,700 men
With Zadok and his father's-house 22 שָׂרִים (captains)
Of the tribe of: Benjamin 3,000 men
Of the tribe of: Ephraim 20,800 men
Of the half-tribe of: Manasseh 18,000 men
Of the tribe of: Issachar 200 chiefs and all their brethren
Of the tribe of: Zebulun 50,000 men
Of the tribe of: Naphtali 37,000 men with 1000 שָׂרִים
Of the tribe of: Dan 28,000 men
Of the tribe of: Asher 40,000 men
Of two and a half trans-Jordanic tribes 120,000 men
Total 336,600 men with 1222 heads and captains
The total is not objected to by Bertheau, and its correctness is placed beyond a doubt by the recollection that we have here to do not with the representation of the various estates of the kingdom, but with a declaration of the will of the whole nation, who wished to make David their king. We must, if we are to estimate these statements, endeavour to go back in imagination to the circumstances of that time when Israel, although settled in the land, had not quite laid aside the character of a nation of warriors, in which every man capable of bearing arms marched to battle with, and for, his king. Now if the total number of fighting men in Israel was 600,000 in the time of Moses, and if, when the people were numbered in the last year of David's reign, there were in Israel 800,000, and in Judah 500,000 (2Sa 24:9), - the Levites being excluded in both cases - the 340,000 men of all the tribes, except Issachar, in reference to which no number is given, or after subtracting Judah and Levi, the 324,500 men out of the remaining tribes, is not much more than a half of the men capable of bearing arms in Moses' time, and about a fourth part of the fighting population towards the end of David's reign. But the relation of the numbers in the respective tribes, on the contrary, is somewhat surprising, and calls forth from Bertheau the following remarks: “To Judah, David's tribe, which from the earliest time had been famous for its numbers and its powers, 6800 are assigned; to Zebulun, on the contrary, 50,000; to Naphtali, 1000 princes at the head of 37,000 warriors; to the two and a half East-Jordanic tribes, 120,000 men, etc. How does it happen that Zebulun and Naphtali, for example, two tribes that play no great part in Israel's history, are so strongly represented, while Judah sends only a relatively small number of warriors?” To this question we answer, that Judah's being represented by a number of warriors relatively so small, is accounted for simply by the fact that David had already been king over Judah for seven years, and consequently that tribe did not need to make him king by coming with the whole of its warriors, or the majority of them, when the other tribes were doing homage to David, but sent only a small number of its male population to this solemn act, who were witnesses in the name of the whole tribe to the homage proffered by the others. The same remark applies to the tribe of Simeon, whose domain was enclosed by that of Judah, and which had consequently recognised David as king at the same time as the larger tribe. In regard to the numbers of the other tribes, Levi had in the last year of David's reign 38,000 men from thirty years old and upwards (1Ch 23:3); and when here only 4600 Levites, besides the priestly families, are spoken of, the question arises, whether this number is to be understood to refer to the Levites in all the tribes, or only to those dwelling outside of Judah and Simeon, in the cities assigned to them by Moses and Joshua. The smallness of the number (3000) from the tribe of Benjamin is explained by the remark that the majority of this tribe still held to the house of Saul (1Ch 12:29). The only thing which is at all remarkable about the other numbers is, that the Ephraimites are so few (20,800 men) in contrast to the 180,000 men brought into the field by the half-tribe of Manasseh. But if we consider that Ephraim, which at the first census under Moses at Sinai had 40,500 men, had decreased to 32,500 at the second census in the wilderness of Moab, it is not improbable that at the time now treated of that tribe may not have been very strong in fighting men. For in Saul's last war with the Philistines, when they had pressed forward so far as Mount Gilboa, and also in Abner's struggle on behalf of King Ishbosheth for the re-conquest of the territory occupied by them, it probably suffered more, and was more weakened, than any of the other tribes. Perhaps also we may add that Ephraim, owing to its jealousy of Judah, which dates from the time of the judges, was not very much disposed to make David king over all Israel. That Zebulun and Naphtali are here so numerously represented, although they do not otherwise play an important part, is no reason for suspecting that the numbers given are incorrect. Since Zebulun under Moses numbered 57,400 men, and at a later time 60,500, and Naphtali 53,400 and 45,400 men capable of bearing arms respectively on the same occasions (see t. i. 2, S. 192); the first named tribe may easily have sent 50,000, the other 37,000 men to David, as the tribes dwelling in the north had been least affected by the wars which Israel carried on in the second half of the period of the judges and under Saul. Both of these tribes, too, are praised in the song of Deborah as a people ready to risk their lives for their fatherland (Jdg 5:18), and may have very much increased in the succeeding time. And besides all this, the tribes Asher, Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh are indeed more feebly represented than Zebulun, but more strongly than Naphtali. There therefore remains no reason for doubting the historical accuracy of the numbers given; but it is of course to be understood that the numbers, which are stated only in hundreds, are not the result of an enumeration of the individual persons, but only of an estimate of the various detachments according to the military partition of the tribes.
In regard to לְהָסֵב מ, cf. 1Ch 10:14; and as to יהוה כְּפִי, see the remark on יהוה כִּדְבַר, 1Ch 11:3, 1Ch 11:10.
1Ch 12:24-25
For וָרֹמַח צִנָּה נֹשְׂאֵי, cf. 1Ch 12:8, 1Ch 5:18. לַצָבָא חַיִל גִּבֹּורֵי, valiant men for the war service.
1Ch 12:26-27
Jehoiada is thought by Rashi, Kimchi, and others, to be the father of Benaiah, 1Ch 11:22. He was נָגִיד for Aaron, i.e., prince of the house of Aaron, head of the family of the Aaronites, not princeps sacerdotum, which was a title appertaining to the high-priesthood, an office held at that time by Abiathar (1Sa 23:9).
1Ch 12:28
Zadok, a youth, i.e., then still a youth, may be the same who was made high priest in place of Abiathar (1Ki 2:26, but see on 1Ki 6:8). “And his father's-house, twenty-two princes.” The father's-house of Zadok is the Aaronite family descended from Eleazar, which was at that time so numerous that it could muster twenty-two שָׂרִים, family chiefs, who went with Zadok to Hebron.
1Ch 12:29
From the tribe of Benjamin, to which Saul belonged (שָׁאוּל אֲחֵי, see on 1Ch 12:2), only 3000 men came, for until that time (הֵנָּה וְעַד, cf. 1Ch 9:18) the greater number of them were keeping the guard of the house of Saul, i.e., were devoted to the interests of the fallen house. For מִשְׁמֶרֶת שָׁמַר, see on Gen 26:5 and Lev 8:35. From this we learn that the attachment of the Benjamites to Saul continued even after the death of his son Ishbosheth, and that it was with difficulty that they could bring themselves to recognise David as king.
1Ch 12:30
Of Ephraim 20,800 famous men (שֵׁמֹות אַנְשֵׁי, see on Gen 6:4); לְבֵית־אב, “in their fathers'-houses.”
1Ch 12:31
Of half Manasseh, this side Jordan (cf. 1Ch 12:37), 18,000, who were appointed by name, i.e., chosen as famous men to go thither and make David king. בְשֵׁמֹות נִקְּבוּ, as in Num 1:17, vide on Lev 24:16. The tribe of Manasseh had consequently held a general consultation on the matter, and determined upon sending their representatives.
1Ch 12:32
From Issachar came “men of understanding in reference to the times, to know (i.e., who knew) what Israel should do.” בַּינָה יֹודֵעַ, knowing in insight (cf. 2Ch 2:12), i.e., experienced in a thing, having understanding of it. From this remark some of the older commentators (Chald., various Rabbins, and Cleric.) concluded that the tribe of Issachar had distinguished itself beyond the other tribes by astronomical and physical knowledge, by which it was qualified to ascertain and make choice of proper times for political action. But the words do not suggest astronomical or astrological knowledge, but merely state, as Salomo ben-Melech in the Miclol Yophi long ago interpreted them, noverant tempora ad omnem rem et quodque negotium, sicut sapiens dixit: Suum cuique tempus est et opportunitas cuique rei, Koh. iii. 1. The words refer not to the whole tribe, but only to the two hundred heads, who, as Lavater expresses it, are designated prudentes viri, as being men qui quid, quando et quomodo agendum esset, varia lectione et usu rerum cognoscebant. The only thing to be objected to in his statement is the varia lectione, since a sound and correct judgment in political matters does not necessarily presuppose scientific training and a wide acquaintance with books. The statement in question, therefore, affirms nothing more than that the tribe of Issachar (in deciding to raise David to the throne) followed the judgment of its princes, who rightly estimated the circumstances of the time. For all their brethren, i.e., all the men of this tribe, went with the two hundred chiefs. עַל־פִּיהֶם, according to their mouth, i.e., followed their judgment; cf. Num 4:27; Deu 21:5.
1Ch 12:33-38
מִלְחָמָה עֹרְכֵי, preparing war with all manner of warlike weapons, i.e., practice in the use of all kinds of weapons for war; cf. 1Ch 12:8. The infinitive לַעֲדֹר is substantially a continuation of the preceding participles, but grammatically is dependent on בָּאוּ understood (cf. 1Ch 12:23, 1Ch 12:38). Cf. as to this free use of the infinitive with לְ, Ew. §351, c. The signification of the verb עָדַר, which occurs only here (1Ch 12:33, 1Ch 12:38), is doubtful. According to the lxx and the Vulg. (βοηθῆσαι, venerunt in auxilium), and nine MSS, which read לעזר, we would be inclined to take עָדַר for the Aramaic form of the Hebrew עָזַר (cf. Arabic ‛dr), to help; but that meaning does not suit מַעֲרָכָה עָדַר, 1Ch 12:38. Its connection there demands that עָדַר should signify “to close up together,” to set in order the battle array; and so here, closing up together with not double heart, i.e., with whole or stedfast heart (שָׁלֵם בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם, 1Ch 12:38), animo integro et firmo atque concordi; cf. Psa 12:3 (Mich.). - In 1Ch 12:38 we have a comprehensive statement; כָּל־אֵלֶּה, which refers to all the bodies of men enumerated in 1Ch 12:24-37. שֵׁרִית is שְׁאֵרִית defectively written; and as it occurs only here, it may be perhaps a mere orthographical error. The whole of the remainder of Israel who did not go to Hebron were אֶחָד לֵב אֶחָד er, of one, i.e., of united heart (2Ch 30:12): they had a unanimous wish to make David king.
1Ch 12:39
Those gathered together were there three days eating and drinking, holding festive meals (cf. 1Sa 30:16; 1Ki 1:45, etc.), for their brethren had prepared them for them. The object of הֵכִינוּ, sc. the eating and drinking, may easily be supplied from the context. אֲחֵיהֶם are the inhabitants of Hebron and the neighbourhood; the tribe of Judah in general, who had already recognised David as king.
1Ch 12:40
But it was not only these who performed this service, but also those of the remaining tribes dwelling near them; and indeed the men of Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali, those on the northern frontier of Canaan as well as those who bordered upon Judah, had sent provisions upon beasts of burden, “for joy was in Israel.” This joy moved those who remained at home to show their sympathy with the national festival solemnized at Hebron by sending the provisions. For דְּבֵלִים, masses of dried figs, and צִמּוּקִים, masses of raisins or cakes, see on 1Sa 25:18.