1Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we are your bone and your flesh.
2And moreover in time past, even when Saul was king, you were he that led out and brought in Israel: and the LORD your God said unto you,
You shall feed my people Israel, and you shall be ruler over my people Israel.
3Therefore came all the elders of Israel to the king to Hebron; and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the LORD by Samuel.
4And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jebus; where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land.
5And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, You shall not come here. Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion, which is the city of David.
6And David said, Whosoever smites the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain. So Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up, and was chief.
7And David dwelt in the stronghold; therefore they called it the city of David.
8And he built the city around it, even from Millo and around: and Joab repaired the rest of the city.
9So David grew greater and greater: for the LORD of hosts was with him.
10These also are the chief of the mighty men whom David had, who strengthened themselves with him in his kingdom, and with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of the LORD concerning Israel.
11And this is the number of the mighty men whom David had; Jashobeam, a Hachmonite, the chief of the captains: he lifted up his spear against three hundred slain by him at one time.
12And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, who was one of the three mighty men.
13He was with David at Pas-dammim, and there the Philistines were gathered together to battle, where there was a plot of ground full of barley; and the people fled from before the Philistines.
14And they set themselves in the midst of that plot, and delivered it, and slew the Philistines; and the LORD saved them by a great deliverance.
15Now three of the thirty captains went down to the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam; and the host of the Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephaim.
16And David was then in the stronghold, and the Philistines' garrison was then at Bethlehem.
17And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me a drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, that is at the gate!
18And the three broke through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but David would not drink of it, but poured it out to the LORD,
19And said, My God forbid me, that I should do this thing: shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.
20And Abishai the brother of Joab, he was chief of the three: for lifting up his spear against three hundred, he slew them, and had a name among the three.
21Of the three, he was more honorable than the two; for he was their captain: however he attained not to the first three.
22Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many great deeds; he slew two lion-like men of Moab: also he went down and slew a lion in a pit on a snowy day.
23And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits tall; and in the Egyptian's hand was a spear like a weaver's beam; and he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and slew him with his own spear.
24These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and won a name among the three mighty men.
25Behold, he was honorable among the thirty, but attained not to the first three: and David set him over his guard.
26Also the valiant men of the armies were, Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem,
Commentaries for 1 Chronicles 11:0