1 Chronicles 10–12

10^*Now ^athe Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down ^||slain in mount Gilboa. ²And the Philistines followed hard after Saul, and after his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and ^||Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. ³And the battle went sore against Saul, and the ^†archers ^†hit him, and he was wounded of the archers. ⁴Then said Saul to his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and ^||abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. So Saul took a sword, and fell upon it. ⁵And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise on the sword, and died. ⁶So Saul died, and his three sons, and all ^bhis house died together.

⁷And when all the men of Israel that were in the valley saw that ^cthey fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, then they forsook their cities, and fled: and the Philistines came and dwelt in them. ⁸And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his sons fallen in mount Gilboa. ⁹And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry tidings ^dunto their idols, and to the people. ¹⁰And they put his armour in the house of their gods, and fastened ^ehis head in the temple of Dagon. ¹¹And when all Jabesh-gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, ¹²They arose, all the valiant men, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under ^fthe oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days. ¹³So Saul died for his transgression which he ^†committed against the Lord, even ^gagainst the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of ^hone that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; ¹⁴And ⁱinquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him, and ^kturned the kingdom unto David the son of ^†Jesse.

11^*Then ^aall Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. ²And moreover ^†in time past, even when Saul was king, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the Lord thy God said unto thee, Thou shalt ^||feed my people Israel, and thou shalt 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, ^baccording 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, Thou shalt not come hither. Nevertheless David took the ^ccastle of Zion, which is the city of David. ⁶And David said, Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first ^dshall be ^†chief and captain. So Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up, and was chief. ⁷And David dwelt in the castle; therefore they called ^||it the city of David. ⁸And he built the city round about, even from Millo round about: and Joab ^†repaired the rest of the city. ⁹So David ^†waxed greater and greater: for the Lord of hosts was with him.

^10eThese 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, ^faccording to the word of the Lord concerning Israel. ¹¹And this is the number of the mighty men whom David had; ^gJashobeam, ^||an Hachmonite, ^hthe 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 mighties. ^13*He was with David at ^||Pas-dammim, ⁱand there the Philistines were gathered together to battle, where was a parcel of ground full of barley; and the people fled from before the Philistines. ¹⁴And ⁱthey ^||set themselves in the midst of that parcel, 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 ^jin the valley of Rephaim. ¹⁶And David was then in the hold, and the Philistines’ ^kgarrison was then at Beth-lehem. ¹⁷And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Beth-lehem, that is at the gate! ¹⁸And the three brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Beth-lehem, 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 it 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 mightiest. ²⁰And Abishai the brother of Joab, he was chief of ^lthe 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 honourable than the two; for he was their captain: howbeit he attained not to the first three. ²²Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, ^†who had done many acts; he slew two lionlike men of Moab: also he went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day. ²³And he slew an Egyptian, ^†a man of great stature, five cubits high; and in the Egyptian’s hand was a spear ^mlike 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 had the name among ^lthe three mighties. ²⁵Behold, ⁿhe was honourable among the thirty, but attained not to the first three: and David set him over his guard.

²⁶Also ^othe valiant men of the armies were, Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan the son of Dodo of Beth-lehem, ^27||Shammoth the ^||Harorite, Helez ^pthe ^||Pelonite, ²⁸Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, Abi-ezer ^qthe Antothite, ^29r||Sibbecai the Hushathite, ^||Ilai the Ahohite, ³⁰Maharai the Netophathite, ^||Heled the son of Baanah the Netophathite, ³¹Ithai the son of Ribai of Gibeah, that pertained to the children of Benjamin, Benaiah the Pirathonite, ^32||Hurai of the brooks of Gaash, ^||Abiel the Arbathite, ³³Azmaveth the Baharumite, Eliahba the Shaalbonite, ³⁴The sons of ^||Hashem the Gizonite, Jonathan the son of Shage the Hararite, ³⁵Ahiam the son of ^||Sacar the Hararite, ^||Eliphal the son of ^||Ur, ³⁶Hepher ^sthe Mecherathite, Ahijah the ^pPelonite, ^37||Hezro the Carmelite, ^||Naarai the son of Ezbai, ³⁸Joel the brother of Nathan, Mibhar ^||the son of Haggeri, ³⁹Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Berothite, the armourbearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah, ⁴⁰Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, ⁴¹Uriah the Hittite, ^tZabad the son of Ahlai, ⁴²Adina the son of Shiza the Reubenite, a captain of the Reubenites, and thirty with him, ⁴³Hanan the son of Maachah, and Joshaphat the Mithnite, ⁴⁴Uzzia the ^uAshterathite, Shama and Jehiel the sons of Hothan the ^xAroerite, ⁴⁵Jediael the ^||son of Shimri, and Joha his brother, the Tizite, ⁴⁶Eliel the Mahavite, and Jeribai, and Joshaviah, the sons of Elnaam, and Ithmah the Moabite, ⁴⁷Eliel, and Obed, and Jasiel the Mesobaite.

12^*Now ^athese are they that came to David to Ziklag, ^†while he yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish: and they were among the mighty men, helpers of the war. ²They were ^barmed with bows, and could use both the right hand and ^cthe left in hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow, even of Saul’s brethren of Benjamin. ³The chief was Ahiezer, then Joash, the sons of ^||Shemaah the ^dGibeathite; and Jeziel, and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth; and Berachah, and Jehu the ^eAntothite, ⁴And Ismaiah the ^fGibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty, and over the thirty; and Jeremiah, and Jahaziel, and Johanan, and Josabad the ^gGederathite, ⁵Eluzai, and Jerimoth, and Bealiah, and Shemariah, and Shephatiah the Haruphite, ⁶Elkanah, and Jesiah, and Azareel, and Joezer, and Jashobeam, the ^hKorhites, ⁷And Joelah, and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham of ⁱGedor. ⁸And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness men of might, and men ^†of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and ^jbuckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and ^kwere ^†as swift as the roes upon the mountains; ⁹Ezer the first, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third, ¹⁰Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth, ¹¹Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, ¹²Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, ¹³Jeremiah the tenth, Machbanai the eleventh. ¹⁴These were of the sons of Gad, captains of the host: ^||one of the least was over an hundred, and the greatest over a thousand. ¹⁵These are they that went over Jordan in ^lthe first month, when it had ^†overflown all his banks; and they put to flight all them of the valleys, both toward the east, and toward the west. ¹⁶And there came of the children of Benjamin and Judah to the hold unto David. ¹⁷And David went out ^†to meet them, and ^manswered and said unto them, If ye be come peaceably unto me to help me, mine heart shall ^†be knit unto you: but if ye be come to betray me to mine enemies, seeing there is no ^||wrong in mine hands, the God of our fathers look thereon, and ⁿrebuke it. ¹⁸Then ^†the spirit came upon ^oAmasai, who was chief of the captains, and he said,

Thine are we, David,

And on thy side, thou son of Jesse:

^pPeace, peace be unto thee,

And peace be to thine helpers;

For thy God helpeth thee.

Then David received them, and made them captains of the band. ^19*And there fell some of Manasseh to David, ^qwhen he came with the Philistines against Saul to battle: but they helped them not: for the lords of the Philistines upon advisement sent him away, saying, He will fall to his master Saul ^†to the jeopardy of our heads. ²⁰…