David’s men who joined him in the desert
12
📚Now these are the ones who came to David at Ziklag, while he was still kept away from Saul the son of Kish; and they were among the mighty men, helpers in the war. 2 📚They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in slinging stones and shooting arrows from a bow. They were Saul’s relatives from Benjamin. 12:2 This chapter shows the general support for David not merely in Judah, his own tribe, but in the other tribes of Israel. Even some of Saul’s kinsmen deserted to David before Saul’s death.⚜
3 📚The chief was Ahiezer, then Joash, the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite; and Jeziel and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth, and Berachah and Jehu the Anathothite 4 📚and Ismaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty, and over the thirty; and Jeremiah and Jahaziel and Johanan and Josabad the Gederathite 5 Eluzai and Jerimoth and Bealiah and Shemariah and Shephatiah the Haruphite 6 Elkanah and Jesiah and Azareel and Joezer and Jashobeam, the Korhites 7 📚and Joelah and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham of Gedor.
8 📚And from the Gadites 📖 some came away to David at the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men and warriors prepared for the battle, who could handle shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and who were as swift as the gazelles on the mountains; 9 Ezer the first, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third, 10 Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth, 11 Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, 12 Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, 13 Jeremiah the tenth, Machbanai the eleventh. 14 📚These descendants of Gad were captains in the army; one of the least was over a hundred, and the greatest over a thousand. 15 📚These are the ones who crossed the Jordan in the first month 📖, when it had flooded all of its banks, and put to flight all those living in valleys, both toward the east and toward the west.
16 And some of the children of Benjamin and Judah came to the stronghold 📖 to David. 17 📚And David went out to meet them, and responded and said to them, “If you have come peaceably to me to help me, my heart will be knit to you. But if you have come to betray me to my enemies, since my hands have done no wrong, the God of our fathers look on this, and rebuke it”. 18 📚Then the Spirit 📖 came on Amasai, who was chief of the captains, and he said, “We are yours, David, and on your side, son of Jesse. Peace, peace be to you, and peace be to those who help you; for your God is helping you”. Then David received them, and made them captains in his raiding band.
19 📚And some from the tribe of Manasseh defected to David, when he was coming with the Philistines to fight against Saul; but they did not help the Philistines, because the lords of the Philistines, after conferring, sent him away, saying, “He will defect to his master Saul to the jeopardy of our heads”. 20 📚When he went to Ziklag, from Manasseh these defected to him: Adnah and Jozabad and Jediael and Michael and Jozabad and Elihu and Zilthai, captains of the thousands who were from Manasseh. 21 📚And they helped David against the band of raiders; for they were all mighty men of valour, and were captains in the army. 22 📚For at that time, day by day, others came to David to help him, until it became a great army, like the army of God.
Those who joined David in Hebron
23 📚And these are the numbers of the bands that were equipped for war, who came to David at Hebron 📖, to turn the kingdom of Saul over to him, in accordance with the word of the LORD 📖: 24 the children of Judah who bore shield and spear were six thousand eight hundred, equipped for war; 25 of the children of Simeon, mighty men of valour for the war, seven thousand one hundred; 26 of the children of Levi four thousand six hundred; 27 📚and Jehoiada was the leader of the Aaronites, and with him were three thousand seven hundred; 28 📚and Zadok, a valiant young warrior, and twenty-two captains from his father’s house; 29 📚and three thousand of the children of Benjamin, the kinsmen of Saul; for until then the greatest part of them had kept their allegiance to the house of Saul; 30 📚and twenty thousand eight hundred of the children of Ephraim, valiant fighters, famous throughout the house of their fathers; 31 📚and eighteen thousand of the half tribe of Manasseh, who were designated by name to come and make David king; 32 📚and some of the children of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times 📖, to know what Israel ought to do; their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command; 33 📚fifty thousand of Zebulun, who went forth to battle, expert in war, with all the weapons of war, who could keep rank; they were not of double heart; 34 and a thousand captains of Naphtali, and thirty-seven thousand with them with shield and spear; 35 and twenty-eight thousand six hundred of the Danites, expert in war; 36 📚and forty thousand of Asher, who went forth to battle, expert in war; 37 📚and on the other side of the Jordan, a hundred and twenty thousand of the Reubenites and the Gadites and of the half tribe of Manasseh, with all kinds of weapons for the battle.
38 📚All these warriors who could keep rank, came with a perfect heart to Hebron to make David king over all Israel; and also all the rest of Israel were of one heart to make David king.
12:38 Verse 2.⚜
39 📚And there they were with David three days, eating and drinking; for their brethren had prepared for them. 40 📚Moreover, their neighbors, even as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought bread on donkeys and on camels and on mules and on oxen, and meat, flour, cakes of figs and bunches of raisins and wine and oil and oxen and sheep in abundance; for there was joy 📖 in Israel.
12:40 These tribes were in Galilee in the north of the land.⚜