Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Chronicles 11:20
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Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
In Ch1 11:20-25 the second class of heroes, to which Abshai (Abishai) and Benaiah belonged, cf. Sa2 23:18-23, is spoken of. They were not equal to the preceding three in heroic deeds, but yet stood higher than the list of heroes which follows in Ch1 11:26 and onwards. אבשׁי, as Ch1 2:16 and Sa2 10:10, while in Sa2 23:18 and elsewhere he is called אבישׁי, was one of the three sons of Zeruiah ( Ch1 2:16). It is difficult to explain השׁלושׁה ראשׁ, "he was the chief of the three," instead of which we find in Sa2 23:23 השׁלשׁי, i.e., השּׁלשׁי, "chief of the body-guard" (knights). But owing to the succeeding שׁם (ולו) בּשּׁלושׁה ולא, where Samuel also has בּשּׁלשׁה, and to the recurrence of השׁלושׁה on two occasions in Ch1 11:21 (cf. 2 Sa2 23:19), it does not seem possible to alter the text with Thenius. Bertheau proposes to get rid of the difficulty by taking the word שׁלושׁה in two different significations-on the one hand as denoting the numeral three, and on the other as being an abstract substantive, "the totality of the thirty." He justifies the latter signification by comparison of Ch1 11:21 with Ch1 11:25, and of Sa2 23:19 with Ch1 11:23, from which he deduces that שׁלושׁה and שׁלושׁים denote a larger company, in which both Abishai and Benaiah held a prominent place. But this signification cannot be made good from these passages. In both clauses of Ch1 11:25 (and Sa2 23:23) השּׁלשׁים and השּׁלשׁה are contrasted, which would rather go to prove the contrary of Bertheau's proposition, viz., that השּׁלשׁה, the three, cannot at the same time denote the whole of the thirty, השּׁלשׁים. The truth of the matter may be gathered from a comparison of Ch1 11:18 with Ch1 11:15. In Ch1 11:18 השּׁלשׁה is synonymous with השּׁלושׁים מן השׁלושׁה, Ch1 11:15; i.e., the three in Ch1 11:18 are the same men who in Ch1 11:15, where they are first met with, are called three of the thirty; and consequently השּׁלשׁה, the three (triad), Ch1 11:21 and Ch1 11:25, can only denote the triad of heroes previously named. This is placed beyond doubt by a comparison of Ch1 11:24 with Ch1 11:25, since the הגּבּרים שׁלושׁה, the triad of heroes, Ch1 11:24, corresponds to the simple השּׁלשׁה of Ch1 11:25. The only remaining question is, whether by this triad of heroes we are to understand those spoken of in Ch1 11:11-14, \- Jashobeam, Eleazar, and Shammah, - or the three whose names are not given, but whose exploit is narrated in Ch1 11:15-19. But the circumstance that the names of the three latter are not mentioned goes decidedly to show that השּׁלשׁה in Ch1 11:20-25 does not denote that nameless triad, whose exploit is manifestly adduced incidentally only as a similar case, but the three most valiant, who held the first rank among David's heroes. Bertheau's opinion, that in Ch1 11:20-25 one triad of heroes is distinguished from another, cannot be regarded as well-founded, for the three of whom Abishai was chief are not distinguished, and are not different from the three to whom, according to Ch1 11:21, he did not attain. Nor is there greater reason to believe that the triad of Ch1 11:20 and Ch1 11:21 is different from that in Ch1 11:24 and Ch1 11:25, among whom Benaiah made himself a name, and to whom he did not attain. The fact of being chief or prince over the three is not irreconcilably contradictory to the statement that he did not attain to them, i.e., did not come up to them in heroic strength, as is shown by the two classes being connected in Ch1 11:21. As to the r…
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