CHAPTER 12

¹And these were the ones who came to David at Ziklag while he was still confined because of Saul son of Kish, and they were the warriors, aiding in battle, ²armed with the bow, with either their right hand or their left, with slingstones, and arrows for the bow, and they were of Saul’s kinsmen of Benjamin. ³The chief was Ahiezer, and then Joash, sons of Hashmaah the Gibeathite and Jeziel and Pelet, sons of Azmaveth, and Beracah and Jehu the Anathothite; ⁴and Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a warrior among the Thirty and over the Thirty; ⁵And Jeremiah and Jahaziel and Johanan and Jozabad the Gederathite; ⁶Eluzai and Jerimoth and Bealiah and Shemariah and Shephatiah the Haruphite; ⁷Elkanah and Isshiah and Azarel and Joezer and Jashobeam of the Korahites; ⁸and Joelah and Zebadiah sons of Jeroham from Gedor. ⁹And of the Gadites there defected to David to the stronghold in the wilderness valiant warriors, men of the army for battle, wielding buckler and spear, their appearance like lions and swift on the mountains as gazelles. ¹⁰Ezer was the chief, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third, ¹¹Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth; ¹²Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, ¹³Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, ¹⁴Jeremiah the tenth, Machbanai the eleventh. ¹⁵These were of the Gadites, chiefs of the army. The least could match a hundred and the greatest a thousand. ¹⁶These are the ones who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing its banks, and they routed all the valley dwellers from east to west. ¹⁷And some of the Benjaminites and Judahites came to David at the stronghold. ¹⁸And David went out before them and spoke out and said, “If in peace you have come to me to aid me, I will have a heart bound together with you, but if it is to deceive me on behalf of my foes when there is no outrage in my hands, may the God of our fathers see and judge.” ¹⁹And a spirit took hold of Amasai head of the Thirty:

                To you, O David,

                    and with you, son of Jesse,

                peace, peace to you

                    and peace to those who aid you,

                        for your God has aided you.

And David accepted them and put them at the head of his band. ²⁰And some from Manasseh went over to David when he came with the Philistines in battle against Saul, but he did not aid them, for the Philistine overlords had sent to him in counsel, saying, “By our heads, he will go over to his master Saul!” ²¹When he went to Ziklag from Manasseh these went over to him: Adnah and Jozabad and Jediael and Michael and Jozabad and Elihu and Zillethai, chiefs of Manasseh’s thousand. ²²And they aided David against the band, for they were all valiant warriors, and they became commanders in the army. ²³For day after day they would come to David to aid him, till there was a great camp like a camp of God. ²⁴And this is the count of the chiefs of the vanguard that had come to David at Hebron to turn round the kingship of Saul to him, as the LORD had said: ²⁵the Judahites bearing shield and spear, six thousand eight hundred army vanguard fighters; ²⁶Of the Simeonites, valiant warriors for the army seven thousand one hundred; ²⁷Of the Levites, four thousand six hundred; ²⁸and Jehoiada prince of the Aaronites, and with him, three thousand seven hundred; ²⁹and Zadok, a valiant warrior lad, and his patriarchal house, twenty-two commanders; ³⁰And of the Benjaminites, Saul’s kin, three thousand, most of them till then keeping allegiance to the house of Saul; ³¹And of the Ephraimites, twenty thousand eight hundred valiant warriors, men of renown in their patriarchal houses; ³²and from the half-tribe of Manasseh eighteen thousand, who were marked out by name to come to make David king; ³³and of the Issacharites who had insight into the times to know what Israel should do, their chiefs two hundred, and all their kin abiding by their word; ³⁴of Zebulun, sallying forth in the army, arrayed for battle with all the weapons of battle, fifty thousand, to give aid wholeheartedly; ³⁵and of Naphtali a thousand commanders and together with them with shield and spear thirty-seven thousand; ³⁶and of the Danites arrayed for battle twenty-eight thousand six hundred; ³⁷and of Asher, sallying forth in the army to array for battle, forty thousand; ³⁸and from across the Jordan, of the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh with all the weapons of the army for battle a hundred twenty thousand. ³⁹All these were men of war, manning the battle lines with a whole heart who came to Hebron to make David king over all Israel, and the rest of Israel, too, had a single heart to make David king. ⁴⁰And they were with David three days eating and drinking, for their brothers had prepared for them. ⁴¹And also their relatives as far away as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali were bringing food on donkeys and on camels and on mules and on oxen, provisions of flour, fig cakes and raisin cakes and wine and oil and cattle and sheep in abundance, for there was a rejoicing in Israel.