The men who came to David
1Here are the names of the men who came to David when he was at the town of Ziklag. This was when David was fleeing from Saul, son of Kish. These were the special men who helped David when he went to war. 2Each man had a bow and could shoot arrows, each man could fight with his right and left hand and each man could throw with a sling. They were from the same tribe as Saul, the Benjamin tribe.
3Their leaders were Ahiezer and Joash, sons of Shemaah from the town of Gibeah, as well as Jeziel and Pelet, sons of Azmaveth and Berakah, Jehu from the town of Anathoth, 4Ishmaiah from Gibeon who was one of 30 special men and their leader, Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan, Jozabad from the town Gederah, 5Eluzai, Jerimoth, Bealiah, Shemariah and Shephatiah from the town of Haruph, 6Elkanah, Ishiah, Azarel, Joezer, Jashobeam, all of whom were people of Korah, 7and Joelah and Zebadiah, sons of Jeroham from the town of Gedor.
8Some men of the Gad tribe also came to David when he was in a safe place in the mountains. These were the special men who were good soldiers. Each one had a big shield and a spear. They were as strong as lions and as fast as gazelles in the mountains.
9There were 11 men. Ezer was the leader and Obadiah was the 2nd leader. Then there were Eliab, 10Mishmannah, Jeremiah, 11Attai, Eliel, 12Johanan, Elzabad, 13Jeremiah and Makbannai.
14These were the men from Gad. They were officers and the smallest of these men could defeat 100 men and the biggest man could defeat 1 000 men. 15These were the men who came through the Jordan River in the first month when the river was full and the water overflowed at its sides. The water was so high that all the people in the valleys who lived near the 2 sides of the river had to flee.
16There were also men from the Benjamin tribe and the Judah tribe who went to David in the safe place where he was hiding in the mountains. 17David went to them and he said to them: ‘If you have come to help me, and if you want peace, then you can fight with me. But if you have come to see where I am, to tell this to my enemies, then I pray that the God of my forefathers will see this and that He will punish you, because I have done nothing wrong.’
18Amasai was the leader of the 30 men. The Spirit of the Lord came into Amasai and he said:
‘David, we want to be with you,
son of Jesse. We want to go with you.
We pray that God will be with you
and that you will succeed.
We pray that everyone who helps you
will have peace,
because it is your God who helps you.’
Then David said they could stay with him and he made them the leaders of his men. 19Some men from the Manasseh tribe also went over to David when he went with the Philistines to go to war_against Saul. But David did not help the Philistines, because the leaders of the Philistines talked about it and they said: ‘His king will love him again if he brings the heads of our men to him.’
20The men of the Manasseh tribe who went over to David at Ziklag were Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu and Zillethai. Each of them were leaders of 1 000 men in the Manasseh tribe. 21They helped David and they became leaders of his men because they were all important men and officers.
David's army in Hebron
22Every day men went over to David to help him and his army became very big. He had a lot of soldiers. 23The men who went to Hebron to help David become king in the place of Saul did it because God wanted this to happen. They were all good soldiers and they were ready to go to war.
24Here is a list of how many men there were. From the Judah tribe there were 6 800 men. They all had shields and spears and they were ready to go to war. 25From the Simeon tribe there were 7 100 good men who could go to war. 26From the Levi tribe there were 4 600 men. 27Jehoiada was the leader of the descendants of Aaron. He also came and there were 3 700 men with him. 28Zadok was young then, but he became an important man. There were 22 leaders from his family.
29The Benjamin tribe were family of Saul and most of them stayed with Saul to help him, but 3 000 of them came to David. 30From the Ephraim tribe 20 800 men came to David. They were important men in their families and they were good soldiers.
31From one half tribe of Manasseh 18 000 men came. Their tribe sent these men to David to make him king. 32From the Issachar tribe there were 200 leaders who came. They were wise men who knew what were the right things that the people of Israel had to do. They were the leaders of their tribe.
33From the Zebulun tribe 50 000 men came to help David. They were ready to go to war and they all had their weapons with them. 34From the Naphtali tribe 1 000 officers came and there were 37 000 men with them who had shields and spears. 35From the Dan tribe 28 600 men came. All of them were ready to go to war. 36From the Asher tribe 40 000 men came. They were ready to go to war and they all had weapons.
37From the eastern side of the Jordan River 120 000 men came. They were from the Reuben and Gad tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh. They all had weapons and they knew how to fight in a war.
38All of these men came to the city of Hebron. They were ready to go to war and they all wanted to help David to become king of all the people of Israel. All the Israelites who had not come also wanted to make David king. 39The men who came stayed there with David for 3 days and the people of Hebron gave them food. 40Other people from the tribes of Issachar, Zebulun and Naphtali did not stay far from them and they also brought food for everyone. They brought flour, figs, grapes, wine and olive oil on donkeys, camels, mules and oxen. They also brought many cattle, sheep and goats because the people of Israel were very happy.
