1 Chronicles 11:1-19 ▼

1 And all Israel is gathered to David at Hebron, saying, “Behold, we [are] your bone and your flesh;

2 even in time past, even in Saul’s being king, it is you who are taking out and bringing in Israel, and your God YHWH says to you: You feed My people Israel, and you are leader over My people Israel.”

3 And all [the] elderly of Israel come to the king at Hebron, and David makes a covenant with them in Hebron before YHWH, and they anoint David for king over Israel, according to the word of YHWH by the hand of Samuel.

4 And David goes, and all Israel, to Jerusalem—it [is] Jebus—and the Jebusite [is] there, the inhabitants of the land.

5 And the inhabitants of Jebus say to David, “You do not come in here”; and David captures the fortress of Zion—it [is] the City of David.

6 And David says, “Whoever strikes the Jebusite first becomes head and prince”; and Joab son of Zeruiah goes up first and becomes head.

7 And David dwells in the fortress, therefore they have called it the City of David;

8 and he builds the city all around, from Millo, and to the circumference, and Joab restores the rest of the city.

9 And David goes, going on and becoming great, and YHWH of Hosts [is] with him.

10 And these [are] heads of the mighty ones whom David has, who are strengthening themselves with him in his kingdom, with all Israel, to cause him to reign, according to the word of YHWH, over Israel.

11 And this [is] an account of the mighty ones whom David has: Jashobeam son of a Hachmonite [is] head of the thirty; he is lifting up his spear against three hundred—wounded, at one time.

12 And after him [is] Eleazar son of Dodo the Ahohite, he [is] among the three mighty;

13 he has been with David in Pas-Dammim, and the Philistines have been gathered there to battle, and a portion of the field is full of barley, and the people have fled from the face of the Philistines,

14 and they station themselves in the midst of the portion, and deliver it, and strike the Philistines, and YHWH saves [with] a great salvation.

15 And three of the thirty heads go down on the rock to David, to the cave of Adullam, and the host of the Philistines is encamping in the Valley of Rephaim,

16 and David [is] then in the fortress, and the station of the Philistines [is] then in Beth-Lehem,

17 and David longs and says, “Who gives me water to drink from the well of Beth-Lehem that [is] at the gate!”

18 And the three break through the camp of the Philistines, and draw water from the well of Beth-Lehem that [is] at the gate, and carry and bring [it] to David, and David has not been willing to drink it, and pours it out to YHWH,

19 and says, “Far be it from me, by my God, to do this; do I drink the blood of these men with their lives? For with their lives they have brought it”; and he was not willing to drink it; these [things] the three mighty ones did.