1 *Chronicles 11

₁All the people of Israel came to David at Hebron and said to him: ‘You know we are your people. You are one of us. ₂When Saul was our king, you were the one who led the men of Israel to go to war and the Lord said to you:

₃All the leaders_of_Israel came to the king in Hebron and David made an agreement with them at Hebron and said the Lord was their Witness. Then they anointed David to be king_of_Israel. It happened as the Lord had promised when He had sent Samuel to tell this to the people.

₄David and all the men of Israel went to Jerusalem. At that time the name of Jerusalem was Jebus, and the Jebusites lived there. ₅The people of Jebus said to David: ‘You will not be able to come in here.’ But David defeated Zion, the city of Jerusalem that had strong walls. It is now the City of David. ₆David said: ‘The man who leads the attack on the Jebusites will be the chief of my army.’ Joab, son of Zeruiah, led the attack and he became the chief. ₇David went to live in this city that had strong walls. That is why they named it the ‘City of David.’ ₈David built another wall around the city and he repaired the big flat steps, and Joab repaired the other walls. ₉David became a very important king because the Lord who rules over all was with David.

₁₀Here are the names of the leaders of David's special men. The Lord had promised that David would be king_of_Israel and these men and all the people helped him to become an important king. ₁₁The first name of the special men of David was Jashobeam from the people of Hakmoni. He was their leader. He killed 300 men with his spear in one day.

₁₂Then there was Eleazar, son of Dodai, from the people of Ahoh. He was one of the 3 brave men. ₁₃He was the one who was with David at Pas-Dammim when the Philistines came together to start the war. There was a field with lots of barley and David's men fled before the Philistines, ₁₄but these brave men did not run away. They stayed in the field and they stopped the Philistines so that they could not take that field. These brave men defeated the Philistines. The Lord saved them and He helped them to defeat all the Philistines.

₁₅One day 3 of the 30 leaders went to David at the rock of the Adullam Cave. The tents of the Philistines were in the Rephaim Valley. ₁₆David went to hide in a safe place in the mountains and the Philistines were in the town of Bethlehem. ₁₇David was thirsty and said: ‘I wish someone could bring me water from the water-well at the gate of Bethlehem.’ ₁₈The 3 men walked past the tents of the Philistine soldiers and they took water from the water-well at the gate of Bethlehem. They did this for David, but David said he could not drink that water. He gave the water to the Lord as a drink-offering. ₁₉David said: ‘I ask my God to stop me if I want to drink this water. It will be the same as if I drink the blood of these men. If they had died getting this water, then it would have been my fault.’ David did not want to drink the water, but that is what the 3 men did.

₂₀Abishai, the brother of Joab, was the leader of these 3 special men. He killed 300 men with his spear. He became as famous as the first 3 men. ₂₁They honoured him more than the 3 men, and he became their leader, but he was not one of the 3 men.

₂₂Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, from the town of Kabzeel was a brave man who did great things. It was he who defeated those 2 very strong men from Moab. One day when snow was falling down, he went down into a hole and killed a lion. ₂₃It was he who defeated the Egyptian. The Egyptian was a very big man. He was 5 cubits tall and he had a big spear in his hand. The spear was as big as the pole of a loom. Benaiah had only a stick with him when he went to the Egyptian. He took the spear from the Egyptian's hands and he killed the Egyptian with his own spear. ₂₄This is what Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, did and the 30 special men said that Benaiah was very important, ₂₅the most important of the 30 men, but he was not one of the first 3 brave men. David chose him to be the leader of the men who guarded the king.