1. Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron,
saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.
2. And moreover in time past, even when Saul was king, thou
wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the
LORD thy God said unto thee, Thou shalt feed my people
Israel, and thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel.
3. Therefore came all the elders of Israel to the king to
Hebron; and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before
the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel,
according to the word of the LORD by Samuel.
4. And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jebus;
where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land.
5. And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, Thou shalt not
come hither. Nevertheless David took the castle of Zion,
which is the city of David.
6. And David said, Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first shall
be chief and captain. So Joab the son of Zeruiah went first
up, and was chief.
7. And David dwelt in the castle; therefore they called it the
city of David.
8. And he built the city round about, even from Millo round
about: and Joab repaired the rest of the city.
9. So David waxed greater and greater: for the LORD of hosts
was with him.
10. These also are the chief of the mighty men whom David had,
who strengthened themselves with him in his kingdom, and
with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of
the LORD concerning Israel.
11. And this is the number of the mighty men whom David had;
Jashobeam, an Hachmonite, the chief of the captains: he
lifted up his spear against three hundred slain by him at
one time.
12. And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, who
was one of the three mighties.
13. He was with David at Pasdammim, and there the Philistines
were gathered together to battle, where was a parcel of
ground full of barley; and the people fled from before the
Philistines.
14. And they set themselves in the midst of that parcel, and
delivered it, and slew the Philistines; and the LORD saved
them by a great deliverance.
15. Now three of the thirty captains went down to the rock to
David, into the cave of Adullam; and the host of the
Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephaim.
16. And David was then in the hold, and the Philistines'
garrison was then at Bethlehem.
17. And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink
of the water of the well of Bethlehem, that is at the gate!
18. And the three brake through the host of the Philistines, and
drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the
gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but David would
not drink of it, but poured it out to the LORD.
19. And said, My God forbid it me, that I should do this thing:
shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their
lives in jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they
brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things
did these three mightiest.
20. And Abishai the brother of Joab, he was chief of the three:
for lifting up his spear against three hundred, he slew
them, and had a name among the three.
21. Of the three, he was more honourable than the two; for he
was their captain: howbeit he attained not to the first
three.
22. Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of
Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lionlike men of
Moab: also he went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy
day.
23. And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits
high; and in the Egyptian's hand was a spear like a weaver's
beam; and he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the
spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and slew him with his own
spear.
24. These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and had the
name among the three mighties.
25. Behold, he was honourable among the thirty, but attained not
to the first three: and David set him over his guard.
