1Then all Israel gathered themselves to David to Hebron, saying, Behold, we are your bone and your flesh.
2In times past, even when Saul was king, it was you who led out and brought in Israel: and Yahweh your God said to you, You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over my people Israel.
3So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahweh; and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of Yahweh by Samuel.
4David and all Israel went to Jerusalem (the same is Jebus); and the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, were there.
5The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, You shall not come in here. Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David.
6David said, Whoever strikes the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain. Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first, and was made chief.
7David lived in the stronghold; therefore they called it the city of David.
8He built the city round about, from Millo even round about; and Joab repaired the rest of the city.
9David grew greater and greater; for Yahweh of Hosts was with him.
10Now these are the chief of the mighty men whom David had, who showed themselves strong with him in his kingdom, together with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of Yahweh concerning Israel.
11This is the number of the mighty men whom David had: Jashobeam, the son of a Hachmonite, the chief of the thirty; he lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them at one time.
12After him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, who was one of the three mighty men.
13He was with David at Pasdammim, and there the Philistines were gathered together to battle, where was a plot of ground full of barley; and the people fled from before the Philistines.
14They stood in the midst of the plot, and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and Yahweh saved them by a great victory.
15Three of the thirty chief men went down to the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam; and the host of the Philistines were encamped in the valley of Rephaim.
16David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Beth-lehem.
17David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Beth-lehem, which is by the gate!
18The three broke through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Beth-lehem, 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 Yahweh,
19and said, My God forbid it me, that I should do this: shall I drink the blood of these men who 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 the three mighty men.
20Abishai, the brother of Joab, he was chief of the three; for he lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three.
21Of the three, he was more honorable than the two, and was made their captain: however he didn`t attain to the [first] three.
22Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, he killed the two [sons of] Ariel of Moab: he went down also and killed a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow.
23He killed 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 killed him with his own spear.
24These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and had a name among the three mighty men.
25Behold, he was more honorable than the thirty, but he didn`t attain to the [first] three: and David set him over his guard.
26Also the mighty men of the armies: Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan the son of Dodo of Beth-lehem,
