Take a Stand!
Introduction
If you don’t take a stand for something, then you will fall for anything. Take a Stand!
2 Samuel 23: 1-12
23:1 Now these are the last words of David.
Thus says David the son of Jesse; Thus says the man raised up on high, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel:
[The last words of David] i.e., his last Psalm, his last “words of song” (2 Sam 22:1). The insertion of this Psalm, which is not in the Book of Psalms, was probably suggested by the insertion of the long Psalm in 2 Sam 22.
2 Samuel 22
Praise for God’s Deliverance (Ps 18)
22:1 Then David spoke to the LORD the words of this song, on the day when the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. 2 And he said: (Ps 18) 22:1-51 then 23:1-7 NKJV
[David the son of Jesse said …] The original word for “said” is used between 200 and 300 times in the phrase, “saith the Lord,” designating the word of God in the mouth of the prophet. It is only applied to the words of a man here, and in the strikingly similar passage Num 24:3-4,15-16, and in Prov 30:1; and in all these places the words spoken are inspired words. The description of David is divided into four clauses, which correspond to and balance each other.
2 Sam 23:2 “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue. 3 The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me: ‘He who rules over men must be just, Ruling in the fear of God. 4 And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, Like the tender grass springing out of the earth, By clear shining after rain.’ NKJV
2 Sam 23:5 “Although my house is not so with God, Yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things and secure. For this is all my salvation and all my desire; Will He not make it increase? NKJV
[Although my house …] The sense of this clause (according to the King James Version) will be that David comparing the actual state of his family and kingdom during the later years of trouble and disaster with the prophetic description of the prosperity of the righteous king, and seeing how far it falls short, comforts himself by the terms of God’s covenant (2 Sam 7:12-16) and looks forward to Messiah’s kingdom. The latter clause, “although he makes it not to grow,” must then mean that, although at the present time the glory of his house was not made to grow, yet all his salvation and all his desire was made sure in the covenant which would be fulfilled in due time. But most modern commentators understand both clauses as follows: “Is not my house so with God that He has made with me an everlasting covenant,” etc.? “For all my salvation and all my desire, will He not cause it to spring up?” namely, in the kingdom of Solomon, and still more fully in the kingdom of Christ.
2 Samuel 23:6-7
6 But the sons of rebellion shall all be as thorns thrust away, Because they cannot be taken with hands. 7 But the man who touches them Must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear, And they shall be utterly burned with fire in their place.” NKJV
But then we get into vs: 8
8 These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb-Basshebeth the Tachmonite, chief among the captains. He was called Adino the Eznite, because he had killed eight hundred men at one time.
OT:5722 Adino =`adiynow (ad-ee-no’); probably from OT:5719 in the original sense of slender (i.e. a spear); his spear: KJV – Adino.
OT:6112 Eznite,=`Etsen (ay’-tsen); from an unused root meaning to be sharp or strong; a spear: KJV – Eznite [from the margin].
2 Sam. 23 tells us about David’s mighty men. These were a group of highly trained soldiers who fought with David and aided him in his victories. Among these men were three others who served as David’s personal bodyguards. These men and their exploits are described in these verses.
8 These be the names of the mighty men whom David had: The Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite: he lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time.
The duplicate of this passage is in 1 Chron 11, where it is in immediate connection with David’s accession to the throne of Israel, and where the mighty men are named as those by whose aid David was made king. The document belongs to the early part of David’s reign. The text of 2 Sam 23:8-9 is perhaps to be corrected by comparison with 1 Chron 11:11-12.
[Chief among the captains] There is great doubt about the exact meaning of this phrase.
(1) The title is given to two other persons, namely, to Abishai in 2 Sam 23:18; 1 Chron 11:20, and to Amasa in 1 Chron 12:18.
(2) The word translated “captain,” is of uncertain meaning, and the orthography repeatedly fluctuates throughout this and the duplicate passage in 1 Chron 11, between “Shalish” a captain, and “Sheloshah” three.
(3) If, however, the text of Chronicles be taken as the guide, then the sense of “captain” will not come into play, but the word will be a numeral throughout, either “three” or “thirty,” and will describe David’s band of thirty mighty men, with a certain triad or triads of heroes who were yet more illustrious than the thirty.
In the verse before us, therefore, for “chief among the captains,” we should render, “chief of the thirty.”
2 Samuel 23:9
9 And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel had retreated.
[Gone away] Rather, went up to battle (2 Sam 5:19; 2 Kings 3:21, etc.) against them. These words and what follows as far as “troop” (2 Sam 23:11) have fallen out of the text in Chronicles. The effect of this is to omit EIeazar’s feat, as here described, to attribute to him Shammah’s victory, to misplace the flight of the Israelites, and to omit Shammah altogether from the list of David’s mighty men.
2 Samuel 23:10
10 He arose and attacked the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand stuck to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to plunder.
2 Samuel 23:11
11 And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. Philistines had gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils. So the people fled from the Philistines.
[Hararite] Interpreted to mean “mountaineer,” one from the hill country of Judah or Ephraim.
PLANTS Lentil. A small annual plant with white, violet striped flowers. The seeds of lentils grew in pods similar to the pea. During Bible times lentil was threshed like wheat and boiled into a reddish-brown pottage. This was the dish which Esau purchased with his birthright (Gen 25:34). Lentils could also be used as an ingredient for bread (Ezek 4:9).
(from Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright (c)1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
2 Samuel 23:12
12 But he stationed himself in the middle of the field, defended it, and killed the Philistines. So the LORD brought about a great victory.
The lentil is an edible legume. It is an annual plant known for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about 40 cm tall, and the seeds grow in pods, usually with two seeds in each. As a food crop, the majority of world production comes from Canada and India, producing 58% combined of the world total. So, it’s a pea.
We will be looking the next few weeks at how Shammah “Stood His Ground” and God blessed him for it.
All for “Staying in The Pea Patch”
