1 Chronicles 12:1-17

Holman Christian Standard Bible

David’s First Supporters

12 The following were the men who came to David at Ziklag while he was still banned from the presence of Saul son of Kish.^(A) They were among the warriors who helped him in battle. ²They were archers who could use either the right or left hand, both to sling stones and shoot arrows from a bow.^(B) They were Saul’s relatives^(C) from Benjamin:

³Their chief was Ahiezer son of Shemaah the Gibeathite.
Then there was his brother Joash;
Jeziel and Pelet sons of Azmaveth;
Beracah, Jehu the Anathothite;
⁴Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a warrior among the Thirty and a leader over the Thirty;
^[a]Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan, Jozabad the Gederathite;
⁵Eluzai, Jerimoth, Bealiah, Shemariah, Shephatiah the Haruphite;
⁶Elkanah, Isshiah, Azarel, Joezer, and Jashobeam, the Korahites;
⁷and Joelah and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham from Gedor.

⁸Some Gadites defected to David at his stronghold in the desert. They were fighting men, trained for battle, expert with shield and spear. Their faces were like the faces of lions, and they were as swift as gazelles on the mountains.^(D)

⁹Ezer was the chief, Obadiah second, Eliab third,
¹⁰Mishmannah fourth, Jeremiah fifth,
¹¹Attai sixth, Eliel seventh,
¹²Johanan eighth, Elzabad ninth,
¹³Jeremiah tenth, and Machbannai eleventh.

¹⁴These Gadites were army commanders; the least of them was a match for a hundred, and the greatest of them for a thousand.^(E) ¹⁵These are the men who crossed the Jordan in the first month^[b] when it was overflowing all its banks,^(F) and put to flight all those in the valleys to the east and to the west.

¹⁶Other Benjaminites and men from Judah also went to David at the stronghold.^(G) ¹⁷David went out to meet them and said to them, “If you have come in peace to help me, my heart will be united with you, but if you have come to betray me to my enemies even though my hands have done no wrong, may the God of our ancestors look on it and judge.”

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