As a student of both war and of the bible, I find it interesting when both are being talked about. Reading through 1 Chronicles I arrived at chapter 27, the first half of which talks about King David, of David and Goliath fame, and military commanders and divisions he had set up.
King David is one the most talked about people in the Holy Bible. He was a man, so he was imperfect. He is also one of the best examples of living faithfully and obediently to God. We do get to see during the Bethsheba story what happens when sin comes into a person’s life and when that person is the ruler of a land how a country can fall as a result. We also see David repent of the sins surrounding this incident.
King David is also one of the most successful warriors I have ever read about at any point in history. This success should be accredited to God, not David. David is very much the opposite of how the modern American church say a man of God should act. The modern church promotes the idea of weak men, saying they are meek. Those two words are not the same. A meek man is powerful and capable, but most importantly he is submissive to God and the plan God has.
If you are a man who is underwhelmed with the churchy definition of what a man is than I suggest you study Jesus, David, and Paul. They each have a personality worth copying.
If you were to ask my wife what my favorite hobby is, she would say researching. It’s not my favorite but I do it often. In addition to the Bible, I spend quite a bit of time researching military history. Today we will talk about both.
Talking about David’s military during the time he was king:
1 Chronicles 27:1 NLT This is the list of Israelite generals and captains and their officers, who served the king by supervising the army divisions that were on duty each month of the year. Each division served for one month and had 24,000 troops.
David has a standing army, but one that rotates frequently. One month of active duty and eleven months for reserve status is how I read this. NOTE – this is my interpretation and should not be confused with what the bible actually says that information is missing and I am speculating. I would imagine that each of the twelve divisions trains periodically during the other 11 months. In addition to being called up for any military campaigns which occur and need more manpower.
Generally, my experience with a combat unit relieving another in a new operating environment is, it takes approximately three months to really get into a grove in a new area. But they are working in a place they should all be familiar with, so it does make sense they would not need as much time to adjust.
They are active for such a short duration of time that they could be fairly intense with their patrolling and security operations without fear of burning anyone out.
The nicest thing about this arrangement is these men would still have 11 months out of the year to take care of their properties and conduct business at home. One month away from the family is better than one year and there would be very real differences between this military and the one America currently has.
In the 1 Chronicles 27:5 NLT Benaiah son of Jehoiada the priest was commander of the third division of 24,000 troops, which was on duty during the third month. 6 This was the Benaiah who commanded David’s elite military group known as the Thirty. His son Ammizabad was his chief officer.
Within this force of 288,000 troops David had an elite fighting force known as The Thirty. Which is a rather small group to take on all the missions requiring special skills. This should be an indication of how good the rest of the troops were, the volume of work for The Thirty, or perhaps each division had specialized units within it to supplement the work the Thirty carried out. This information is really not covered anywhere I have found yet.
A summary of The Thirty or the Mighty Men as they are also known can be found in 2 Samuel 23:8-39. Verse 39 ends by stating there were 37 men in all, I don’t know if this membership was replaced periodically resulting in more names, or if The Thirty had a better ring to it than did The Thirty-Seven. They are also talked about in 1 Chronicles 11:10-47.
The Mighty Men seemed to originate during David’s days in exile from King Saul, which is the first place I see a record of them, and continued through his time as king. They would have been hardened by decades of battle. With all the trust and bonds those experiences would have created.
Amongst the Thirty were the Three, the ones whose exploits were talked about enough to make it into the Bible. They would have likely been quite famous in their day. Each with impressive battle records. One of the most talked about is from recorded in both 2 Samuel 23:13-17 and 1 Chronicles 11:15-19.
2 Samuel 23:13 NLT Once during the harvest, when David was at the cave of Adullam, the Philistine army was camped in the valley of Rephaim. The Three (who were among the Thirty – an elite group among David’s fighting men) went down to meet him there. 14 David was staying in the stronghold at the time, and a Philistine detachment had occupied the town of Bethlehem. 15 David remarked longingly to his men, Oh how I would love some of that good water from the well by the gate in Bethlehem. 16 So the Three broke through the Philistine lines, drew some water from the well by the gate in Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out as an offering to the LORD. 17 “The LORD forbid that I should drink this!” he exclaimed. “This water is as precious as the blood of these men who risked their lives to bring it to me.” So David did not drink it. These are examples of the exploits of the Three.
These might like a slight footnote in history, but it really makes an example of how devoted the men were to David and more importantly how devoted David was to God.
The last thing I want to point out before this gets any longer, is among the list of warriors of the Thirty is listed Uriah the Hittite was listed among the Thirty, in 2 Samuel 23:39. Uriah was the husband of Bathsheba, whom David had the affair with and causing her to become pregnant. Long story short, David then arraigned for Uriah to die in battle. This can be found in 2 Samuel 11, read the though chapter. This was a series of sins that caused quite a few issues for David personally and for his kingdom.
It is never said in the Bible, to my knowledge, but I would also imagine it caused issues within The Thirty, as the sin was against one of their own, and possibly within the military as a whole.
There is a lot going on with David and his military. I have provided a few places for you to reference further, and frankly I would rather you read the Holy Bible than anything I write.
-Joseph
Outpost 95 