1 Chronicles 12:13-23

13 The tenth was Jeremiah. The eleventh was Machbannai.
14 These descendants of Gad were army officers. The least able one was in command of 100 men, and the best one was in command of 1,000.
15 In the first month of the year, these men crossed the Jordan River when it was flooding its banks. They chased away all the people in the valleys to the east and west.
16 Some of the men of Benjamin and Judah came to David at the fortified camp.
17 David went to meet them. He told them, "If you've come to help me as friends would, then you may join me. But if you've come to betray me to my enemies, even though I haven't committed a crime, may the God of our ancestors see this and judge you."
18 Then the Spirit gave Amasai, the leader of the thirty, the strength [to say], "We are yours, David. We are with you, son of Jesse. Success, success to you! Success to those who help you, because your God is helping you." So David welcomed them and made them officers over his troops.
19 Some men from Manasseh had deserted [Saul's army] to join David when he went with the Philistines to attack Saul. (However, David didn't help the Philistines because their rulers sent him away after considering the matter. They said, "It will cost us our heads when he deserts and joins his master Saul.")
20 When David went to Ziklag, these men from Manasseh deserted to join him: Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu, and Zillethai. Each one was an officer over 1,000 men in Manasseh.
21 They helped David fight raiding parties because they were all warriors, commanders in the army.
22 From day to day, men came to help David until he had an army as large as God's army.
23 These are the numbers of the men equipped for war. The men joined David at Hebron to turn Saul's kingship over to David, as the LORD had said.

1 Chronicles 12:13-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 CHRONICLES 12

This chapter gives an account of those that came to David at different times, and joined and assisted him both before the death of Saul, and when persecuted by him, and after he was made king of Judah in Hebron, and before he was king of all Israel, in order to it; of the Benjaminites that came to him when at Ziklag, 1Ch 12:1-7 of the Gadites that came to him when in the hold, 1Ch 12:8-15 of some of Judah and Benjamin, who came to him in the same place, 1Ch 12:16-18, and of the Manassites at the time he came with the Philistines against Saul, 1Ch 12:19-22 and the number of the several tribes are given, that came to him at Hebron to make him king over all Israel, 1Ch 12:23-40.

GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Copyright © 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved. Used by permission.