2 Samuel 23:18

18 And Abishai brother of Joab, son of Zeruiah, he [is] head of three, and he is lifting up his spear against three hundred -- wounded, and he hath a name among three.

2 Samuel 23:18 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 23:18

And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was
chief among the three
Another triumvirate, of which he was the head:

and he lifted up his spear against three hundred, [and] slew [them];
Josephus ^F5 says six hundred; this seems to confirm the reading of ( 2 Samuel 23:8 ) , that the number eight hundred is right, for if it was only three hundred, Abishai would have been equal to one, even the first, of the former three; which yet is denied him in ( 2 Samuel 23:19 ) :

and had the name among three;
of which he was one; and he had the chief name among them, or was the most famous of them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 Antiqu. l. 7. c. 12. sect. 4.

2 Samuel 23:18 In-Context

16 And the three mighty ones cleave through the camp of the Philistines, and draw water out of the well of Beth-Lehem, which [is] by the gate, and take [it] up, and bring in unto David; and he was not willing to drink it, and poureth it out to Jehovah,

17 and saith, `Far be it from me, O Jehovah, to do this; is it the blood of the men who are going with their lives?' and he was not willing to drink it; these [things] did the three mighty ones.

18 And Abishai brother of Joab, son of Zeruiah, he [is] head of three, and he is lifting up his spear against three hundred -- wounded, and he hath a name among three.

19 Of the three is he not the honoured? and he becometh their head; and unto the [first] three he hath not come

20 And Benaiah son of Jehoiada (son of a man of valour, great in deeds from Kabzeel), he hath smitten two lion-like men of Moab, and he hath gone down and smitten the lion in the midst of the pit in a day of snow.