¹And these were those who came to David in Ziklag while he was still being constrained because of Saul the son of Kish, and they were among the warriors who were helpers in the war, ²armed with a bow, right and left handed with stones, and arrows from the bow, from Saul's brothers, from Benjamin. ³The head was Ahiezer, as were Joash, the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite, and Jeziel and Pelet the sons of Azmaveth, and Berachah, and Jehu the Anathothite, ^4aand Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a warrior among thirty, and in charge of the thirty, ^4band Jeremiah and Jahaziel and Johanan and Jozabad the Gederathite, ⁵Eluzai and Jerimoth and Bealiah and Shemariah and Shephatiah the Haruphite, ⁶Elkanah and Jishshiah and Azarel and Joezer and Jashobam, the Korhites, ⁷and Joelah and Zebadiah the sons of Jeroham from Gedor. ⁸And from the Gadites men detached themselves to David in the fortification in the desert, men who were valiant warriors, men of the army of warfare, handling shield and spear, whose faces were like a lion's face, and who were like gazelles on the mountain in speed: ⁹Ezer the head, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third, ¹⁰Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth, ¹¹Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, ¹²Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, ¹³Jeremiah the tenth, Machbannai the eleventh. ¹⁴These, who were of the sons of Gad, were heads of the army – a junior one over a hundred and a senior one over a thousand. ¹⁵These are they who crossed the Jordan in the first month, when it flooded all its banks, and they put all the inhabitants of the valleys to flight eastwards and westwards. ¹⁶And some of the sons of Benjamin and Judah came up to David's fortification. ¹⁷And David went out to confront them, and he addressed them and said to them, “If you have come to me in peace to assist me, my heart will be united with you, but if you have come to betray me to my adversaries – with there being no violence on my part – may the God of my fathers see it and convict it.” ¹⁸Then a spirit invested Amasai, a head of thirty, and it said,

“We are for you, David,

And with you, son of Jesse.

Peace, peace be to you,

And peace to your helpers,

For your God has helped you.”

Then David accepted them and appointed them among the heads of the troop. ¹⁹And some men of Manasseh defected to David when he came with Philistines against Saul in the war, but they did not help them, for the barons of the Philistines sent him away by counsel and said, “He will defect to his master Saul at the cost of our heads.” ²⁰When he went to Ziklag, these defected to him from Manasseh: Adnah and Jozabad and Jediael and Michael and Jozabad and Elihu and Zillethai – heads of thousands who were from Manasseh. ²¹And they helped David against the hostile troop, for they were all valiant warriors, and they became commanders in the army. ²²For at that time day by day they would come to David to help him until it became a great camp, like a camp of God. ²³And these are the numbers of the heads of the army's armed soldiery. They came to David in Hebron to direct Saul's kingdom to him, according to the pronouncement of the Lord: ²⁴the sons of Judah who bore a shield and spear, six thousand eight hundred armed soldiers; ²⁵from the sons of Simeon, valiant warriors in the army, seven thousand one hundred; ²⁶from the sons of Levi, four thousand six hundred; ²⁷and Jehoiada the leader of the sons of Aaron, and with him three thousand seven hundred men; ²⁸and Zadok, a lad, a valiant warrior; and his paternal house, twenty-two commanders; ²⁹and from the sons of Benjamin, Saul's kin, three thousand – up to this point the majority of them having been guards in the guard duty of Saul's house; ³⁰and from the sons of Ephraim, twenty thousand eight hundred valiant warriors, men of fame of their paternal house; ³¹and from half of the tribe of Manasseh, eighteen thousand men who were specified by name to go and make David king; ³²and from the sons of Issachar, who were knowledgeable in timely tactics, so as to know what Israel should do, their heads who were two hundred in number and all of whose brothers were at their command; ³³from Zebulun, those who went out in the army, equipped for war with every weapon of war, fifty thousand men, fit to take up position without wavering; ³⁴and from Naphtali, a thousand commanders, and with them, with shield and spear, thirty-seven thousand; ³⁵and from the Danites, those equipped for war, twenty-eight thousand six hundred; ³⁶and from Asher, those who went out in the army, equipped for war, forty thousand; ³⁷and from the other side of the Jordan, from the Reubenites and the Gadites and half of the tribe of Manasseh, with all weaponry of the army of warfare, one hundred and twenty thousand. ³⁸All these warfaring men, who took up position in battle formation, went wholeheartedly to Hebron to make David king over all Israel, and also all the rest of Israel was unanimous in making David king. ³⁹And they were there with David for three days, eating and drinking, for their brothers had prepared it for them. ⁴⁰And also those who were related to them – to Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali – brought bread on donkeys and on camels and on mules and on oxen: food, flour, pressed fig cake, raisin cake, wine and oil, and oxen and small cattle in abundance, for there was joy in Israel.