1 Chronicles 12:1

The Men Who Came to David During His Days at Ziklag, and in His Days in the Wilderness Strongholds. Also the Military Strength that Came to Him at Hebron

THE GIBEONITES COME TO DAVID

"Now these are they that came to David at Ziklag, while he yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish; and they were among the mighty men, his helpers in war. They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in slinging stones and in shooting arrows from the bow: they were of Saul's brethren of Benjamin. The chief was Ahiezer; then Joash, the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite, and Jeziel, and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth, and Beracah, and Jehu the Anathothite, and lshmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty, and over the thirty, and Jeremiah, and Jahaziel, and Johanan, and Jozabad the Gederathite, Eluzai, and Jerimoth, and Belaiah, and Shemariah, and Shephatiah the Haruphite, Elkanah, and Isshiah, and Azarel, and Joezer, and Jashobeam, the Korahites, and Joelah, and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham of Gedor."

The significance of this paragraph is that some of Saul's kinsmen defected to David at Ziklag, even a prominent citizen of Saul's home town, a Gibeonite. The material in this chapter is found nowhere else in the Scriptures. The men named here were competent and able soldiers. We reject the snide unbelieving comment of Curtis and Madsen that, "Since on the death of Saul, the tribe of Benjamin remained faithful to his house, how much less can we believe that such desertions to David took place during his lifetime."[1] Such a comment is important only because it alerts us to the fact that the authors of it were unbelievers in the ultimate sense of the word. Foolish indeed are those who trust such writers to interpret the Holy Scriptures for them.

The occasions for these desertions to the cause of David was the period of David's residence at Ziklag, as related in 2 Samuel 27-30. (See my commentary under those references.)

The Chronicler stressed the skill, training, competence and high social standing of several of the persons mentioned. Some writers have attempted to downgrade David's `six hundred men' as "Debtors, discontented and desperate men,"[2] but this is merely a part of their evil campaign against the whole Book of Chronicles. Why? Chronicles is an effective denial of their favorite fairy tale that denies the Books of Moses.

Myers pointed out the real reason for the desertion of many of the very best men in all Israel to the cause of David, as follows: "The best and most capable men became his followers, because they recognized in him the chosen vessel of Jehovah."[3]