The Water of the Well of Bethlehem
8 These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb Basshebeth, a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains; he was called Adino the Eznite, who killed eight hundred at one time. 9 After him was Eleazar the son of Dodai the son of an Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel had gone away. 10 He arose and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand froze to the sword; and Yahweh worked a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to take plunder. 11 After him was Shammah the son of Agee, a Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop where there was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines. 12 But he stood in the middle of the plot and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and Yahweh worked a great victory. 13 Three of the thirty chief men went down, and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam; and the troop of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. 14 David was then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. 15 David said longingly, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!” 16 The three mighty men broke through the army of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David; but he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Yahweh. 17 He said, “Be it far from me, Yahweh, that I should do this! Isn’t this the blood of the men who risked their lives to go?” Therefore he would not drink it. The three mighty men did these things. 18 Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the three. He lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three. 19 Wasn’t he most honorable of the three? Therefore he was made their captain. However he wasn’t included as one of the three. 20 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit in a time of snow. 21 He killed a huge Egyptian, and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a staff and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and killed him with his own spear. 22 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did these things, and had a name among the three mighty men. 23 He was more honorable than the thirty, but he didn’t attain to the three. David set him over his guard.
A roll of impossible deeds — a hand frozen to a sword, a lentil field held alone — and a king who will not drink water three men nearly died to fetch.
He arose and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand froze to the sword; and Yahweh worked a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to take plunder.
The hero list opens with three men and three stands, and the detail is what makes them memorable: Eleazar fighting on after the army has run, until his fingers will not release the hilt; Shammah planting himself in the middle of a lentil patch that nobody else thought worth dying for 2 Samuel 23:11–12. Both accounts end with the same phrase — Yahweh worked a great victory — which is the list's theology in miniature. The men are named and the victory is credited elsewhere, and neither cancels the other.
Shammah's field is worth a moment. It is a plot of lentils. There is no strategic value in it, and holding it is simply refusing to let the enemy have one more thing that belongs to Israel. Faithfulness usually looks like this rather than like the valley of Elah.
David said longingly, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!”
The scene is from the Adullam years, with a Philistine garrison in his hometown. It is a wish spoken aloud, not an order — a tired man remembering the taste of home — and three men hear it and go, breaking through an enemy army and back for a jug of water.
16 The three mighty men broke through the army of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David; but he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Yahweh. 17 He said, “Be it far from me, Yahweh, that I should do this! Isn’t this the blood of the men who risked their lives to go?” Therefore he would not drink it. The three mighty men did these things.
The refusal could look like ingratitude and is the opposite. To drink it would be to consume something bought with three men's lives for a personal craving; pouring it out as an offering says that what they risked belongs to God rather than to the king's thirst. It is also, quietly, a rebuke of his own idle wish — a leader learning that the things he says out loud have consequences other people pay for. The man who once spent Uriah's life on a private appetite is the same man here, and the two scenes belong side by side.
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit in a time of snow.
The second tier gets its own catalogue: Abishai against three hundred, Benaiah against two Moabite champions, a lion in a pit on a snowy day, and an Egyptian giant disarmed with a staff and killed with his own spear 2 Samuel 23:21. These are the men the exile years produced — the distressed and indebted who came to a cave 1 Samuel 22:2 and became this. What David built out of them is a better monument than the pillar in the king's valley.
settled What this mark means