Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

THIRTY, THE

The standard designation of David’s special cadre of elite warriors, also called “Mighty Men” (Heb. gibbôrîm, “heroes, champions, heroic warriors”). The OT contains two similar — though hardly identical — lists of these warriors: 2 Sam. 23:24-39; 1 Chr. 11:26-47, neither of which contains 30 names. 2 Samuel lists 32, not mentioning the named (and unnumbered) “sons of Jashen,” while 1 Chr. 11 gives 46, omitting the various groups whose members are also unnamed and unnumbered.

Despite the dominance of the traditional reading “the Thirty” (haššĕlôšîm), variant Hebrew manuscripts, and certain readings of the MT itself, attest a muted tradition in which Heb. šālîšîm, “third” (pl.), was read. Heb. šālîš may originally have referred to the third man in the chariot, hence its presence in Exod. 15:4. From the time of David onward the šālîšîm have nothing to do with chariotry, but appear as elite infantry alongside other obscure special units, such as the rāṣîm, “runners” (cf. 2 Kgs. 10:25). A possible explanation of the term in this context is that the šālîšîm were organized into squads of three, as special commandos, fighting in support of one another. Thus the stories prefixed to the two lists count the exploits of “the three,” then proceed to the story of the anonymous three who broke through the Philistine line at Bethlehem to draw water from the well there for David. When these šālîšîm became a separate cadre within David’s army is unclear, but the inclusion of this incident from the Philistine wars, and the name of Asahel, brother to Joab and Abishai, suggests an early date.

Scant evidence exists that there were ever 30 of these. The inclusion of men such as Asahel, who was killed early on in the war with the house of Saul, and Uriah the Hittite, sent to his death by David during the Ammonite wars (2 Sam. 11-12), as well as the latecomer Benaiah ben Jehoiada, who served as commander of the army throughout Solomon’s reign, indicates that the lists contain no set number of men, but rather the names and groups who attained this elite status throughout David’s reign.

Both Hebrew terms refer to the same body of elite retainers, attached directly to the person of the king, and chosen for this service by special acts of valor. They were by profession heavily armed infantrymen, “champions.” As such, either singly or in their three-man groups, they could be stationed along a battle line to strengthen the levies, or massed as a group at a single point to break the enemy line, a tactic employed by Joab and Abishai against the Syrians and Ammonites (2 Sam. 10). Certain of these warriors were appointed to positions as high-ranking officers in David’s military (e.g., Abishai, Benaiah).

Bibliography. D. G. Schley, “The Šālîšîm: Officers or Special Three-man Squads?” VT 40 (1990): 321-26.

Donald G. Schley

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

THIRTY, THE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)