And all his servants passed on beside him,.... Or at his hand or side; his household servants walking perhaps some on one side of him, and some on the other, see 2 Samuel 16:6;
and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites; which were his bodyguards, see 2 Samuel 8:18;
and all the Gittites, six hundred men which came after him from Gath; which either came with him from Gath, when he conquered that city, and took it out of the hands of the Philistines, 2 Samuel 8:1; compared with
1 Chronicles 18:1; and who might become proselytes, and be incorporated into the commonwealth of Israel, and into David's army, a troop of men, of which Ittai, after mentioned, was captain, 2 Samuel 15:22; or else these were Israelites, so called, because with David they sojourned in Gath a while, when he fled from Saul; and so Josephus l says, they were companions of him in his first flight, when Saul was living; and this number is just the number of the men that were with him at Gath, 1 Samuel 27:2; and it may be David kept a troop of men always of the same number, to whom he gave this name in memory of them, having been a set of trusty and faithful men to him: these, with the Cherethites and Pelethites,
passed on before the king: in this form and manner David and his men marched in their flight.
l Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 7. c. 9.) sect. 2.