2 Samuel 23:18 - John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Bible Comments

And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief among the three,.... Another triumvirate, of which he was the head:

and he lifted up his spear against three hundred, [and] slew [them]; Josephus e says six hundred; this seems to confirm the reading of

2 Samuel 23:8, that the number eight hundred is right, for if it was only three hundred, Abishai would have been equal to one, even the first, of the former three; which yet is denied him in 2 Samuel 23:19:

and had the name among three; of which he was one; and he had the chief name among them, or was the most famous of them.

e Antiqu. l. 7. c. 12. sect. 4.

2 Samuel 23:18

18 And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief among three. And he lifted up his spear against three hundred, and slew them, and had the name among three.