2 Samuel 23:11

2Sa 23:11 And after him [was] Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentiles: and the people fled from the Philistines.

Ver. 11. Into a troop.] Or, For foraging.

And the people fled.] As 2Sa 23:9, for it seemeth that this exploit was achieved jointly by these two worthies at the same time. {1Ch 11:14}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Sa_23:11

Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite.

Shammah

I wish you to look at the deed of this man Shammah, who stood in the midst of the plot of lentils and defended it, and slew the Philistines. The one idea that leaps up from this narrative is that which you often find through Scripture, that in the clay of defeat and disaster all God wants is one whole-hearted man. If the Lord can only get a beginning made, if He can, amidst all the disgraceful stampede and rout, get but one man to stop running, one to stop flying, one soul to cease from unbelief and panic and fear, and begin to trust in Him, there and then the tide of battle shall be turned. Shammah did, that is to say, the unexpected. Fleeing had been the order of the day for Israel, and pursuing;had been the order of the day for Philistia. A very pretty game, truly! We shout and you run. We appear, and you disappear. You sow in the spring--it was very kind of you, Israelites--and we step in in the autumn and take the harvest. It is a wonderfully nicely arranged system for Philistia, whatever it may be for Israel. And, just so; dont we seem to make nothing of our Christianity (meaning by that, Christ), as against the powers of Philistia? Look at them in London to-day. What are we doing? Where are we gaining? Speaking broadly, it is invisible. Where are we defeated? Everywhere. The world laughing at us, scandal upon scandal, tale upon tale, wreck upon wreck, ruin upon ruin. Drink, lust, uncleanness, commercial dishonour, everything that belongs to the Devil, strong and vigorous, successful and sweeping; and everything that belongs to Jesus Christ, like those dispirited Israelites, weak and scattering as a flock of sheep. It is bad enough. But just as then, so I believe still, if here and there some man would only understand that in all this there is a trumpet being blown for rallying, times for the individual and for the community might be mightily changed. There is Shammah, and what seems to be sweeping through the breast of--I was going to say the poor man, the noble man--was this: This is too bad! I am sick and tired of this. Are we for ever to sow in the spring, and are these Philistines to reap our crop in the autumn? Are we for ever to be at their mercy? Are we for ever to be trodden underfoot and scattered like sheep? Death is preferable to this running and running and running; and in Gods great name I stand to-day--Death or Victory! If some of us would do that we would be big Christians before night. Just where you have always yielded, my hardly beset brother or sister, try how it will work to stand to-day. Resist this onset that always before has made a clean sweep of you, and what will happen? It will be what always happens: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you--he is a bigger coward than you are. Whom resist steadfast in the faith. Then, it was a big fight for very little. He defended a plot of lentils. Not much to fight for, a plot of lentils! But, coarse horse-feed after all, as I believe it was, it was Israels lentils, and Philistia had no right to them. It was Gods, and not theirs; and little as it seemed to be to make a fight for, Shammah stepped into the middle of the plot, like one who would say, It is mine, it is my countrymens, it is my Gods, and ye shall not have it if one man can prevent it. I wish come one here, young or old man, would, like Shammah, stand in the middle of the wreck that is left, and have one fight for it. Although what is left may have no more proportion to what used to be or what might have been than a patch of lentils has to a broad-acred farm, yet in Gods name stand in the middle of the wreck, and see what will happen. That is all God asks: Stand, stand in the midst, and then see! If the Church of Christ would only get possessed of Shammahs spirit, and in all the howling wreck that is at home and abroad, if she would stand and fight, there would be such a central victory as would tell to the furthermost circumference. I think I see him. He is a sight for dispirited Christians, a sight for all poor backsliders. You are defeated, overcome, overborne. Old sins, like Philistines, have come back on you; redeemed though you call yourself, old sins have come back fore the last month or year and more, and they have been driving you before them pitiably, somewhat contemptuously--secret sins, or open sins, or both combined. You have lost heart, the roaring flood in its strength has swept you away, especially the weakest thing that ever dared to call itself Christian man, believing man, redeemed man. Now, what are you to do? In Gods name let us all try it, let us all do what Shammah did--stand in the middle of what is left. What shall you do? My brother, late in the day as it is, and although night is coming near, although you are not now the man you used to be, and a hundred voices in your ear say to you, It is too late to retrieve the past, those hundred voices are a hundred lies and liars. It is not too late: stand in the middle of the wreck left, in Gods great name. Stand, stand! you might die more than conqueror yet. Over you, there may yet be heard in Heaven the shout of victory: Stand! Shammah stood in the midst of it, and though it wee not worth two half-crowns of any mans money, he defended it, and slew the Philistines, and God came down from heaven to win a patch of lentils! For the Lord loves victory, and the Lord hates defeat, and the only thing He wants is to get at His adversary through some faithful, upright, believing soul. (John McNeill.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Sa 23:11. After him was Shammah — Who, although not expressly mentioned in the parallel place, 1Ch 11:14, yet is plainly implied to have been engaged in this great action. For it is said, that they set themselves, &c., that is, Shammah and Eleazar, who joined in this enterprise. But this place, in Samuel, teaches us that Shammah had the chief hand in it, and therefore it is ascribed to him. Ground full of lentils — In 1Ch 11:13 it is, full of barley: in which there is no difficulty, one part of the field having probably been sown with lentils and the other with barley. The people fled from the Philistines — Fearing to defend the place.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 11. A piece of ground full of lentiles] In 1Ch 11:13 it is a parcel of ground full of barley. There is probably a mistake of עדשים adashim, lentiles, for שעורים seorim, barley, or vice versa. Some think there were both lentiles and barley in the field, and that a marauding party of the Philistines came to destroy or carry them off, and these worthies defeated the whole, and saved the produce of the field. This is not unlikely.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(11) Into a troop.—Josephus, using different vowels, read “to Lehi,” the scene of Samson’s exploit (Jdg_15:9; Jdg_15:19); but as the same word recurs in 2Sa_23:13, clearly in the sense of “troop,” the English reading should be retained.

Lentiles.—Chronicles has “barley.” The two words might easily be confounded in the Hebrew, and it is quite immaterial which is correct; the point is that the Philistines had made a foray to gather the ripe crops, the Israelites were terrified and fled, while Shammah, by his courage and valour, turned the tide of battle, and won a great victory.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. into a troop] Probably the consonants should be read with different vowels to Lehi, the scene of Samson’s victory over the Philistines (Jdg_15:9; Jdg_15:14; Jdg_15:19).

lentiles] Chr. reads barley. The two words might easily be confused in Hebrew. The Philistines came up to carry off the ripe crops. Cp. 1Sa_23:1.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite,.... One who was of the mountainous country, as the Targum, the hill country of Judea, of Hebron, or the parts adjacent; this was the third of the first three; there was one of this name among the thirty, Sa2 23:33,

and the Philistines were gathered together into a troop; but so they were no doubt at first; R. Isaiah takes it to be the name of a place called Chiyah; as the Targum, Chayatha; and which Kimchi says was a village, an unwalled town; and Ben Melech observes, that it is said in the Arabic language, a collection of houses is called Alchai: it may be the same with Lehi, where Samson slew a thousand with the jawbone of an ass, Jdg 15:17, whence it had its name; and Josephus (u) says, the place where the Philistines were gathered together was called "the Jawbone": but perhaps the sense of Ben Gersom may be best of all, that they gathered together in this place for provision, for food and forage, to support the life of them and their cattle: since it follows:

where was a piece of ground full of lentiles; a sort of pulse, which was eaten in those countries, and the pottage of which was delicious food, see Gen 25:30,

and the people fled from the Philistines; as they did before under Eleazar, Sa2 23:9.

(u) Antiqu. l. 7. c. 12. sect. 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Hararite - Interpreted to mean “mountaineer,” one from the hill country of Judah or Ephraim.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Troop. Hebrew Lachaya, has been much controverted: but it appears to be the name of Lechi, or Lehi, "the jaw-bone," (Josephus and Complutensian Septuagint) so memorable for the exploit of Samson. (Bochart, Anim. p. 1. B. ii. 15.) --- Vulgate literally, in statione, "in a station." Some copies of the Septuagint, "against wild beasts;" "To hunt wild beasts," Syriac and Arabic. But it is most probably the name of a place. (Calmet) --- Lentils. (1 Paralipomenon) Barley seems more correct, as the field could not be full of both at the same time; (Haydock) and barley is of more general utility. (Kennicott) --- Yet some would assert, that there was barley in one part and lentils in the other. (Buxtorf, &c.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Full of lentiles, or barley, as it is 1Ch 11:13; for both might very well grow in the same field, in divers parts of it. And this fact is ascribed to Eleazar, 1Ch 11:12, but so as it is implied that he had some partner or partners in it: for it is there said, 1Ch 11:14, They set themselves, &c. So Eleazar might stand and fight in that part where the barley was, and Shammah there where the lentiles were.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. Into a troop — That is, in a great crowd. Through the error of some copyist several lines are omitted in the parallel place in Chronicles, so that what is here ascribed to Shammah is there attributed to David and Eleazar.

Lentiles — עדשׁים Chronicles has שׂעורים, barley. But the Hebrew words are so similar that one might easily have been mistaken for the other. Barley is probably the better reading, as it is more likely that the Philistines would attack and the Israelites defend a field of barley than a field of lentiles.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Into a troop. Josephus renders it "to Lehi," the scene of Samson"s exploit. The word is rare, but occurs again in ver. 13, where, however, we find in Chronicles the ordinary name for a host substituted for it. The Revisers have retained in the margin, "or, for foraging:" but its occurrence in Psa_68:10, where it is tendered "thy congregation," and in the margin of the Revised Version," troop" makes it probable that" troop" is the right rendering here. Lentiles . In 1Ch_11:13, "barley." The difference is probably caused by a transposition of letters. The Philistines seem to have made this incursion in order to carry off or destroy the crops of the Israelites.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lentiles - Or barley, as it is 1 Chron. xi, 13. For both might grow in the same field, in divers parts of it. And this fact is ascribed to Eleazar,

1 Chron. xi, 12, but it is implied, that he had some partner or partners in it; for it is there said, 1 Chron. xi, 14 they set themselves, &c. So Eleazar might fight in that part where the barley was and Shammah where the lentiles were.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

General Information:

This continues the list of David's greatest soldiers. (See: How to Translate Names)

a field of lentils

"a field where someone had planted lentils"

lentils

a flat seed, eaten like beans (See: Translate Unknowns)

the army fled

"the Israelite army ran away"

translationWords

Philistines

Yahweh

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

From the mountain. From the mountain.

For [war like] beast in the wild. [Gathering] to become troops like the beasts gather in the wild.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.