Some warriors joined David

12 David went to Ziklag town to escape from King Saul. While he was there, many warriors came and joined him, and they helped him when he fought battles. 2 They carried bows and arrows. They were able to shoot arrows and to sling stones. They could use either their right arms or their left arms to do that. They were relatives of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin.

3 Their leader was Ahiezer. Next in command was Joash. They were both sons of Shemaah from Gibeah city. These are the names of some of those warriors:

• Jeziel and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth;
• Beracah;
• Jehu from Anathoth town;
• 4 Ishmaiah from the Gibeon city, who was a leader of the thirty mighty warriors;
• Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan, and Jozabad from Gederah town;
• 5 Eluzai, Jerimoth, Bealiah, Shemariah, and Shephatiah from Haruph town;
• 6 Elkanah, Isshiah, Azarel, Joezer and Jashobeam, who were descendants of Korah;
• 7 Joelah and Zebadiah, who were sons of Jeroham, from Gedor town.

8 Some men from the tribe of Gad east of the Jordan River joined David when he was at his fortress in the caves in the desert. They were brave warriors who were trained for fighting battles and able to use shields and spears well. They [SYN] were as fierce as [SIM, MTY] lions, and they could run as fast as [HYP, SIM] deer/gazelles on the hills/mountains.

• 9 Ezer was their leader.
• Next in command was Obadiah.
• Next was Eliab.
• 10 Next was Mishmannah.
• Next was Jeremiah.
• 11 Next was Attai.
• Next was Eliel.
• 12 Next was Johanan.
• Next was Elzabad.
• 13 Next was another man whose name was Jeremiah.
• The last was Macbannai.

14 Those men from the tribe of Gad were all army officers. Some of them commanded 1,000 soldiers, and some of them commanded 100 soldiers. 15 They crossed to the west side of the Jordan River during March, at the time of the year when the river was flooded. They chased from there all the people who lived in the valleys on both sides of the river.

16 Some other men from the tribe of Benjamin and from Judah also came to David in his fortress. 17 David went out of the cave to meet them and said to them, “If you have come peacefully to help me, I am eager to have you join with me. But if you have come to enable my enemies to capture me, even though I [SYN] have not done anything to harm you, I hope/wish that the God whom our ancestors ◄worshiped/belonged to► will see it and condemn/punish you.”

18 Then God’s Spirit came upon Amasai, who was another leader of the thirty greatest warriors, and he said,

“David, we want to be with you;

you who are the son of Jesse, we will join you.

We know that things will go very well [DOU] for you and for those who are with you,

because your God is helping you.”

19 So David welcomed those men, and he appointed them to be leaders of his soldiers. Some men from the tribe of Manasseh also joined David when he went with the soldiers of Philistia to fight against Saul’s army. But David and his men did not really help the army of Philistia. After the leaders of Philistia talked about David and his soldiers, they sent David away. They said, “If David joins his master Saul again, we will all be killed {his army will kill all of us}!” 20 When David went to Ziklag, these were the men from the tribe of Manasseh who went with him: Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, another man whose name was Jozabad, Elihu, and Zillethai. Each of them had been a commander of 1,000 men in Saul’s army. 21 They were all brave soldiers, and they helped David to fight against the groups of men who roamed throughout the country, robbing people. So those men became commanders in David’s army. 22 Every day more men joined David’s men, and his army became large, like [SIM] the army of God (OR, a very huge army).