Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Samuel 23

The last words of David - That is, his last psalm, his last “words of song” (2 Samuel 22:1). The inclusion of this psalm, which is not in the Book of Psalms, was likely suggested by the inclusion of the long psalm in 2 Samuel 22.

David the son of Jesse said... - The original word for “said” is used hundreds of times in the phrase “saith the Lord,” which designates the word of God in the mouth of a prophet. It is applied to the words of a man only here; in the strikingly similar passages of Numbers 24:3-4 and Numbers 24:15-16; and in Proverbs 30:1. In all these instances, the words spoken are inspired. The description of David is divided into four clauses that correspond to and balance each other.

Comparisons illustrating the prosperity of the righteous king.

Although my house ... - According to the King James Version, the meaning of this clause is that David, comparing the actual state of his family and kingdom during his later years of trouble with the prophetic description of a righteous king’s prosperity, saw how far his own house fell short. He therefore comforts himself with the terms of God’s covenant (2 Samuel 7:12–16) and looks forward to the Messiah’s kingdom. The latter phrase, although he make it not to grow, would then mean that even though the glory of his house was not presently increasing, all his salvation and all his desire were secured in the covenant, which would be fulfilled in due time.

However, most modern commentators understand both clauses as a question: Is not my house so with God that He has made with me an everlasting covenant? They then read the following phrase as another question: For all my salvation and all my desire, will He not cause it to spring up? This "springing up" is understood to refer to the kingdom of Solomon and, even more fully, to the kingdom of Christ.

The parallel account for this passage is in 1 Chronicles 11, where it appears in immediate connection with David’s accession to the throne of Israel. In that account, the mighty men are named as those who helped make David king. This record likely dates to the early part of David’s reign.

The text of 2 Samuel 23:8–9 should perhaps be corrected by comparing it with 1 Chronicles 11:11–12.

Chief among the captains. There is great doubt about the exact meaning of this phrase.

1. The title is also given to two other individuals: Abishai in 2 Samuel 23:18 and 1 Chronicles 11:20, and Amasa in 1 Chronicles 12:18.
2. The word translated “captain” has an uncertain meaning. Its spelling fluctuates repeatedly throughout this passage and its parallel in 1 Chronicles 11 between “Shalish” (a captain) and “Sheloshah” (three).
3. If the text of Chronicles is taken as the guide, the sense of “captain” is not used. Instead, the word becomes a numeral throughout—either “three” or “thirty”—describing David’s band of thirty mighty men, along with a triad or triads of heroes who were even more illustrious than the thirty.

Therefore, in this verse, the phrase “chief among the captains” should likely be rendered as “chief of the thirty.”

Eight hundred. The parallel passage in 1 Chronicles has “three hundred,” as does 2 Samuel 23:18. Such variations in numbers are very common. (Compare the numbers in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7).

Gone away - Rather, this means they went up to battle (2 Samuel 5:19; 2 Kings 3:21, etc.) against them. These words, and what follows as far as the word “troop” (2 Samuel 23:11), have been omitted from the text in Chronicles. The effect of this omission is that it leaves out Eleazar’s feat as described here, attributes Shammah’s victory to him, incorrectly places the flight of the Israelites, and removes Shammah altogether from the list of David’s mighty men.