Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Samuel 23:13

"And three of the thirty chief men went down, and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam; and the troop of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim." — 2 Samuel 23:13 (ASV)

Three of the thirty. —For “three” the Hebrew text reads “thirty” by a manifest error, which is corrected in the margin. These are not the same three (since there is no definite article) as those just mentioned, but were another three more eminent than the rest of the thirty, two of them being, no doubt, Abishai and Benaiah (2 Samuel 23:18; 2 Samuel 23:23).

“The thirty” seems to have been a common name for this band of heroes (compare 2 Samuel 23:23–24 and following), who were perhaps originally exactly thirty, but whose number varied from time to time, being given here (2 Samuel 23:39) as thirty-seven.

In the harvest time. —“The preposition does not mean in, and the reading in 1 Chronicles 11:15 ‘to the rock’ is perhaps the true one” (Kirkpatrick). On “the valley of Rephaim,” see Note on 2 Samuel 5:18.