2 Samuel 23:17 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Samuel 23:17
And he said, Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
far
חָלִילָה֩cha.li.Lah
H2486
literal fora profaned thing · interjection
LORD
יְהוָ֜הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
do
מֵעֲשֹׂ֣תִיme.'a.So.ti
H6213
to do or make · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix
blood
הֲדַ֤םha.Dam
H1818
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · interrogative particle + noun, common masculine singular construct
men
הָֽאֲנָשִׁים֙ha.'a.na.Shim
H582
a man in general (singly or collectively) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
went
הַהֹלְכִ֣יםha.ho.le.Khim
H1980
to walk (in a great variety of applications · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
lives
בְּנַפְשׁוֹתָ֔םbe.naf.sho.Tam
H5315
properly · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
would
אָבָ֖ה'a.Vah
H14
to breathe after · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
drink
לִשְׁתּוֹתָ֑םlish.to.Tam
H8354
to imbibe (literally or figuratively) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
did
עָשׂ֔וּ'a.Su
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
three
שְׁלֹ֖שֶׁתshe.Lo.shet
H7969
three · noun, common both genders singular construct
men
הַגִּבֹּרִֽיםha.gi.bo.Rim
H1368
powerful · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Leviticus 17:10 And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even…
Genesis 9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Genesis 44:17 And he said, God forbid that I should do so: but the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant; and as for you, get you up…
Judges 5:18 Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.
1 Samuel 2:30 Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now t…
1 Samuel 26:11 The LORD forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’s anointed: but, I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his…
2 Samuel 20:20 And Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.
1 Kings 21:3 And Naboth said to Ahab, The LORD forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Adam Clarke on 2 Samuel 23:16
Poured it out unto the Lord - To make libations, both of water and wine, was a frequent custom among the heathens. We have an almost similar account in Arrian's Life of Alexander: "When his army was greatly oppressed with heat and thirst, a soldier brought him a cup of water; he ordered it to be carried back, saying, I cannot bear to drink alone while so many are in want, and this cup is too small to be divided among the whole." Tunc poculo pleno sicut oblatum est reddito: Non solus, inquit, bibere sustineo, nec tam exiguum dividere omnibus possum. - Arrian, lib. vi.
The example was noble in both cases, but David added piety to bravery; he poured it out unto the Lord.
John Gill on 2 Samuel 23:17
And he said, be it far from me, O Lord, that one should do this,.... Drink of the water these men had brought him:
is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? who risked the shedding of their blood, and went in danger of their lives to get it:
therefore he would not drink it: some compare with this the story of Alexander (d) to whom a vessel of water was offered when in extreme thirst, which he refused, because he could not bear to drink it alone, and so small a quantity could not be divided among all about him; but the reasons are not the same:
these things did these three mighty men; which made them very famous.
(d) Curt. Hist. l. 7. c. 5.
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Samuel 23:8–end
The following list of David's heroes we also find in 1 Chron 11:10-47, and expanded at the end by sixteen names (Ch1 11:41-47), and attached in Ch1 11:10 to the account of the conquest of the fortress of Zion by the introduction of a special heading. According to this heading, the heroes named assisted David greatly in his kingdom, along with all Israel, to make him king, from which it is evident that the chronicler intended by this heading to justify his appending the list to the account of the election of David as king over all the tribes of Israel (Ch1 11:1), and of the conquest of Zion, which followed immediately afterwards. In every other respect the two lists agree with one another, ex…
I do not fear the uncleanness of food but only the uncleanness of uncontrolled desire. I know that Noah was permitted to eat every kind of meat which was edible; that Elijah was nourished on meat; that John, endowed with a marvelous abstinence, was not made unclean by partaking of living things, namely, the locusts which happened to be available as food. And I know that Esau was led into error by his greed for lentils; that David blamed himself for his craving for water; and that our King was tempted not by flesh but by bread. Further, the people in the desert deserved to be reprimanded, not because they desired meat but because they murmured against the Lord as a result of this desire for meat. Having been placed among these temptations, then, I struggle daily against undisciplined desire in eating and drinking.
When long afterward David sat against the battle lines of enemies, he wished from desire to drink water from the cistern of Bethlehem. His chosen soldiers, breaking through the midst of the opposing forces, brought back unharmed the water the king had desired. But the man instructed by scourges immediately reproached himself for having desired water at the peril of his soldiers, and pouring it out, he offered it to the Lord, as it is written there: He poured it out to the Lord. For the water poured out was turned into a sacrifice to the Lord, because he slew the fault of concupiscence through the penance of his self-reproach. He therefore who once did not at all fear to covet another's wife, afterward was even afraid because he had coveted water. For since he remembered having perpetrated unlawful things, now stern against himself, he abstained even from lawful things. Thus, thus do we do penance, if we perfectly bewail what we have committed.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Bethlehem — House of bread. (1.) A city in the “hill country” of Judah. It was originally called Ephrath (Gen. 35:16, 19; 48:7; Ruth 4:11). It was also called Beth-lehem Ephratah (Micah 5:2), Beth-lehem-judah (1…
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Giants — (1.) Heb. nephilim, meaning “violent” or “causing to fall” (Gen. 6:4). These were the violent tyrants of those days, those who fell upon others. The word may also be derived from a root signifying…
Hareth — Thicket, a wood in the mountains of Judah where David hid when pursued by Saul (1 Sam. 22:5). It was possibly while he was here that the memorable incident narrated in 2 Sam. 23:14-17, 1 Chr.…
Jashobeam — Dweller among the people; or to whom the people turn, the Hachmonite (1 Chr. 11:11), one of David’s chief heroes who joined him at Ziklag (12:6). He was the first of the three who broke through the…
Rephaim, Valley of — (Josh. 15:8; 18:16, R.V.). When David became king over all Israel, the Philistines, judging that he would now become their uncompromising enemy, made a sudden attack upon Hebron, compelling David to…
Shammah — Desert. (1.) One of the “dukes” of Edom (Gen. 36:13, 17). (2.) One of the sons of Jesse (1 Sam. 16:9). He is also called Shimeah (2 Sam. 13:3) and Shimma (1 Chr. 2:13). (3.) One of David’s three…
Unselfishness · .David — .David
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
on 2 Samuel 23:17
This water . . . these men: When David poured the hard-won water on the ground, it did not signal ingratitude. Rather, he regarded the water as equivalent to the warriors’ blood; it represented life that only God was worthy to receive (Lev 17:10-13; Deut 12:23-24).
Rashi on 2 Samuel 23:17
[Do I want] the blood of [these] men. Language denoting astonishment.
