And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man, of Kabzeel, who had done many acts, he slew two lionlike men of Moab: he went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow:
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benaiah | וּבְנָיָ֨הוּ u.ve.na.Ya.hu | H1141 | Benajah · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name |
| son | בֶן ven- | H1121 | a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct |
| Jehoiada | יְהוֹיָדָ֧ע ye.ho.ya.Da' | H3077 | Jehojada · proper noun, a man's name |
| son | בֶּן ben- | H1121 | a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct |
| valiant | חַ֛יִל chai | H2428 | probably a force · noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| man | אִֽישׁ 'ish- | H376 | a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular construct |
| Kabzeel | מִֽקַּבְצְאֵ֑ל mi.kav.tze.'El | H6909 | Kabtseel · preposition + proper noun, a place name |
| many | רַב rav- | H7227 | abundant (in quantity · adjective, masculine singular construct |
| acts | פְּעָלִ֖ים pe.'a.Lim | H6467 | an act or work (concretely) · noun, common masculine plural absolute |
| slew | הִכָּ֗ה hi.Kah | H5221 | to strike (lightly or severely · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular |
| two | שְׁנֵ֤י she.Nei | H8147 | two · noun, common both genders dual construct |
| men | אֲרִאֵל֙ 'a.ri.'El | H739 | lion of God · proper noun, a man's name |
| Moab | מוֹאָ֔ב mo.'Av | H4124 | Moab · proper noun, a place name |
| down | יָרַ֞ד ya.Rad | H3381 | to descend (literally · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular |
| slew | וְהִכָּ֧ה ve.hi.Kah | H5221 | to strike (lightly or severely · conjunction + verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular |
| lion | הָאֲרִ֛י ha.'a.ri.yah | H738 | a lion · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| midst | בְּת֥וֹךְ be.Tokh | H8432 | a bisection · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct |
| pit | הַבֹּ֖אר ha.Bor | H953 | a pit hole (especially one used as a cistern or a priso… · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| time | בְּי֥וֹם be.Yom | H3117 | a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct |
| snow | הַשָּֽׁלֶג ha.Sha.leg | H7950 | snow (probably from its whiteness) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular 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 from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Two lion-like men of Moab - Some think that two real lions are meant; some that they were two savage gigantic men; others, that two fortresses are meant. The words שני אראל מואב sheney ariel Moab may signify, as the Targum has rendered it, ית תרין רברבי מואב yath terein rabrebey Moab, "The two princes of Moab."
And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel,.... A city in the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:21; the father of this man was a man of great vivacity, valour, and strength, so that it was like father like son. Procopius Gazaeus says Benaiah was David's brother's son, and a grandson of Jesse: who had done many acts; which may refer either to the father of Benaiah or to Benaiah himself; and indeed the Syriac and Arabic versions refer the preceding character, "a valiant man", not to the father, but the son: he slew two lionlike men of Moab; two princes of Moab, as the Targum, or two giants of Moab, as the Syriac and Arabic versions; men who were comparable to lions for thei…
Read the whole note in the consoleThe 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…
Read the whole note in the consoleHere are examples of the prowess of Abishai and Benaiah. Elsewhere, Abishai was intensely combative toward David’s enemies, especially Saul (1 Sam 26:6-9) and Saul’s kinsman Shimei (2 Sam 16:9-11). Abishai had saved David’s life during one of the Philistine wars (21:16-17). • Benaiah appeared first as the commander of the mercenaries who served as David’s bodyguard, independent of the regular army (8:18; 20:23). He was also the leader of a 24,000-man division of the regular army that served the king in the third month of every year (1 Chr 27:5-6). He played a major role in Solomon’s ascension to the throne (1 Kgs 1:32-49) and became the commander of Solomon’s army, as Joab was for David.
"He went down and struck the lion in the middle of the cistern." [2 Samuel 23:20] As it is said of Benaiah: And he went down and struck the lion in the middle of the cistern on a snowy day (Book VII, Antiquities, ch. 12), how this was done, Josephus recounts more clearly, because the cistern was indeed very deep, which in the wintertime, when everything was filled with snow, it too was leveled with an excessive heap of snow. When the lion, unbeknownst to danger, happened upon it and fell in, and being trapped there roared greatly, people ran to see what it was. And when Benaiah came with others to such a spectacle, he immediately jumped into the cistern, and attacked and killed the lion in the midst of the snow.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
The two Moabite giants. [Yonoson translates:] "The two Moabite giants." And our Rabbis said, There was no one like him not during the first [Beis] Mikdosh nor during the second [Beis] Mikdosh.21Berochos 18b. Rashi there explains that אֲרִיאֵל is a name used for the Beis Hamikdash. Moabite giants. Because Shlomo who built it came from Rus the Moabite.22Rashi is explaining the connection that אֲרִיאֵל, a reference to the Beis Hamikdash, has to Moav.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
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).
