Adam Clarke on 2 Samuel 23:21
He slew an Egyptian - This man in Ch1 11:23 is stated to have been five cubits high, about seven feet six inches.
He went down to him with a staff - I have known men who, with a staff only for their defense, could render the sword of the best practiced soldier of no use to him. I have seen even a parallel instance of a man with his staff being attacked by a soldier with his hanger; he soon beat the weapon out of the soldier's hand, and could easily have slain him with his own sword.
We have a good elucidation of this in a duel between Dioxippus the Athenian and Horratas a Macedonian, before Alexander: "The Macedonian, proud of his military skill, treated the naked Athenian with contempt, and…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on 2 Samuel 23:22
These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada,.... Slew a lion, and two lion-like men of Moab, and an Egyptian of a gigantic stature, 2 Samuel 23:20,
and had the name among three mighty men; of which he was one, and Abishai another, the third Asahel, one of the thirty; or was over them, 2 Samuel 23:24, since thirty are reckoned without him. Abarbinel thinks that the third was Adina, the son of Shiza, the Reubenite, 1 Chronicles 11:42; since thirty were with him, and he at the head of them.
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…
Read the whole note in the consoleTyndale Open Study Notes