when the tabernacle was transferred from Shiloh to Nob, and afterwards to Gibeon, the Korahite doorkeepers must, without doubt, have migrated to one of the Levitic cities of Benjamin, probably for the most part to Gibeon, and who were reckoned among the Benjamites. As to הגּדור מן,vide 1Ch 12:4. If this be so, there remains no cogent reason for supposing that in our register, besides the Benjamites, men out of other tribes are also introduced. With that there falls away at once Bertheau's further conclusion, that the author of the Chronicle has considerably abridged the register, and that from 1Ch 12:4 onwards men of Judah also are named, the list of whom must certainly (?) have been originally introduced by special superscription similar to those in 1Ch 12:8, 1Ch 12:16, 1Ch 12:19. His further reason for his conjecture - namely, that our register makes use of the qualificative epithets, “the Gibeathite,” “the Anathothite,” etc., only in a few special cases-is of no force whatever; for we are not justified in assuming that we may expect to find here, as in the register in 1 Chron 11:26-47, such qualificatives after every individual name. The character of our register cannot be arrived at by a comparison with the list of David's heroes in 1 Chron 11; it should rather be sought for by comparing it with the succeeding list, whose contents are of a similar kind with its own. David's chosen corps of thirty heroes was much more important for the history of his reign, than the lists of the men who joined themselves to him and fought on his behalf before he ascended the throne. For that reason the thirty heroes are not only mentioned by name, but their descent also is told us, while that more detailed information is not given with regard to the others just mentioned. Only the names of the Gadites and Manassites are mentioned; of the Benjamites and men of Judah, who came to him in the mountain fastness (1Ch 12:16-18), the name of only one, Amasai, is given; while of the Benjamites who came to Ziklag, 1Ch 12:3-7, such qualificative statements are made in reference to only a few individuals, and in these cases the object probably was to distinguish them from other well-known persons of the same name.
Verses 8-13
1Ch 12:8-13The Gadites, Benjamites, and men of Judah who joined themselves to David during his sojourn in the mountain fastness. - 1Ch 12:8. David's sojourn in the mountain hold falls in the first years of his flight from Saul, 1Sa 22:1. מצד, pointed with Pathach instead of with Kamets (מצד, cf. 1Ch 12:16), on account
