David's Mighty Warriors - Abishai

Abishai

An additional account, continuing on from the description of The Three, which was interrupted by the narrative concerning David's thirst, describes Abishai, the brother of Joab. According to the text, he killed 300 men with a spear, and so became as famous as, and more respected than, The Three. The text states that despite the fame and respect he was not included among The Three, suggesting that being a part of The Three is not just a group of famous people, but something which an individual could in some way gain membership, with criteria that involved more than fame and honour.

According to most manuscripts of the masoretic text, Abishai became the commander of The Three, but according to the Syriac Peshitta, and a few masoretic text manuscripts, Abishai instead became the commander of The Thirty. The text explicitly states that Abishai became the commander of The Three despite not being among them, but it is unclear whether this is directly because he was their commander (as with the masoretic text), or whether he was commander of The Thirty (as with the Septuagint) and The Three were a subgroup of The Thirty (as possibly implied by the narrative about "three of The Thirty").