David's Mighty Warriors - Benaiah

Benaiah

Benaiah is singled out by the text for being a particularly great warrior, as famous as The Three, and significantly more respected than any of The Thirty, for which reason he was put in charge of the royal bodyguard. As with Abishai, the text emphasises that despite these qualities, Benaiah was not a member of The Three. The text gives a list of Benaiah's "great exploits", suggesting that these are what brought him fame and honour; compared with the feats ascribed by the text to Abishai, and to the members of The Three, Benaiah's feats are somewhat minor (though regarded by scholars as more realistic):

• Killing two of Moab's best warriors
• Killing a lion in a pit on a snowy day
• Attacking a 7-and-a-half foot tall Egyptian with a club, stealing the spear that the Egyptian was using, and killing the Egyptian with it.