David's Mighty Warriors - The Three

The Three

The Three are named Josheb Basshebeth (meaning "dwelling in rest") the Tachmonite ("thou will make me wise"), Eleazar ("God has helped") son of Dodo ("his beloved") the Ahohite ("brother of rest"), and Shammah son of Agee the Hararite.

The Three are also mentioned in the Book of Chronicles, where, in the Masoretic Text, the first of these three is named as Jashobeam instead. However, the Septuagint version of the same passage presents a name that scholars regard as clearly being a transliteration from Isbosheth—the euphemism employed in some parts of the Bible for the name Ishbaal. Hence the first member of The Three was probably Ishbaal, Saul's son and heir; the text having become corrupted either deliberately (e.g. due to an editor that sought to downplay Ishbaal's heroism) or accidentally.

In the narrative, Josheb Bashebeth (who is probably Ishbaal) is described as being the leader, and is said to have killed 800 men in a single encounter. Some Septuagint manuscripts, however, attribute the deaths of these 800 men to Adino the Eznite instead, though it is unclear why Adino, who is not one of The Three, would be introduced into the narrative in this way. Josheb Bashebeth is also described as a Tahkemonite, which is probably a corruption of Hacmonite, the latter being how he is described by the Book of Chronicles. Though many translations state that the 800 men were killed by a spear, the Hebrew text is somewhat obscure, and alternative translations are plausible.

Eleazar is described as standing his ground against the Philistines at Pas Dammim when the rest of the Hebrews ran away, and as successfully defeating them. Similarly Shammah is described as having stood his ground when the Philistines attacked a "field of ripe lentils" despite the rest of his associates dispersing, and as having defeated the attackers.