[Will Kinney]

2 Samuel 23:18 and 1 Chronicles 11:20 - THREE or THIRTY?

2 Samuel 23:18 KJB - “And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief among THREE. And he lifted up his spear against three hundred, and slew them, and had the name among three. “

NASB - “Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of THE THIRTY. And he swung his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name as well as the three.”


1 Chronicles 11:20 KJB - “And Abishai the brother of Joab, he was chief of THE THREE: for lifting up his spear against three hundred, he slew them, and had a name among THE THREE.“


1 Chronicles 11:20 NASB - “As for Abshai the brother of Joab, he was chief of THE THIRTY, and he swung his spear against three hundred and killed them; and he had a name as well as THE THIRTY. “

It should be obvious that there is a pretty big difference between the number THREE and THIRTY. Both cannot be what God originally inspired in His precious words.

The footnotes found in 1 Chronicles 11:20 tell us that the number THREE comes from the Hebrew Scriptures and is even the reading in the so called Greek Septuagint LXX and the Latin Vulgate, but the NASB gets its number THIRTY from the Syriac.

Agreeing with the King James Bible’s reading of THREE in both 2 Samuel 23:18 and in 1 Chronicles 11:20 are the following Bible translations: Wycliffe 1395, Coverdale 1535, the Bishops’ Bible 1568, the Geneva Bible 1599, the 1881 Revised Version, the 1901 American Standard Version, Douay 1950, Darby, Youngs, the NKJV 1982, World English Bible, the NIV and the TNIV, the Amplified bible, Green’s 2001, the 1991 New Century Version, Rotherham’s Emphasized bible 1902, Daniel Wallaces NET version, the 2001 Holman Standard Version and the KJV 21st Century version 1994.

Among foreign language versions that read THREE and not THIRTY are the Spanish Reina Valera of 1602 (though the 1960 and 1995 now read 30 (treinta), but the more recent Spanish Reina Valera Gomez of 2004 has gone back to the Hebrew reading of 3 - tres. The Italian Diodati 1602 and the New Diodati of 1991, along with the Italian Riveduta of 1927. The French Martin of 1744, the Louis Segond of 1912 and the French Ostervald of 1996 all agree with the Hebrew and the King James Bible. So too do Luther’s German bible of 1545 and the Modern Greek translation.

However, following the Syriac and rejecting the Hebrew for both Scriptures and replacing the obvious THREE with THIRTY are the liberal RSV of 1954, followed by the NRSV, NASB and ESV.

The number THREE found in the Hebrew texts refers to the three mighty men who brake through the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem to bring it unto David, their beloved king. This is recorded in 2 Samuel 23:13 through 17 - “And three of the thirty chief went down, and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam...And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David...”

The Hebrew texts and the King James Bible are right, as always, and versions like the NASB, RSV and ESV are wrong.

Will Kinney