Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dora Smith" <villandra AT austin.rr.com>]

2 Samuel 20:23.  Now Joab was in command of all the army of Israel; Benaiah
son of Jehoiada was in command of the Cherethites and the Pelethites; Adoram
was in charge of the forced labor; Jeshsoaphat son of Ahilud was the
recorder; Sheva was secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were priests, and Ira the
Jairite was also David's priest.

Note:  (Access Bible)  This cabinet list is very similar to the one in
8.16-18.  It probably came to this location by attachment to 21.1-14.  The
forced labor was conscripted from teh northern tribes by David and Solomon.
Its leader, Adoram or Adoni-ram, was later stoned when the Israelites
rebelled against the Davidic dynasty.

2 Samuel 8:16-18:  So David reigned over all Israel, and David administered
justice and equity to all his people.  Joab son of Zeruiah was over the
army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder; Zadok son of Ahitub and
Ahimelech son of Abiathar were priests; Seraiah was secretary; Benaiah son
of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and DAvid's sons
were priests.

Note:  The Cherethites and Pelethites were the royal bodyguard (23:23) and
were related to if not identical with the Philistines.

Kings 4:19  But in the seventh year Jehoiada summoned the captains of the
Carites and of the guards and had them come to him in the house of teh Lord.
He made a covenant wth them and put them under oath in the house of the
Lord...[and used them in a plot to killa member of King Joram's family].

Note says teh Carites were apparently the royal bodyguard, and this may be
an error for Cherethites, the name for the bodyguard under DAvid and
Solomon.

Verse 19:  He too the captains, the Carites, the guards, and all the people
of the land; then they brought the king down from the house of the Lord,
marching through the gate of the guards to the king's house.  He took his
seat on the throne of the kings.  So all the people of the land rejoiced,
and the city was quiet, after Athaliah had been killed with the sword at the
king's house.

Peter:  Can you please give me the ten places where the word Qere for Cretan
is found?

What sense do you make of this?  Do you think David recruited his bodyguard
selectively from faraway places, or is the text trying to tell us that
Israel cared in the time of the monarchy what Aegean nations the
Philistines, whose culture had long become completely Canaanite, originally
came from 200 years ago?

I vaguely recall seeing the entire discussion given a very different spin.
David's personal guard WERE all Philistines, on account of how he had
recruited them long before; possibly on account of where he specifically
recruited them.  He gained them when he was a vassal of the king of Gath.
The spin this author, whose name escapes me, something about "The Secret
Life of David", gave it, was that DAvid and his Philistine guard represented
some culture and interest that were completely foreign to Israel.   The
personally loyal guard actually helped David pull off a number of power
plays that brought him to the throne of Judah, which was not at the time
part of Israel, and helped him win Israel, and one of the verses above
relates one of them.

Can anyone tell me more about the identity and history of David's guards?

Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, Texas
villandra AT austin.rr.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
To: "Dora Smith" <villandra AT austin.rr.com>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2004 6:31 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Aegean Ethnic determinatives on Philistine guards
ofJudean kings in Kings and Samuel?


> On 25/01/2004 04:07, Dora Smith wrote:
>
> >
> I think all he means is that in those verses in 2 Kings we find the word
> KARIY "Carite" or "Carian"; in 2 Samuel 20:23 the word may be KARIY
> "Carian" (Ketiv) or K:RETIY "Kerethite" or perhaps "Cretan" (Qere). The
> latter word is found undisputed in about ten places. The references are
> all to the royal bodyguard of Judah.
>