Read the passage and its setting
1 Chronicles 11:15–11:19, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
1 Chronicles 11:15–11:19
Three risk their lives for Bethlehem water
The Main Point
Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk.
What Is Happening Here?
Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk.
What Came Before—and What Comes Next?
Jashobeam and Eleazar represent warriors who support David's kingdom, stand in a barley field, and receive a deliverance credited to the LORD.
Abishai's combat feat and Benaiah's lethal exploits earn status, yet the catalogue preserves rank distinctions and Benaiah's guard command.
Follow Memory, David, Worship, and Preparation
See why this section appears here and how the author's movement leads to its meaning.
Why Is This Passage Here?
The scene interrupts heroic accumulation by refusing to consume a costly act of loyalty as a royal entitlement.
Follow the Movement
Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk.
The scene interrupts heroic accumulation by refusing to consume a costly act of loyalty as a royal entitlement.
What Is the Author Saying?
Why This Interpretation Fits
Textual movement
Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk.
Placement in 1 Chronicles
The scene interrupts heroic accumulation by refusing to consume a costly act of loyalty as a royal entitlement.
Understand the Meaning and Its Boundaries
Clarify the words that matter and keep the conclusion no broader than the passage allows.
Words That Matter
jeopardy
See the cited Masoretic Hebrew record ·
The KJV word means danger or risk to life, not a game or abstract challenge.
What the Passage Is Not Saying
Reading 1 Chronicles 11:15–11:19 within Chronicles' complete movement rules out these uses:
David's refusal does not praise reckless orders, romanticize combat risk, or teach leaders to test loyalty through danger.
Context check: Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk. Its position means the scene interrupts heroic accumulation by refusing to consume a costly act of loyalty as a royal entitlement.
What Remains True Today
Leadership is accountable for truth, justice, lives, land, and labor; remembered calling or success does not erase harm or remove correction.
Respond and Remember
Let the meaning shape life carefully, then practice explaining the section in context.
How This Should Shape Us
Why these applications follow
Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk.
Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk. Its position means the scene interrupts heroic accumulation by refusing to consume a costly act of loyalty as a royal entitlement.
Leadership is accountable for truth, justice, lives, land, and labor; remembered calling or success does not erase harm or remove correction.
How should this shape us today?
In leadership decisions, publish the evidence, hear affected people, separate office from immunity, and build consent, review, correction, and remedy into the work.
A Concrete Example
In a present community decision related to memory, belonging, leadership, worship, resources, conflict, or succession, begin with this unit's actual role, state uncertainty, identify affected people, and choose transparent noncoercive action.
Teach It Back
Explain 1 Chronicles 11:15–11:19 in your own words. Include its movement, placement in Chronicles, one Samuel-Kings comparison, one material uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one modern use the complete context rules out.
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Go Deeper
The main explanation above stands on its own. Open these optional sections for fuller language, history, disagreements, and source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Textual movement
Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk.
Placement in 1 Chronicles
The scene interrupts heroic accumulation by refusing to consume a costly act of loyalty as a royal entitlement.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
jeopardy
The KJV word means danger or risk to life, not a game or abstract challenge.
How certain? probableWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Monarchic narrative and postexilic historiography
Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk. The received unit belongs to ancient theological historiography shaped through remembered sources for a postexilic horizon; event, list, institution, number, and chronology claims remain no stronger than the cited evidence.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV wording and material alternatives
jeopardy needs ordinary-English clarification here: The KJV word means danger or risk to life, not a game or abstract challenge. The pinned KJV remains displayed while the Hebrew, NET2 notes, and Greek control material alternatives.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Chronicles within Israel's Scriptures
Samuel supplies the closest narrative parallel for much of David's reign, while Torah, Joshua, Kings, Psalms, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles' genealogical prologue control worship, land, kingship, and postexilic identity. Differences must remain evidence, not defects to erase.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Compare without forced harmonization
Read 1 Chronicles as received Jewish Scripture first, then compare Hebrew, Greek, Samuel-Kings, Torah, Psalms, and postexilic writings without forced harmonization or making ancient Israel a modern political brand.
How certain? probableTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
Samuel-Kings differences and reconstruction limits
The relation between David's wish and the warriors' initiative is not fully stated; responsible reading must not invent a command or erase the power imbalance.
How certain? probableWhere careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The relation between David's wish and the warriors' initiative is not fully stated; responsible reading must not invent a command or erase the power imbalance.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
The Chronicler presents God's presence, judgment, mercy, promise, or ordering work through this exact movement: Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
Across 1 Chronicles this movement contributes to the path from humanity and Israel's genealogical memory through David's accession, ark, promise, wars, temple preparation, ordered service, offering, and succession: Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk.
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
David's refusal does not praise reckless orders, romanticize combat risk, or teach leaders to test loyalty through danger.
A name, lineage, tribe, king, temple office, victory, judgment, offering, or succession line can be detached from the Chronicler's postexilic horizon, literary shaping, affected people, and the rest of the book.
Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk. Its position means the scene interrupts heroic accumulation by refusing to consume a costly act of loyalty as a royal entitlement.
Leadership is accountable for truth, justice, lives, land, and labor; remembered calling or success does not erase harm or remove correction.
Three warriors break through enemy lines for David's expressed longing, but David pours out the water because their lives were placed at risk.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
1 Chronicles 11:15–11:19, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 11:15–11:19
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
STEP Bible NET2full, 1 Chronicles 11:15–11:19, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Supports: Publisher-visible framing of the Chronicler's God, worship, Israel, kingship, retribution, and hope, used only within the stated access limit.
Japhet, The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles (2009), officially exposed introduction pp. 1–8, worship pp. 156–208, Israel pp. 209–307, kingship pp. 308–383, and redemption pp. 384–394; detailed chapter bodies were not available
Supports: Only the exposed late-Persian and alternative-history framing plus the fact of deliberate rewriting; not uninspected detailed claims.
Levin, 'The Chronicler's Rewriting of the History of Israel: Why and How?' (2020), pp. 173–188; official opening, XML metadata, and chapter record
Supports: Complete article on genealogical inclusion and exclusion, Davidic legitimation, temple personnel, worship ordering, and discourse of power.
Geyser-Fouché, HTS 79.1 (2023), article 8011, pp. 1–13, especially pp. 3–11
Supports: Case-sensitive distinction between events and literary presentation in ancient historiography, including credibility limits and rhetorical shaping.
Kalimi, 'History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility,' repository PDF pp. 7–25
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 1 Chronicles 11:15–11:19, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Chronicles
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 11:15–11:19
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Full Notes: 1 Chronicles
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; STEP Bible presentation, 2019 edition; current web presentation
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
Exact location: STEP Bible NET2full, 1 Chronicles 11:15–11:19, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Open source ↗modern scholarly monograph limited access
The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles and Its Place in Biblical Thought
Sara Japhet
Eisenbrauns / Penn State University Press, English edition 1989; reprint 2009
Supports: Publisher-visible framing of the Chronicler's God, worship, Israel, kingship, retribution, and hope, used only within the stated access limit.
Exact location: Japhet, The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles (2009), officially exposed introduction pp. 1–8, worship pp. 156–208, Israel pp. 209–307, kingship pp. 308–383, and redemption pp. 384–394; detailed chapter bodies were not available
Open source ↗peer reviewed scholarly book chapter limited access
The Chronicler's Rewriting of the History of Israel: Why and How?
Yigal Levin
Writing and Rewriting History in Ancient Israel and Near Eastern Cultures, Mohr Siebeck, 2020
Supports: Only the exposed late-Persian and alternative-history framing plus the fact of deliberate rewriting; not uninspected detailed claims.
Exact location: Levin, 'The Chronicler's Rewriting of the History of Israel: Why and How?' (2020), pp. 173–188; official opening, XML metadata, and chapter record
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
1 and 2 Chronicles as a Discourse of Power
Ananda Geyser-Fouche
HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 79(1), article 8011, pp. 1-13, 2023
Supports: Complete article on genealogical inclusion and exclusion, Davidic legitimation, temple personnel, worship ordering, and discourse of power.
Exact location: Geyser-Fouché, HTS 79.1 (2023), article 8011, pp. 1–13, especially pp. 3–11
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility: Chronicles in Its Ancient Context
Isaac Kalimi
Poznan Theological Studies repository edition, pp. 7-25, 2019 repository edition
Supports: Case-sensitive distinction between events and literary presentation in ancient historiography, including credibility limits and rhetorical shaping.
Exact location: Kalimi, 'History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility,' repository PDF pp. 7–25
Open source ↗