Verse Lens · Context pointer
1 Chronicles 11:20 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 20. 20And 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.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
This verse opens the thought unit and establishes its first name, action, or speech: “And Abishai the brother of Joab, he was chief of the three: for lifting up his spear against….” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “Abishai and Benaiah are honored without becoming the first three.”
Read It With
- 1 Chronicles 11:20–25
Read 1 Chronicles 11:20 with 11:20–25. The selected wording supplies one opening in the thought unit and establishes its first name, action, or speech; the surrounding verses supply the relationships and outcome summarized here: Abishai's combat feat and Benaiah's lethal exploits earn status, yet the catalogue preserves rank distinctions and Benaiah's guard command.
Why It Needs Context
1 Chronicles 11:20 depends on 11:20–25; isolating “And Abishai the brother of Joab, he was chief of the three: for lifting up his spear against…” would detach a supporting name, action, quotation, number, object, or transition from “Abishai and Benaiah are honored without becoming the first three.”
Read 1 Chronicles 11:20–25 together
Why these verses belong together: 1 Chronicles 11:20–25 forms the complete movement “Abishai and Benaiah are honored without becoming the first three”: Abishai's combat feat and Benaiah's lethal exploits earn status, yet the catalogue preserves rank distinctions and Benaiah's guard command.
Verse 20. 20 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.
Verse 21. 21 Of the three, he was more honourable than the two; for he was their captain: howbeit he attained not to the first three.
Verse 22. 22 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lionlike men of Moab: also he went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day.
Verse 23. 23 And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits high; and in the Egyptian’s hand was a spear like a weaver’s beam; and he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and slew him with his own spear.
Verse 24. 24 These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and had the name among the three mighties.
Verse 25. 25 Behold, he was honourable among the thirty, but attained not to the first three: and David set him over his guard.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Chronicles 11:20–25 — Abishai and Benaiah are honored without becoming the first threeSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
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 11:20–25, 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 11:20–25
Open source ↗