He answered, ¹  “Truly I am the commander of the Lord’s army. ²  Now I have arrived!” ³  Joshua bowed down with his face to the ground ⁴  and asked, “What does my master want to say to his servant?”

The commander of the Lord’s army answered Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, because the place where you stand is holy.” Joshua did so.

They captured the two Midianite generals, Oreb and Zeeb. ¹  They executed Oreb on the rock of Oreb and Zeeb ²  in the winepress of Zeeb. They chased the Midianites ³  and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was now on the other side of the Jordan River. ⁴ 

It was to you that God handed over the Midianite generals, Oreb and Zeeb! What did I accomplish to rival that?” ¹  When he said this, they calmed down. ² 

The leaders ¹  of Gilead said to one another, “Who is willing to lead the charge ²  against the Ammonites? He will become the leader of all who live in Gilead!”

¹ Now as Saul watched David going out to fight the Philistine, he asked Abner, the general in command of the army, “Whose son is this young man, Abner?” Abner replied, “As surely as you live, O king, I don’t know.”

All those who were in trouble or owed someone money or were discontented ¹  gathered around ²  him, and he became their leader. He had about four hundred men with him.

So David set out and went to the place where Saul was camped. David saw the place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the general in command of his army, were sleeping. Now Saul was lying in the entrenchment, and the army was camped all around him.

Achish replied to David, “I am convinced that you are as reliable ¹  as the angel of God! However, the leaders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go up with us in the battle.’

Now Saul’s son ¹  had two men who were in charge of raiding units; one was named Baanah and the other Recab. They were sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, who was a Benjaminite. (Beeroth is regarded as belonging to Benjamin,

the Ammonite officials said to their lord Hanun, “Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy? ¹  No, David has sent his servants to you to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it!” ² 

The Arameans fled before Israel. David killed 700 Aramean charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers. ¹  He also struck down Shobach, the general in command of the army, who died there.

The king gave this order to Joab, Abishai, and Ittai: “For my sake deal gently with the young man Absalom.” Now the entire army was listening when the king gave all the leaders this order concerning Absalom.

You seem to love your enemies and hate your friends! For you have as much as declared today that leaders and servants don’t matter to you. I realize now ¹  that if ²  Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, ³  it would be all right with you.

Say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my flesh and blood? ¹  God will punish me severely, ²  if from this time on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

The king told Joab, the general in command of his army, “Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beer Sheba and muster the army, so I may know the size of the army.”

For today he has gone down and sacrificed many cattle, steers, and sheep and has invited all the king’s sons, the army commanders, and Abiathar the priest. At this moment ¹  they are having a feast ²  in his presence, and they have declared, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’ ³ 

While in Egypt Hadad heard that David had passed away ¹  and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead. So Hadad asked Pharaoh, “Give me permission to leave ²  so I can return to my homeland.”

While deployed there, the army received this report: ¹  “Zimri has conspired against the king and assassinated him.” ²  So all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that very day in the camp.

So Ahab ¹  assembled the 232 servants of the district governors. After that he assembled all the Israelite army, numbering 7,000. ²