17. David went out to meet them. He said to them, “If you have come peacefully to help me, I welcome you. Join me. But you might have come to turn me over to my enemies, even though I have done nothing wrong. If you do this, the God of our ancestors will see this and punish you.”
18. Then the Spirit entered Amasai, the leader of the Thirty. Amasai said:“We belong to you, David.We are with you, son of Jesse.Success, success to you.Success to those who help you,because your God helps you.”So David welcomed these men. He made them leaders of his army.
19. Some of the men from Manasseh also joined David. They joined him when he went with the Philistines to fight Saul. But David and his men did not really help the Philistines. After talking about it, the Philistine leaders decided to send David away. They said, “If David goes back to his master Saul, we will be killed!”
20. The men from Manasseh joined David when he went to Ziklag. These were the men: Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu and Zillethai. Each of these men was a leader of a thousand men from Manasseh.
21. All these men of Manasseh were brave soldiers. They helped David fight against groups of men who went around the country robbing people. These soldiers became commanders in David’s army.
22. Every day more men joined David. So his army became large. It was like the army of God.
23. These are the numbers of the men who joined David at Hebron. They came ready for battle. They came to help turn the kingdom of Saul over to David. The Lord had said this would happen.
24. There were 6,800 men with their weapons from the people of Judah. They carried shields and spears.
25. There were 7,100 men from the people of Simeon. They were warriors ready for war.
26. There were 4,600 men from the people of Levi.
27. Jehoiada, a leader from Aaron’s family, was in that group. There were 3,700 with him.
28. Zadok was also in that group. He was a strong young warrior. He came with 22 leaders from his family.
29. There were 3,000 men from the people of Benjamin. They were Saul’s relatives. And most of them had remained loyal to Saul’s family until then.
30. There were 20,800 men from the people of Ephraim. They were brave warriors. They were famous men in their own family groups.