Poole on 2 Samuel 23:11, 12: David's Mighty Men: Shammah

Verse 11:[1]  And after him was (1 Chron. 11:27) Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite.  (see 1 Chron. 11:13, 14) And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop (or, for foraging[2]), where was a piece of ground full of lentiles:  and the people fled from the Philistines.

[And the Philistines were gathered together in station, לַחַיָּה [3]]  They render it variously.  To Haiatha (Jonathan) [as if it were the proper name of a place].  To wild beasts (Septuagint), as if it were treated of hunting; yet it is neither permitted nor safe to be at leisure for hunting in enemy territory (Bochart’s A Sacred Catalogue of Animals 1:2:15:201).  To catch animals (Syriac, similarly the Arabic).  But in this sense חַיָּה is never used (Bochart’s A Sacred Catalogue of Animals 1:2:15:201).  In station (Vulgate).  But there is no example of חַיָּה being taken in this sense (Bochart’s A Sacred Catalogue of Animals 1:2:15:201).  In the village, or hamlet (Pagnine, Montanus, Vatablus), that is, these things transpired near a certain village (Vatablus, thus Munster).  Into a crowd (Tigurinus); into a band (Junius and Tremellius), or troop (Rabbi Salomon in Bochart’s A Sacred Catalogue of Animals).  חַיָּה signifies this in verse 13.[4]  I would approve, if יֵּאָסְפוּ לַחַיָּה were a Hebrew expression.  I more highly approve what the Septuagint in the Complutensian edition has, ἐπὶ σιαγόνα, to the jawbone, as if they had read לְחִיָה, to Lehi:[5]  Thus the local ה on the end supplies the function of the initial ל, and the sense is most manifest.  Namely, that the plunderers came to the same place, in which a hundred years earlier they had been slaughtered by Samson; where God also stirred up another Samson, who endured their assault, and then shattered it (Bochart’s A Sacred Catalogue of Animals 1:2:15:201).

[There was a field full of lentiles[6] (similarly all interpreters)]  But in 1 Chronicles 11:13 it is ‎שְׂעוֹרִים/barley,[7] from which, by transposition of the letters and a mutation of ר/r into ד/d, perhaps was made ‎עֲדָשִׁים/lentiles here (Cappel).  But these things are too extravagant.  Both were true; that in this field were both barley and lentiles:  In this field first had been bundles, whether of barley, or of lentiles, for that part of the field was already reaped; then they brought thither from other fields other bundles, etc. (Buxtorf’s Vindication 414).  With both kinds of seed was that field able to be sown, or the harvest of both was carried into an open plot (Sanchez out of Cajetan and Hugo).  Or one year they were sowing barley there, the next lentiles (certain interpreters in Martyr).  Perhaps here Shammah with Eleazar (to whom this is generally ascribed in 1 Chronicles 11) together stood in the field, etc. (Sanchez).  The battle was engaged in this field, in one part of which, where was barley, Eleazar attacked them, etc.; in the other, where were lentiles, Shammah, etc. (Malvenda out of Junius).

Full of lentiles, or barley, as it is 1 Chronicles 11:13; for both might very well grow in the same field, in divers parts of it.  And this fact is ascribed to Eleazar, 1 Chronicles 11:12, but so as it is implied that he had some partner or partners in it:  for it is there said, 1 Chronicles 11:14, They set themselves, etc.  So Eleazar might stand and fight in that part where the barley was, and Shammah there where the lentils were.

Verse 12:[8]  But he stood in the midst of the ground, and defended it, and slew the Philistines:  and the LORD wrought a great victory.

[And he defended it, ‎וַיַּצִּילֶהָ]  And he delivered it, understanding, the lentil; that is, the field full of lentils (Vatablus).  In which the Philistines endeavoring either to set the dry material ablaze, or to tread down the green; as also in Judges 6:4 (Sanchez).

Defended it; that the Philistines could neither burn, nor tread it down and spoil it or carry it away.

[1] Hebrew: ‎וְאַחֲרָ֛יו שַׁמָּ֥א בֶן־אָגֵ֖א הָרָרִ֑י וַיֵּאָסְפ֙וּ פְלִשְׁתִּ֜ים לַחַיָּ֗ה וַתְּהִי־שָׁ֞ם חֶלְקַ֤ת הַשָּׂדֶה֙ מְלֵאָ֣ה עֲדָשִׁ֔ים וְהָעָ֥ם נָ֖ס מִפְּנֵ֥י פְלִשְׁתִּֽים׃

[2] Hebrew:  ‎לַחַיָּה.

[3] חַיָּה can signify animal, or community, from חָיָה, to live.

[4] 2 Samuel 23:13:  “And three of the thirty chief went down, and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam:  and the troop (‎וְחַיַּת) of the Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephaim.”

[5] See Judges 15.

[6] Hebrew:  ‎וַתְּהִי־שָׁ֞ם חֶלְקַ֤ת הַשָּׂדֶה֙ מְלֵאָ֣ה עֲדָשִׁ֔ים.

[7] 1 Chronicles 11:13:  “He was with David at Pas-dammim, and there the Philistines were gathered together to battle, where was a parcel of ground full of barley (וַתְּהִ֛י חֶלְקַ֥ת הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה מְלֵאָ֣ה שְׂעוֹרִ֑ים); and the people fled from before the Philistines.”

[8] Hebrew:  ‎וַיִּתְיַצֵּ֤ב בְּתוֹךְ־הַֽחֶלְקָה֙ וַיַּצִּילֶ֔הָ וַיַּ֖ךְ אֶת־פְּלִשְׁתִּ֑ים וַיַּ֥עַשׂ יְהוָ֖ה תְּשׁוּעָ֥ה גְדוֹלָֽה׃ ס