2 Samuel 15:18

all the Gittites If the text is sound, we must infer that David had brought with him a body of Philistine followers from Gath, a supposition which is in accordance with the view that the Cherethites and Pelethites were Philistines. See note on ch. 2 Samuel 8:18. But it is possible that we should follow the LXX. in reading Gibbôrîmin place of Gittites. During his wanderings David formed a corps of six hundred picked men, who were particularly distinguished as "David's men." They appear first at Keilah (1 Samuel 23:13, cp. 1 Samuel 22:2), were with him in the wilderness of Paran (1 Samuel 25:13), followed him to Gath (1 Samuel 27:2-3) and Ziklag (1 Samuel 27:8 1 Samuel 29:1, 1 Samuel 30:1; 1 Samuel 30:9), came up with him to Hebron (1 Samuel 2:3), and finally to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 15:6). This corps seems to have been afterwards maintained as a guard with the title of "the Gibbôrîm," that is, "the Heroes" or "the Mighty Men" (cp. ch. 2 Samuel 10:7 2 Samuel 16:6, 2 Samuel 20:7; 1 Kings 1:8), and it is natural to identify the six hundred here mentioned with that body. Some critics think that without altering the reading, we should identify the Gittites with the Gibbôrîm, and suppose that they were called Gittites either because they had followed David ever since his residence in Gath; or because the corps had at this time been largely recruited from the natives of Gath.

The Sept. text of 2 Samuel 15:18 is as follows: "And all his servants passed on beside him, and all the Cherethites and all the Pelethites, and halted at the olive tree in the wilderness. And all the people marched by close to him, and all his attendants, and all the mighty men, and all the warriors, six hundred men, and were present by his side; and all the Cherethites and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, the six hundred men who came after him from Gath, marched on before the king." This appears to be the rendering of a text differing somewhat from the present Hebrew, to which has been added a rendering of the present Hebrew text, with some further glosses or alternative renderings. "The olive tree in the wilderness," which marked the scene of the second halt, (if the reading is genuine and not a mere mistranslation), was probably beyond the Mount of Olives on the road to the Jordan.