2 Samuel 23:9

Dodo the Ahohite. — So in the Hebrew margin here, and so also in 1 Chronicles 11:12; the text here has Dodai, as in 1 Chronicles 27:4, where he is mentioned as the general for the second month. The name is the same under slightly differing forms. “Ahohite” is a patronymic derived from Ahoah, son of Bela, Benjamin’s son (1 Chronicles 8:4).

When they defied... there gathered. — The words “there gathered” require the mention of some place, and the construction of the word for “defied” is unusual. The parallel passage in Chronicles reads, “He was with David at Pas-dammim, and there the Philistines,” &c. The difference between the two readings is not great in the original, and the latter is better. Pas-dammim is the Ephes-dammim of 1 Samuel 17:1, where Goliath defied the armies of Israel, and was slain by David.

Were gone away — Rather, were gathered to battle. So it is translated in the LXX., Vulg., and Syriac, and so the Hebrew requires. The error is a curious one, and seems to have arisen in this way: In 1 Chronicles 11:13 the mention of the battle in which Shammah was engaged (2 Samuel 23:11) is altogether omitted, and the expression “the people fled from before the Philistines” therefore becomes connected with this battle. Josephus follows that text, and our translators were probably misled by him. Several lines have dropped out from the text in Chronicles.