2 Samuel 23:17

Is this not the blood of the men: When David poured the water onto the ground, this action did not show ingratitude. Instead, the water had been brought back at the risk of the warriors’ lives. David treated the water as equal to their blood. In this way, the water represented life itself, which belongs to God alone and must not be consumed by humans (Leviticus 17:10–13; Deuteronomy 12:23–24).

• This section lists David's top warriors by name, highlighting their notable achievements. These warriors were like "iron tools" that God used to defeat the godless (2 Samuel 23:7).

• The list is divided into the Three and the Thirty. Some Hebrew scholars suggest that the Thirty could mean "Officers." If true, the Three might have originally referred to a specific military role.

The final chapters of 2 Samuel form a coda (a concluding section). This section brings together and summarizes the main themes from earlier chapters.

These chapters are thematic, not chronological (arranged by topic, not by time). Because of this, not all the events happened at the end of David’s reign (for example, 2 Samuel 22:1).

The material is arranged using a common Hebrew literary pattern called a chiasm (a mirror-like structure). In a chiasm, the first and last sections match, and the middle section is the focus.

The structure of this chiasm is as follows:

• A: Saul’s sin against the Gibeonites and the punishment that affected the whole community (2 Samuel 21:1–14)

  • B: David’s warriors and their heroic deeds (2 Samuel 21:15–22)

    • C: David’s Psalm (2 Samuel 22:1–51)

    • C′: David’s Psalm (2 Samuel 23:1–7)

  • B′: David’s warriors and their heroic deeds (2 Samuel 23:8–39)

• A′: David’s sin involving the census and the punishment that affected the whole community (2 Samuel 24:1–25)

A chiasm draws attention to the center section. Here, the center is David’s hymns. These hymns do not focus on David himself. Instead, they focus on David’s God.