²⁰ Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from ^(A)Kabzeel, ^[a]who had done many deeds. ^(B)He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day.

David’s Government Officers

²³ And ^(A)Joab was over all the army of Israel; Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites;

^18 (A)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over both the ^(B)Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David’s sons were ^[a]chief ministers.

²¹ The cities at the limits of the tribe of the children of Judah, toward the border of Edom in the South, were Kabzeel, ^(A)Eder, Jagur,

²² Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel, who ^[a]had done many deeds. ^(A)He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day. ²³ And he killed an Egyptian, a man of great height, ^[b]five cubits tall. In the Egyptian’s hand there was a spear like a weaver’s beam; and he went down to him with a staff, wrested the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and killed him with his own spear. ²⁴ These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and won a name among three mighty men.

⁴⁶ So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he went out and struck him down, and he died. Thus the ^(A)kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

²⁹ And King Solomon was told, “Joab has fled to the tabernacle of the Lord; there he is, by the altar.” Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, ^(A)strike him down.” ³⁰ So Benaiah went to the tabernacle of the Lord, and said to him, “Thus says the king, ^(B)‘Come out!’ ”

And he said, “No, but I will die here.” And Benaiah brought back word to the king, saying, “Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.”

³¹ Then the king said to him, ^(C)“Do as he has said, and strike him down and bury him, ^(D)that you may take away from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood which Joab shed. ³² So the Lord ^(E)will return his ^[a]blood on his head, because he struck down two men more righteous ^(F)and better than he, and killed them with the sword—^(G)Abner the son of Ner, the commander of the army of Israel, and ^(H)Amasa the son of Jether, the commander of the army of Judah—though my father David did not know it. ³³ Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab and ^(I)upon the head of his descendants forever. ^(J)But upon David and his descendants, upon his house and his throne, there shall be peace forever from the Lord.”

³⁴ So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and struck and killed him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness. ³⁵ The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army, and the king put ^(K)Zadok the priest in the place of ^(L)Abiathar.

³⁸ So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, ^(A)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the ^(B)Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and took him to Gihon.

²⁶ But he has not invited me—me your servant—nor Zadok the priest, nor Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, nor your servant Solomon.