What Does 1 Chronicles 11:21 Mean?

(21) **Of the three, he was more honourable than the two.**—The Hebrew text here varies from Samuel, which has “Above (or out of) the three, was he not honoured? *n* The reading of Chronicles seems to be an exegetical alteration of this, and should probably be rendered, “Above the three of the second rank he was honoured,” i.e., he was the most honoured member of the second triad. So the Vulg., *et inter tres secun-dos inclitus.* The LXX. has ἀπὸ τῶν τριῶν ὑπὲρ δύο ένδοξος (“Of the three, renowned above the two”). But the Hebrew expression, which means literally, “in the two,” seems plainly to indicate a second group of three. Otherwise, we might translate: “Of the three he was honoured among the two,” that is, above the other two members of his triad. Both here and in 1Chronicles 11:20 the Syriac reads thirty instead of three: “Above the thirty he was honoured, and he became chief over them and warlike; the thirty he used to make” (1Chronicles 11:21). The Arabic is more correct: “And he was mightier than the two, and chief over them twain, and he came not to the three.” **Howbeit he attained not . . .**—Literally, *but to the three he came not, i.e.,* the first triad of warriors (1Chronicles 11:11-14).