How to read this page

An Intertextuality Pair — one connection between two passages, shown as linked verse cards: the Later text and the Earlier text it quotes, alludes to or echoes. The Significance essay explains why the link matters and where it points in Christ.

Reference Type— how explicit the link is: Quotation, Allusion, or Echo
Connection Method(s)— how it carries meaning: e.g. Typology, Promise-Fulfillment, Analogy, Longitudinal Theme
Found via— where the connection was identified, e.g. the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge or an Anchor-Text Network

Graph View — tap the constellation icon in the top bar to see this page's connections as a web of light: gold points are passages, and the coloured threads are the connection types. Click any type in the graph's own legend to filter it in or out, and use the expand control for the full-screen night sky.

New to a term? The Glossary explains every abbreviation and term on the site in plain words.

Intertextuality Pair

1 Chronicles 11:18-19 → 2 Samuel 23:16-17

Allusion

Later text

1 Chronicles 11:18-19BSB

So the Three broke through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well at the gate of Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the LORD, saying, "Far be it from me, my God, to do this! How can I drink the blood of these men who risked their lives?" Because they had brought it at the risk of their lives, David refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three mighty men.

Earlier text

2 Samuel 23:16-17BSB

So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the LORD, saying, "Far be it from me, O LORD, to do this! Is this not the blood of the men who risked their lives?" So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three mighty men.

Significance

These parallel accounts of the Bethlehem well incident preserve David's refusal to drink water brought at the risk of his warriors' lives. David poured it out before the LORD (וַיַּסֵּךְ אֹתָם לַיהוָה, vayyassekh otam laYHWH), treating it as a drink offering. Both texts record David's identical declaration that drinking would be equivalent to consuming the blood of his men. The Chronicler reproduces this story nearly verbatim, reflecting its importance in establishing David's character as a king who honored the sacrificial devotion of his warriors. The pouring-out gesture echoes the language of Israelite libation offerings, elevating the warriors' courageous act to the realm of sacred service.

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Redemptive-Historical Progression — the Bethlehem-well episode is reproduced nearly verbatim from Samuel's appendix into the Chronicler's account of David's rise; the retelling preserves the libation-logic — water won at the price of life is poured out to the LORD as blood — within the advancing portrait of the king whose reign the history carries toward the temple.