Strengthen your faith in God's word

Of David’s chief captain: “he lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time” (2 Samuel 23:8). “He lifted up his spear against three hundred slain by him at one time” (1 Chronicles 11:11).

Each verse says “at one time,” and nothing requires the same time. A man made chief of David’s captains for his exploits would have more than one, and Samuel and Chronicles each record one: Kimchi’s answer, which Gill calls the best, “that there were two battles, in which this officer was engaged, at one of them he slew 800, and at the other 300.” Chronicles often supplies what Samuel and Kings leave out, as one Gospel records what another omits.

Gill also gives another way: he engaged eight hundred and slew three hundred with his own hand, the rest falling in the rout he caused. The names differ too (Adino the Eznite, the Tachmonite; Jashobeam, an Hachmonite), as men in Scripture often bore more than one name.