'Commander' in the Bible
At that time Abimelech, accompanied by Phicol the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do.
After they had made a covenant at Beer-sheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines.
Now Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.
And the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, a court official of Pharaoh, a commander of the imperial guard.
Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, a court official of Pharaoh, commander of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the hand of the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.
And he said, "Who {appointed you as a commander} and a judge over us? [Are] you intending to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?" And Moses was afraid, and he said, "Surely the matter has become known."
“Neither,” He replied. “I have now come as commander of the Lord’s army.”Then Joshua bowed with his face to the ground in worship and asked Him, “What does my Lord want to say to His servant?”
The commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his forces was Sisera who lived in Harosheth of the Nations.
Then I will lure Sisera commander of Jabin’s forces, his chariots, and his army at the Wadi Kishon to fight against you, and I will hand him over to you.’”
From Ephraim [is] their root into Amalek, after you, Benjamin, with your family; from Makir [the] commanders went down, and from Zebulun [those] carrying [the] scepter of [the] military commander.
And Gaal son of Ebed saith, 'Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we serve him? is he not son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his commander? Serve ye the men of Hamor father of Shechem, and wherefore do we serve him -- we?
When Zebul the commander of the city heard the words of Gaal son of Ebed, {he became angry},
They said to him, “Come, be our commander, and let’s fight against the Ammonites.”
So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead. The people put him over themselves as leader and commander, and Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of the Lord at Mizpah.
But they forgot the Lord their God, so He handed them over to Sisera commander of the army of Hazor, to the Philistines, and to the king of Moab. These enemies fought against them.
The name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam daughter of Ahimaaz. The name of the commander of his army was Abner son of Saul’s uncle Ner.
Also take these 10 portions of cheese to the field commander. Check on the welfare of your brothers and bring a confirmation from them.
When Saul had seen David going out to confront the Philistine, he asked Abner the commander of the army, “Whose son is this youth, Abner?”“My king, as surely as you live, I don’t know,” Abner replied.
Therefore, Saul reassigned David and made him commander over 1,000 men. David led the troops
Everyone who was suffering hardship, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. There were about four hundred men with him.
David then arose and came to the place where Saul had camped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army; and Saul was lying in the circle of the camp, and the people were camped around him.
Abner son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, took Saul’s son Ish-bosheth and moved him to Mahanaim.
Hadadezer sent messengers to bring the Arameans who were across the Euphrates River, and they came to Helam with Shobach, commander of Hadadezer’s army, leading them.
But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed 700 of their charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers. He also struck down Shobach commander of their army, who died there.
Dividing his forces into three groups, he set Joab as commander of one third of his army, Zeruiah's son Abishai, Joab's brother, as commander of another third, and Ittai from Gath as commander of another third. The king informed the army, "I'm going out to battle with you, too."
And tell Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me and do so severely if you don’t become commander of the army from now on instead of Joab!’”
Was he not more honored than the Three? He became their commander even though he did not become one of the Three.
So the king said to Joab, the commander of his army, “Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba and register the troops so I can know their number.”
He has lavishly sacrificed oxen, fattened cattle, and sheep. He invited all the king’s sons, Abiathar the priest, and Joab the commander of the army, but he did not invite your servant Solomon.
The Lord will bring back his own blood on his head because he struck down two men more righteous and better than he, without my father David’s knowledge. With his sword, Joab murdered Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army.
Benaiah son of Jehoiada was commander of the army. Zadok and Abiathar were priests.
Earlier, when David was in Edom, Joab, the commander of the army, had gone to bury the dead and had struck down every male in Edom.
When Hadad heard in Egypt that David rested with his fathers and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me leave, so I can go to my own country.”
He gathered men around him and he became the commander of bandits. When David killed [some of] them, they went to Damascus and settled {there}, and they reigned in Damascus.
His servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him while Elah was in Tirzah getting drunk in the house of Arza, who was in charge of the household at Tirzah.
When these troops heard that Zimri had not only conspired but had also struck down the king, then all Israel made Omri, the army commander, king over Israel that very day in the camp.
The king of Israel said, "Take Micaiah and return him to Amon the commander of the city and to Jehoash the son of the king;
So {Ahaziah} sent to him the commander of fifty with his fifty [men], and he went up to him while he was sitting on the top of the hill. He said to him, " man of God, the king says, 'Come down.'"
Then Elijah answered and said to the commander of the fifty, "If I [am] a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty!" Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
So he {again sent} another commander of fifty and his fifty [men]. He answered and said to him, " man of God, thus says the king, 'Come down quickly!'"
So he {again sent} a third [time] a commander of fifty and his fifty, and the commander of the third fifty went up and came and knelt down on his knees before Elijah and entreated him. He said to him, " man of God, please let my life and the lives of your servants, these fifty, be precious in your eyes.
Then he said to Gehazi, “Say to her, ‘Look, you’ve gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’”She answered, “I am living among my own people.”
Naaman, commander of the army for the king of Aram, was a great man in his master’s sight and highly regarded because through him, the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was a brave warrior, but he had a skin disease.
When he arrived, the army commanders were sitting there, so he said, “I have a message for you, commander.”Jehu asked, “For which one of us?”He answered, “For you, commander.”
So the king of Assyria sent the commander in chief, the chief eunuch, and the {chief advisor} from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a heavy army. They went up and came [to] Jerusalem, then they went up and came and stood at the aqueduct of the upper pool which is on the main road of the {washer's} field.
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and Shebna and Joah said to the chief commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we [are] understanding, but you must not speak Judean with us in the ears of the people who [are] on the wall."
The chief commander said to them, "Is it [solely] to your master and to you my master has sent me to speak these words? [Is] it not for the men who sit on the wall to eat their feces and to drink their urine with you?"
Then the chief commander stood and called with a great voice in Judean, and he spoke and said, "Hear the word of the king, the great king of Assyria!
Eliakim the son of Hilkiah who was over the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah [with] torn clothes, and they told him the words of the chief commander.
Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all of the words of [the] chief commander whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to insult [the] living God, and he will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remainder who are left.'"
When [the] chief commander returned, he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.
On the seventh day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem.
The whole Chaldean army with the commander of the guards tore down the walls surrounding Jerusalem.
Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population.
But the commander of the guards left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.
The commander of the guards took away the firepans and the sprinkling basins—whatever was gold or silver.
The commander of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers.
He took a court official who had been appointed over the warriors from the city; five trusted royal aides found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and 60 men from the common people who were found within the city.
Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
Azariah son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub, the commander of the house of God;
David said, “Whoever is the first to kill a Jebusite will become chief commander.” Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, so he became the chief.
He was more honored than the Three and became their commander even though he did not become one of the Three.
When the Arameans realized that they had been defeated by Israel, they sent messengers to summon the Arameans who were across the Euphrates. They were led by Shophach, the commander of Hadadezer’s army.
But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed 7,000 of their charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers. He also killed Shophach, commander of the army.
Shebuel the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, [was] commander over the treasuries.
And over the working groups of the second month: Dodai the Ahohite and his working group, and Mikloth the commander. And [he was] over his working group [of] twenty-four thousand.
The third army commander, as chief for the third month, was Benaiah son of Jehoiada the priest; 24,000 were in his division.
The fourth commander, for the fourth month, was Joab’s brother Asahel, and his son Zebadiah was commander after him; 24,000 were in his division.
The fifth, for the fifth month, was the commander Shamhuth the Izrahite; 24,000 were in his division.
And over the tribes of Israel, for the Reubenites: the commander [was] Eliezer the son of Zikri. For the Simeonites: Shephatiah the son of Maacah.
After Ahithophel came Jehoiada son of Benaiah, then Abiathar. Joab was the commander of the king’s army.
And they ate and drank before Yahweh on that day with great joy. And they made Solomon the son of David king the second time, and they anointed [him] commander for Yahweh, and Zadok the priest.
These are their numbers according to their ancestral families. For Judah, the commanders of thousands:Adnah the commander and 300,000 brave warriors with him;
next to him, Jehohanan the commander and 280,000 with him;
Then the king of Israel said, "Take Micaiah and return him to Amon the commander of the city and to Jehoash the son of the king,
And Zikri, a mighty warrior of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the son of the king, Azrikam the commander of the house, and Elkanah the second to the king.
and the Lord sent an angel who annihilated every brave warrior, leader, and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria returned in disgrace to his land. He went to the temple of his god, and there some of his own children struck him down with the sword.
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign [after] he purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the commander of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of Yahweh his God.
Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes, as follows—
then wrote Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their colleagues, the judges and the lesser governors, the officials, the secretaries, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is, the Elamites,
Then the king sent an answer to Rehum the commander, to Shimshai the scribe, and to the rest of their colleagues who live in Samaria and in the rest of the provinces beyond the River: “Peace. And now
{Next to them} Rephaiah son of Hur, commander of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired.
{Next to him} Shallum son of Hallohesh, commander of half of the district of Jerusalem, repaired with his daughters.
Malkijah son of Recab, commander of the district of Beth-haccherem, repaired the Dung Gate. He rebuilt it and erected its doors, its bolts, and its bars.
Shallun son of Col-Hozeh, the commander of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it and covered it and erected its doors, its bolts, its bars, and [he built] the wall of the Pool of Shelah of the king's garden, right up to the steps going down from the city of David.
After him Nehemiah son of Azbuk, commander of half of the district of Beth Zur, repaired up to [a point] opposite the burial sites of David, and up to the artificial pool and to the house of the mighty warriors.
After him the Levites repaired; Rehum son of Bani, and next to him Hashabiah, commander of half of the district of Keilah, repaired his district.
After him their brothers repaired: Bavvai son of Henadad, commander of half of the district of Keilah,
{next to him} Ezer son of Jeshua, commander of Mizpah, repaired a second section of a wall opposite of the ascent of the armory at the angle.
Then I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hananiah, commander of the fortress, because he was a faithful man who feared God more than most.
the commander of 50 and the dignitary,the counselor, cunning magician, and necromancer.
"The Assyrian commander has come upon Aiath and has passed through Migron; he stores his supplies at Michmash.
In the year that the chief commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it—
For the Lord, our ruler, the Lord, our commander, the Lord, our king -- he will deliver us.
Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander, along with a very large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the field commander stopped at the aqueduct at the Upper Pool on the road to Laundryman's Field,
But the field commander asked, "Was it only to all of you and to your master that my master sent me to speak these things? Wasn't it also to the men sitting on the wall who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?"
Then the commander stood up and shouted out loud in Hebrew: