Cher'ethites
(executioners) and of King David.
2Sa 8:18; 15:18; 20:7,23; 1Ki 1:38,44; 1Ch 18:17
It is plain that these royal guards were employed as executioners.,
and as couriers,
But it has been conjectured that they may have been foreign mercenaries, and therefore probably Philistines, of which name Pelethites may be only another form.
And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David's sons were priests.
And all the people went on by his side; and all the Cherethites and all the Pelethites and all the men of Ittai of Gath, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, went on before the king.
So there went after Abishai, Joab and the Cherethites and the Pelethites and all the fighting-men; they went out of Jerusalem to overtake Sheba, the son of Bichri.
Now Joab was over all the army; and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was at the head of the Cherethites and the Pelethites;
So in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers made of brass, and gave them into the care of the captains of the armed men who were stationed at the door of the king's house.
Then in the seventh year, Jehoiada sent for the captains of hundreds of the Carians, and the armed men, and taking them into the house of the Lord, made an agreement with them, and made them take an oath in the house of the Lord, and let them see the king's son.
Basic English, produced by Mr C. K. Ogden of the Orthological Institute - public domain