And all his servants passed on beside him,.... Or at his hand or side; his household servants walking perhaps some on one side of him, and some on the other, see 2Sa 16:6;and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites; which were his bodyguards, see 2Sa 8:18;and all the Gittites, six hundred men which came after him from Gath; which either came with him from Gath, when he conquered that city, and took it out of the hands of the Philistines, 2Sa 8:1; compared with 1Ch 18:1; and who might become proselytes, and be incorporated into the commonwealth of Israel, and into David's army, a troop of men, of which Ittai, after mentioned, was captain, 2Sa 15:22; or else these were Israelites, so called, because with David they sojourned in Gath a while, when he fled from Saul; and so Josephus says, they were companions of him in his first flight, when Saul was living; and this number is just the number of the men that were with him at Gath, 1Sa 27:2; and it may be David kept a troop of men always of the same number, to whom he gave this name in memory of them, having been a set of trusty and faithful men to him: these, with the Cherethites and Pelethites,passed on before the king: in this form and manner David and his men marched in their flight.
Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 7. c. 9.) sect.