1 Chronicleschapter 14
17 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs, stonemasons, and carpenters, to build a palace for him.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 1 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for a province whose hostile neighbours watched every stone it laid. It falls between two attempts to bring the ark to Jerusalem, during the three months the ark waited. The compiler tells how a foreign king helped David build, how his family grew, and how he fought the Philistines. Listen for what David does before each battle, and for how the two answers he receives differ. The chapter closes on what God did for David's name among the nations.
Context
- Who
- A province whose neighbours watched every stone it laid
- What
- Hiram's help with David's palace, the growth of David's family in Jerusalem, and two victories over the Philistines.
- Where
- The new palace in Jerusalem, and the valley of Rephaim southwest of the city.
- When
- About 1003 to 1000 BC, in the early years of David's reign in Jerusalem.
- Why
- To show that God established David's kingdom and gave him victory when he asked for direction.
Historical context
1 Chronicles names no author, and it names its own sources at 29:29, the histories of Samuel the seer, Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer. The Babylonian Talmud at tractate Bava Batra 15a assigns the book to Ezra the scribe, and C. F. Keil follows that tradition. Sara Japhet, H. G. M. Williamson and Gary Knoppers hold instead that an anonymous writer of the Persian period compiled it. The chapter covers the years of the new palace and the Philistine campaigns, about 1003 to 1000 BC on that same reckoning. The places are Jerusalem and the valley of Rephaim, which runs southwest from the city toward the coastal plain and is the natural approach for an army coming up from Philistia. A first hearer knew that Hiram's cedar, masons and carpenters were diplomacy in the form of building materials. Tyre was a merchant city on the Phoenician coast with the timber of Lebanon behind it and no farmland of its own, while Israel had grain, oil and the inland trade routes. Cedar logs were floated down the coast in rafts and hauled inland, which only a state could manage. A large household of wives and sons was standard royal policy, since each marriage bound another family or town to the crown. He also knew that capturing an enemy's images and keeping them was the usual practice, so burning them, as the law required, is what makes the end of the chapter striking.
Significance
Twice the Philistines spread out in the same valley, twice David asked God before moving, and the two answers differed, the second being a flanking move behind them to the balsam trees. For a people rebuilding under watchful neighbours the lesson was to ask every time, since each occasion carried its own order. The chapter ends with David's fame going out into all lands and the LORD bringing the fear of him on all nations. A small province surrounded by hostile officials heard that God can make a name for a people who cannot make one for themselves.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The Philistine wars of David have no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for this book, and no festival reading.
One law still kept in Jewish life stands behind the twelfth verse, where the Philistine gods are burned, and the corpus opens the door on it. It carries Avodah Zarah 44a at 44:10 and 44:12 under that verse, with Ein Yaakov and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition) both at Avodah Zarah 3:1. Avodah Zarah is the tractate on idolatry and on what must be done with the objects of it, and this verse is one of the places its discussion rests on. Under the seventeenth verse, where David's name goes out to all the nations, the corpus carries eight further locators, among them Shemot Rabbah 45:5 and 48:1 and Vayikra Rabbah 36:2.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The friendship of Hiram he reads as an old family habit. Genesis Rabbah 85:4 has it that this man was accustomed to being friendly to the tribe of Judah, as Hirah the Adullamite had been to Judah himself (Rashi on I Chronicles 14:1:1). David's knowledge that God had established him Rashi ties to something visible. He saw the kings of the nations sending him gifts (Rashi on I Chronicles 14:2:1).
The Philistine attack is given a motive the verse leaves out. The Philistines had ruled Israel since before Saul, which Rashi shows from Samson in Judges 15:11 and from the Philistine camp in 1 Samuel 4:9. For the seven years David reigned in Hebron they said nothing, supposing that some governor had been set over Hebron. When he was anointed over all Israel they came up to look for him, because they wanted no king in Israel at all (Rashi on I Chronicles 14:8:1).
The inquiry of God in the tenth verse he identifies as the Urim and Thummim rather than a prophet (Rashi on I Chronicles 14:10:1). The name Baal-perazim was given to the place after what happened there. Rashi reads the breaking of the enemy as a scattering, men broken off from one another like waves that fall elsewhere (Rashi on I Chronicles 14:11:1 and 14:11:2).
The note on the second battle carries an aggadah a Christian reader should hear as the tradition's own voice rather than as the text's. The order to circle behind the Philistines rather than attack them directly is set inside a scene in heaven. The Divine Standard of Justice asks why Saul was put aside for David. The answer given is that Saul did not wait the seven days for Samuel. The order to circle is then a test of whether David will wait, and Rashi ends the note by saying that David observed it (Rashi on I Chronicles 14:14:1). The same seven days that stood in the verdict on Saul in chapter 10 stand here as the thing David got right.
The corpus carries fifteen further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. Eight stand cited and unquoted at Metzudat David on I Chronicles 14:1:1, 14:2:1, 14:4:1, 14:5:1, 14:7:1, 14:8:1, 14:15:1 and 14:16:1. Three stand at Malbim on I Chronicles 14:3:1, 14:10:1 and 14:12:1. Three stand at Radak on I Chronicles 14:2:1, 14:8:1 and 14:14:1, and one at a further note of Rashi on I Chronicles 14:11:3.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries fourteen rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the eleventh verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah 3:3:6. On the twelfth, the burning of the Philistine gods, it holds Avodah Zarah 44a at 44:10 and 44:12, Bereshit Rabbah 94:3, and Ein Yaakov with the Glick Edition both at Avodah Zarah 3:1.
The spread of David's name carries the rest. On the seventeenth verse the corpus holds Bereshit Rabbah 39:11, Shemot Rabbah 45:5 and 48:1, and Vayikra Rabbah 36:2. Esther Rabbah 1:5, Kohelet Rabbah 7:1:3, Midrash Shmuel 23:4 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 12:2:2 stand with them. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Chronicles 14:1:1 to 14:14:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Chronicles 14:1:1, 14:2:1, 14:4:1, 14:5:1, 14:7:1, 14:8:1, 14:15:1 and 14:16:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on I Chronicles 14:3:1, 14:10:1 and 14:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on I Chronicles 14:2:1, 14:8:1 and 14:14:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-chronicles/14.json, the 14 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A palace, a household, and a kingdom lifted up
1 Chronicles 14:1-2
Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys: Chronicles sets this interlude after the ark's first attempt, where 2 Samuel 5:11 to 25 tells it before the ark comes up. Keil reads the order as thematic, since the Philistine wars answer David's anointing over all Israel. Barnes notes the parallel keeps close to Samuel's wording.
1 Chronicles 14:1
“Compare 2Sa 5:11-25, the only important variations from which are in 1Ch 14:4-7, the list of the sons of David (see 1Ch 3:1 note), and in 1Ch 14:12, where the fact is added that the idols taken from the Philistines were burned.”
David realized that the LORD: David reads Hiram's gifts as a sign from the LORD that his throne was secure. The kingdom was exalted for the sake of His people Israel, and Henry draws from this that the blessed are blessed to be a blessing. 2 Samuel 5:12 carries the same sentence.
1 Chronicles 14:2
“David's kingdom was lifted up on high, not for his own sake, that he might look great, but because of his people Israel, that he might be a guide and protector to them. We are blessed in order that we may be blessings. We are not born, nor do we live, for ourselves.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Chronicles 14:3-7
David took more wives in Jerusalem: The names of the children born to him in Jerusalem repeat the list at 1 Chronicles 3:5 to 8. Clarke counts eleven names in the Hebrew of Samuel, thirteen here, and twenty-four in the Septuagint. The doubling fits the book's practice of keeping every line of David's house on record.
1 Chronicles 14:3
“David took more wives at Jerusalem--(See on 2Sa 3:5). His concubines are mentioned (1Ch 3:9), where also is given a list of his children (1Ch 14:5-8), and those born in Jerusalem (2Sa 5:14-16).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the names of the children: Nathan and Solomon were both sons born to David in Jerusalem by Bathsheba (1 Chronicles 3:5). Luke 3:31 traces the line of Jesus through Nathan, and Matthew 1:6 through Solomon. Clarke counts eleven names in 2 Samuel and thirteen here.
1 Chronicles 14:4
“These are the names of his children - In 2Sa 5:14-16 (note), eleven persons only are mentioned in the Hebrew text, but the Septuagint has twenty-four, here there are thirteen, and all the versions have the same number, with certain varieties in the names. - See the notes there.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet: Elpelet here is the Eliphelet of 1 Chronicles 3:6. He and Nogah in verse 6 are the two sons this list has beyond the list in 2 Samuel 5:14 to 16. Nothing further is recorded of either.
Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia: Nogah means brightness and appears only in the lists of David's sons, here and at 1 Chronicles 3:7. Nepheg and Japhia stand in both Samuel and Chronicles. A king of Lachish named Japhia fought Joshua (Joshua 10:3).
Elishama, Beeliada, and Eliphelet: Beeliada appears as Eliada in 2 Samuel 5:16 and in 1 Chronicles 3:8. The first form joins baal, meaning lord, to a verb meaning knows, and the second joins El, God, to the same verb. The name Eliphelet appears twice in 1 Chronicles 3:6 to 8.
The Philistines broken at Baal-perazim
1 Chronicles 14:8-9
they all went in search of him: When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, they went in search of him. They raided the Valley of Rephaim southwest of Jerusalem, and Chronicles carries the notice from 2 Samuel 5:17 to 18. A Philistine army testing the king belongs early in the reign.
1 Chronicles 14:8
“The Philistines went up to seek David - See on 2Sa 5:17 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
raided the Valley of Rephaim: Rephaim is also the name of an early people of great height in Deuteronomy 2:11 and 20. The valley ran along the boundary of Judah close to Jerusalem (Joshua 15:8). 2 Samuel 5:18 tells the same raid.
1 Chronicles 14:10-12
So David inquired of God: David inquired of God before marching, and the LORD answered, for I will deliver them into your hand. In 2 Samuel 5:21 David carried the idols away, while here David ordered that they be burned, as Deuteronomy 7:5 and 7:25 command. Barnes names the difference directly.
1 Chronicles 14:10
“David inquired of God - “David consulted the Word of the Lord.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
went up to Baal-perazim, where: Like a bursting flood pictures water breaking through a dam or down a dry streambed in a sudden storm. Baal-perazim means master of breakthroughs. Isaiah 28:21 recalls Mount Perazim as the pattern of the LORD rising up to act, there against His own people.
1 Chronicles 14:11
“Like the breaking forth of waters - “And David said, The Lord hath broken the enemies of David like to the breaking of a potter’s vessel full of water.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the Philistines abandoned their gods: 2 Samuel 5:21 says David and his men carried the idols away, and Chronicles adds that David had them burned. Deuteronomy 7:25 commands Israel to burn the images of the nations' gods. Barnes notes that armies carried images of their gods into battle.
1 Chronicles 14:12
“When they had left their gods there - The practice of carrying images of the gods to battle was common among the nations of antiquity, and arose from the belief that there was virtue in the images themselves, and that military success would be obtained by means of them.”
Waiting for the sound of marching in the mulberry trees
1 Chronicles 14:13-16
Once again the Philistines raided the valley: The Philistines raided the valley, and God told David to attack in front of the balsam trees. He was to move out at the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees. Clarke records an older reading that took the sound as an army sent ahead of David.
So David again inquired of: The Hebrew name of the balsam trees is baka, the word behind the Valley of Baca in Psalm 84:6. The exact tree is unknown. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown keep the Hebrew word and speak of a baca-grove, from which David's men were to strike the Philistine rear.
1 Chronicles 14:14
“Go not up after them--The text in 2Sa 5:23, more correctly has, "Go not up." turn away from them--that is, by stealing round a baca-grove, come upon their rear.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the sound of marching in: The sound in the treetops is God's own army moving out ahead of David's, as the verse itself explains. Clarke reports that the Targum hears it as angels sent from God's presence to help. 2 Samuel 5:24 gives the same signal.
1 Chronicles 14:15
“A sound of going - “When thou shalt hear the sound of the angels coming to thy assistance, then go out to battle; for an angel is sent from the presence of God, that he may render thy way prosperous.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
from Gibeon to Gezer: David did as God had commanded, and the Philistines were struck down from Gibeon to Gezer, on the road down to the coastal plain. 2 Samuel 5:25 has Geba where Chronicles has Gibeon. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see the victory freeing the hill country of Judah.
1 Chronicles 14:16
“The line from this to Gazer was intersected by the roads which led from Judah to the cities of the Philistines. To recover possession of it, therefore, as was effected by this decisive battle, was equivalent to setting free the whole mountain region of Judah as far as their most westerly slope [BERTHEAU].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
fame went out into every land: Verse 17 has no counterpart in 2 Samuel 5, and Chronicles adds it as its summary. David’s fame went out into every land, and the LORD caused all nations to fear him. The conquest narratives pair fame and fear in the same way, there of the nation entering the land.
1 Chronicles 14:17
“Into all lands - That is, all the surrounding or neighboring lands and nations, for no others can possibly be intended.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, a royal interlude of building, family and two campaigns, framed by one verdict, as table classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The verdict stated at the top and proved at the foot | Verse 2 says outright that the LORD had confirmed David king over Israel and lifted his kingdom up for the sake of his people. Verse 17 closes that David's fame went out into all lands and the LORD brought the fear of him on all nations. Matthew Henry reads verse 17 as the chapter's verdict on everything since verse 1, the cedar, the sons and the two victories all serving to lift up a king the LORD had confirmed.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 1 Chronicles 14:17. | 1 Chronicles 14:2, 1 Chronicles 14:17 |
| The same valley twice, and two different orders | The Philistines spread out in the valley of Rephaim at verse 9 and again at verse 13. David inquires both times. The first answer sends him straight up, and the second sends him round to come on them from behind the balsam trees at a signal. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown correct the rendering of the second order and describe the flanking movement, and they identify the rustling in the treetops as the sign of the moment to attack.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on 1 Chronicles 14:14 and 14:15. | 1 Chronicles 14:9, 1 Chronicles 14:10, 1 Chronicles 14:13, 1 Chronicles 14:14 |
| Baal-perazim, a second place named for a breaking | Verse 11 records David saying God had broken through his enemies like a breach of waters, and the place was called Baal-perazim for it. The chapter before had David naming a place Perez-uzza for a breach of another kind. The same king names two sites in two chapters for the same image, once for a judgment against him and once for a victory given him. Adam Clarke prints the Targum's reading, that the LORD broke the enemies of David like the breaking of a potter's vessel full of water.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, on 1 Chronicles 14:11. | 1 Chronicles 14:11, 1 Chronicles 13:11 |
The idols, burned rather than carried off
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
At verse 12 this account departs from its source. 2 Samuel 5:21 says David and his men took the abandoned idols away; here they were burned with fire. Albert Barnes names the addition directly. Deuteronomy 7:5 and 7:25 command exactly that against the gods of a conquered people, so the difference is a fuller obedience rather than a different event.
The readings divide only over whether Samuel's taking already implied destruction or whether this account corrects an incomplete report. The site's published exposition states both and settles neither. Albert Barnes adds the background that carrying images of the gods to battle was common among the nations of antiquity, and arose from a belief that there was virtue in the images themselves.
The count of David's Jerusalem sons across the witnesses
Adam Clarke counts the spread rather than resolving it. The Hebrew of 2 Samuel 5:14 to 16 gives eleven names, this chapter gives thirteen, and the Septuagint gives twenty-four. He leaves the variance to the versions. The count matters because the same roster stands twice in this book, at 3:5 to 8 and here, so a reader meets three different totals for one family.
The verse Samuel does not have
Verse 17 has no counterpart in 2 Samuel 5, which ends its parallel account at the battle report. This book adds the closing sentence as its own summary before returning to the ark. Fame and fear stand together in it, the pairing the conquest narratives use of Israel's neighbours, and here it rests on David rather than on the nation entering the land. Adam Clarke limits all lands to the surrounding nations, since no others can be intended.
The ground, and what stands on it
The dossier for this book carries the Stepped Stone Structure and the Large Stone Structure in the City of David, excavated by Kathleen Kenyon in the 1960s and by Eilat Mazar from 2005. Mazar identified the large building as David's palace and other archaeologists date the remains later, and the dossier records the disagreement rather than settling it. The palace of verse 1 is the building a reader most naturally connects with that argument, and this row names the connection as a reading rather than a result.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
C. F. Keil, The Books of the Chronicles, on 1 Chronicles 14:1; This site's published book guide, src/components/book/guides/1-chronicles/Book1ChroniclesGuide.tsx, the BANDS table, the band "The Ark, and the Covenant" at 13:1 to 17:27 and This site's published book sections table, src/lib/bible/book-sections.ts, the entry "1 Chronicles": "history".
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Berean Standard Bible; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. H. Bennett, The Books of Chronicles (Expositor's Bible).