1 Chronicleschapter 18
17 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Moreover, Abishai son of Zeruiah struck down eighteen thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 1 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for the subjects of a small Persian province, hearing about the empire their fathers once ruled. It moves quickly, as a summary of years of fighting on every border of the land. The writer places it straight after the promise of the chapter before, so the victories read as that promise at work. Its first hearers knew what a chariot cost and what a gift from a neighbouring king meant, and those details carry weight. Listen for the one line in the middle about justice. Then notice where the captured bronze is headed, because the chapters ahead will use it.
Context
- Who
- Subjects of a small Persian province, hearing about the empire their fathers ran
- What
- A summary of David's victories on every side and a list of the officials of his government.
- Where
- Philistia to the west, Moab and Edom to the south, and the Aramean kingdoms north to the Euphrates.
- When
- The years after the covenant of chapter 17, about 1000 to 995 BC, approximate on any reckoning.
- Why
- To show the promise to David being kept, and to trace the wealth later given for the temple back to these wars.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to David as a field commander and then as a head of government, with Joab over the army and Abishai leading in Edom.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The time is the run of campaigns after the covenant of chapter 17, roughly 1000 to 995 BC, with no date the text itself fixes.
The places follow the compass. Gath and its villages opened the coastal plain, and Moab and Edom secured the south with the copper country and the road to the Gulf of Aqaba. Hadadezer of Zobah brought the northern Aramean kingdoms under tribute as far as the Euphrates.
The occasion is Hadadezer's own march to establish his dominion along the Euphrates, which verse 3 gives as the reason David met him that far north.
A first hearer knew why the captured chariot horses were hamstrung. Cutting the tendon leaves an animal unable to pull, and chariots needed flat ground, trained crews and costly upkeep that Israel's hill country did not support. David keeps a hundred teams and disables the rest rather than build an arm he could not sustain.
He knew what Tou of Hamath was doing as well. Hadadezer had been Tou's enemy too, so the embassy with its gifts of gold, silver and bronze is a buffer state congratulating the winner early.
The closing list is a government rather than a war camp. It names an army commander, a herald who kept the record, a scribe, two priests, and a foreign bodyguard corps whose loyalty ran to the king in person.
Significance
The line the writer wants remembered sits in the middle of the conquests, that David administered justice and righteousness for all his people. Empire without justice was what their own overlords offered them.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The rest explained the wealth of the chapters ahead. When the readers heard of stockpiles of bronze set aside for the temple, they now knew which wars it came out of.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
1 Chronicles carries no weekly portion and no Haftarah, and no part of it is read in the synagogue service on any Sabbath of the year. In the Hebrew Bible Chronicles stands among the Writings, and the Haftarah is drawn from the Prophets, so the yearly cycle passes this book over entirely. This site's own table of synagogue readings records the same absence. It holds no portion, no Haftarah use and no festival reading for any of the twenty-nine chapters of the book.
How it is read
The corpus carries fifteen kept notes of Rashi for this chapter in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, under CC-BY. His first note settles what the whole run of war reports is doing in the book, and every later note works inside that answer. David has been told the house is his son's to build, and Rashi has him reason from the refusal to a plan. Since the building falls to his son, he will prepare everything in advance so that the son finds it ready. On that reading the Chronicler then leaves the rest aside and relates how David prepared, how he fought his enemies, and how he set their spoils aside for the construction (Rashi on I Chronicles 18:1:1). Rashi calls this an ordinary habit of the text. He points to the account of Elijah and Elisha, where the story of the kings is left and the wonders of Elisha are told through to the end. He restates the same reading at the eighth verse over the huge quantities of copper (Rashi on I Chronicles 18:8:1).
The battle notices are read as geography and law. The war with Hadadezer took place in Hamath, and Rashi says so twice, once to fix the site and once to gloss the Hebrew form of the name (Rashi on I Chronicles 18:3:1 and 18:3:2). At the tenth verse he explains how two kings who have no quarrel with Hamath came to fight there. Hadadezer had gone up to make war on Tou the king of Hamath when David came upon him. Rashi also sets the list of gold, silver and copper vessels beside the parallel notice in Samuel (Rashi on I Chronicles 18:10:1). The hamstringing of the horses is read as obedience to the law of the king in Deuteronomy, with the precedent in Joshua beside it. The hundred chariots left over are the allowance the same law makes (Rashi on I Chronicles 18:4:1 and 18:4:2). At the fifth he treats the spelling of Damascus here and in Samuel as one of the ordinary variations of Scripture (Rashi on I Chronicles 18:5:1). At the sixth and the thirteenth he reads what David placed in the conquered lands as governors. At the thirteenth he adds that David "did not wish to set up a king to reign over them" (Rashi on I Chronicles 18:6:1 and 18:13:1). At the seventh he glosses the golden shields as quivers and gives the Old French word for them (Rashi on I Chronicles 18:7:1).
The closing notice of David's rule draws the most careful reading in the chapter. Rashi takes the justice and charity of the fourteenth verse as a change of occupation: David retired from going out to war and sat and judged Israel fairly (Rashi on I Chronicles 18:14:1). He then explains why the officers are listed immediately afterwards, and why Joab stands first. A reader might conclude from David sitting as judge that Israel had stopped fighting, so the text says at once that Joab was over the host. Rashi reads the whole list of officials as still hanging on the words about justice and charity (Rashi on I Chronicles 18:15:1). Two shorter notes finish the list. Shavsha wrote alongside Ahilud the recorder (Rashi on I Chronicles 18:16:1). The Cherethites and Pelethites are read as nations from whom David's mighty men were drawn, with Benaiah over them (Rashi on I Chronicles 18:17:1).
Malbim, Radak and Metzudat David comment on this chapter as well, and one further note of Rashi stands beside them. The corpus carries their refs with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they stand here cited and unquoted. Malbim comments at I Chronicles 18:1:1, 18:2:1 and 18:8:1. Radak comments at I Chronicles 18:6:1, 18:11:1 and 18:12:1. Metzudat David comments at I Chronicles 18:11:1 and 18:12:1. Rashi comments at I Chronicles 18:10:2.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries eleven rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Four stand on the fourteenth verse and the one after it, where David administers justice and righteousness to all his people. Three of them sit on the fourteenth alone, Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 1:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shoftim 1:1, and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 16:18:9. The fourth, Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 2:1, is carried across the fourteenth and fifteenth together. Three stand on the twelfth, the slaughter of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt: Bereshit Rabbah 74:15 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Deuteronomy 20:1:1 and on Genesis 25:25:4.
The last four are single locators. Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 36:24 stands on the third verse, where David strikes Hadadezer as far as Hamath. Midrash Aggadah on Numbers 24:7:6 stands on the thirteenth, the garrisons in Edom. Sanhedrin 16b:2 stands on the seventeenth, where Benaiah is set over the Cherethites and the Pelethites. Aggadat Bereshit 80:1 is carried by the corpus on a verse numbered beyond the chapter's own count. It is cited here as the corpus prints it, and no claim is made about which verse it belongs to. 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 18:1:1 to 18:17:1, fifteen kept notes in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, CC-BY; Malbim, Malbim on I Chronicles 18:1:1, 18:2:1 and 18:8:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on I Chronicles 18:6:1, 18:11:1 and 18:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Chronicles 18:11:1 and 18:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-chronicles/18.json, the 11 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; This site's table of synagogue readings, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, which records no portion, no Haftarah use and no festival reading for 1 Chronicles.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Philistines, Moab, and the bronze and gold of Zobah
1 Chronicles 18:1-6
took Gath and its villages: The wars summary runs parallel to 2 Sam 8:1-6: the Philistines and Gath, Moab made to pay tribute, and Hadadezer of Zobah. A refrain brackets the chapter: “So the LORD made David victorious wherever he went”. It stands at verse 6 and returns word for word at verse 13.
1 Chronicles 18:1
“Gath was the "Metheg-ammah," or "arm-bridle," as it is there called--either from its supremacy as the capital over the other Philistine towns, or because, in the capture of that important place and its dependencies, he obtained the complete control of his restless neighbors.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
they became subject to David: Moab is the second nation David defeats, after the Philistines of verse 1. The Moabites become his subjects and bring him tribute. Aram becomes subject in the same words at verse 6, Edom at verse 13, the wars Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read beside 2 Samuel 8.
1 Chronicles 18:2
“Brought gifts - Were laid under tribute.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
King Hadadezer of Zobah: Hadadezer rules Zobah and has marched out to set his power along the Euphrates River. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take Hadadezer as the original form of the name, built on Hadad, a Syrian god. They think it became the standing title of Zobah's kings.
1 Chronicles 18:3
“Hadarezer--or, "Hadadezer" (2Sa 8:3), which was probably the original form of the name, was derived from Hadad, a Syrian deity. It seems to have become the official and hereditary title of the rulers of that kingdom.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
he hamstrung all the horses: David takes a thousand chariots, then hamstrings all the horses except a hundred. Matthew Henry sees David refusing to trust in horses. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that 2 Samuel 8:4 has seven hundred horsemen where this verse has seven thousand, and they blame a copyist's slip.
1 Chronicles 18:4
“In 2Sa 8:4 David is said to have taken seven hundred horsemen, whereas here it is said that he took seven thousand. This great discrepancy in the text of the two narratives seems to have originated with a transcriber in confounding the two Hebrew letters which indicate the numbers, and in neglecting to mark or obscure the points over one of them.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the Arameans of Damascus came: The Arameans of Damascus come to help Hadadezer of Zobah, and David strikes down twenty-two thousand of them. The help only adds to the losses. Matthew Henry notes on verse 4 that the enemies of God's church often ruin themselves by helping one another.
1 Chronicles 18:5
“The Syrians of Damascus were smitten when they came to help Hadarezer. When hand thus joins in hand they shall not only not go unpunished, but thereby they shall be gathered as the sheaves into the floor, Mic. iv. The wealth of the sinner sometimes proves to have been laid up for the just.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
placed garrisons in Aram of Damascus: David places garrisons in Damascus, and the Arameans pay him tribute. The verse then credits the LORD with David's wins wherever he went. Verse 13 repeats the line after the war with Edom, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read these wars beside 2 Samuel 8.
1 Chronicles 18:7-11
took the gold shields: Where 2 Samuel records the dedication of the gold and silver, Chronicles adds a detail that looks ahead to the temple. The bronze from “Tibhath and Cun, cities of Hadadezer” is the metal “with which Solomon made the bronze Sea, the pillars, and various bronze articles”.
from Tibhath and Cun, cities: Tibhath and Cun are two of Hadadezer's cities, and David takes much bronze from them. Solomon later casts the bronze Sea from it, with the pillars. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read this verse beside 2 Samuel 8, where the parallel account of the spoil stands.
Tou's gifts and garrisons planted in Edom
King Tou of Hamath heard: Tou is king of Hamath, the city named in verse 3 as the edge of David's war with Zobah. He hears that David has beaten the whole army of Hadadezer. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take Hadadezer as the standing title of Zobah's kings.
1 Chronicles 18:9
“Tou king of Hamath - Called Toi in 2Sa 8:9.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 18:9
“The presents we are to bring him are not vessels of gold and silver, as here (those shall be welcomed to him who have no such presents to bring), but our hearts and sincere affections, our whole selves, we must present to him as living sacrifices.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
he sent his son Hadoram: Tou sends his son Hadoram to greet David and bless him. Hadadezer had been at war with Tou, so David's win served Tou as well. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown name Hadadezer as the hereditary title of Zobah's rulers, the enemy both kings shared.
King David dedicated these to: All the treasure goes to the LORD. David dedicates Tou's gifts along with the silver and gold of five nations, from Edom to Amalek. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read verse 8 beside 2 Samuel 8, and that verse says the bronze later furnished Solomon's temple.
1 Chronicles 18:12-13
in the Valley of Salt: “Abishai son of Zeruiah struck down eighteen thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt”, a victory 2 Sam 8:13 credits to David. Verse 13 closes with the refrain of verse 6: “So the LORD made David victorious wherever he went”. Chronicles lets the field commander's name stand beside the king's.
1 Chronicles 18:12
“Abishai - slew of the Edomites - This victory is attributed to David, 2Sa 8:13. He sent Abishai against them, and he defeated them: this is with great propriety attributed to David as commander-in-chief; qui facit per alterum, facit per se.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
He placed garrisons in Edom: Edom receives garrisons like Aram in verse 6, and all the Edomites become David's subjects. The refrain of verse 6 returns to close the wars. Matthew Henry joins this verse to the justice of verse 14, and calls David a type of the Messiah, whose scepter is a right scepter.
1 Chronicles 18:13
“He was not so intent on his conquests abroad as to neglect the administration of justice at home. Herein he served the purposes of the kingdom of providence, and of that God who sits in the throne judging right; and he was an eminent type of the Messiah, the sceptre of whose kingdom is a right sceptre.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
David reigns in justice, and his officers are named
1 Chronicles 18:14-17
administered justice and righteousness: The chapter closes as 2 Sam 8:15-18 does, with the officers who show a kingdom ordered. Verse 14 says David “administered justice and righteousness for all his people”. Samuel names the scribe Seraiah and calls David's sons priestly leaders, where here they are “chief officials at the king’s side”.
Joab son of Zeruiah was: Joab son of Zeruiah commands the army, as general-in-chief in Adam Clarke's words. Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud is the recorder. Clarke explains the office as the king's remembrancer, the royal writer of the reign's history.
1 Chronicles 18:15
“Joab - was over the host - General-in-chief. Jehoshaphat - recorder - The king’s remembrancer, or historiographer royal.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zadok son of Ahitub and: Zadok and Ahimelech serve together as priests. Adam Clarke calls both high priests, one at Gibeon and one at Jerusalem, and points back to 16:39. He also notes that 2 Samuel 8:17 calls the scribe Seraiah where this verse has Shavsha.
1 Chronicles 18:16
“Zadok - and Abimelech - priests - Both high priests; one at Gibeon, and the other at Jerusalem, as we have seen 1Ch 16:39. Shavsha was scribe - Called Seraiah, 2Sa 8:17.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Benaiah son of Jehoiada was: Benaiah son of Jehoiada commands the Cherethites and Pelethites. Adam Clarke gives the Targum's fuller reading, where Benaiah is over the great and small Sanhedrin and sends the archers and slingers to battle. Clarke takes David's sons as the highest in authority beside the king.
1 Chronicles 18:17
“Cherethites and the Pelethites - See the note on 2Sa 8:18. The Targum says, “Benaiah was over the great Sanhedrin and the small Sanhedrin, and consulted Urim and Thummim. And at his command the archers and slingers went to battle.” The sons of David - These were the highest in authority.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Compressed battle summary closing in an administrative list, as guide classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| So the LORD made David victorious wherever he went | The same sentence closes the northern campaigns at verse 6 and the Edomite campaign at verse 13, and everything between the two stands inside it. The site's published exposition reads the bracket as the chapter's own verdict on plain conquest, which is that the hand at work in it was not the king's. Nothing in the run of victories is explained any other way.Carl Friedrich Keil, The Books of the Chronicles, 1872, on 1 Chronicles 18. | 1 Chronicles 18:6, 1 Chronicles 18:13 |
| The nations whose silver and gold were dedicated | Verse 11 gathers Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines and the Amalekites into one sentence, and the point of the list is where the metal went. David dedicated it to the LORD rather than to his treasury. Tou of Hamath's gift, carried by his son Hadoram in the verses before, is folded into the same dedication. | 1 Chronicles 18:10, 1 Chronicles 18:11 |
| The officers of the kingdom, by office | Verses 15 to 17 name the army commander, the recorder, the two priests, the scribe, the officer over the Cherethites and Pelethites, and the king's sons at his side. The list closes the chapter as the same list closes 2 Samuel 8. It shows a kingdom ordered as well as won, which is what verse 14 says David did with it.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Chronicles 18:15. | 1 Chronicles 18:14, 1 Chronicles 18:15, 1 Chronicles 18:16, 1 Chronicles 18:17 |
What the Chronicler kept and what he added
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter runs beside 2 Samuel 8 throughout, and the site's published exposition names what each verse does with the shared material. The refrain at verses 6 and 13 is the frame. The bronze notice at verse 8 is the addition, and it points forward to Solomon rather than back at the battle.
Two names differ from the parallel without comment in either book. The scribe is Shavsha here and Seraiah in 2 Samuel 8:17. David's sons are chief officials at the king's side here, where 2 Samuel 8:18 calls them priests. Adam Clarke and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record both as textual differences and settle neither.
The numbers, and the question they raise
Verse 4 gives a thousand chariots, seven thousand charioteers and twenty thousand foot soldiers, and verse 5 gives twenty-two thousand Arameans of Damascus. The dossier carries the size of this book's figures as one of its six difficulties, since Chronicles and Samuel diverge most often and most widely on numbers.
It names three positions. The first reads copying damage in the Hebrew numeral notation, held by C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch in Biblical Commentary on the Books of Chronicles, 1872, and the conservative commentary tradition after them, on the ground that numbers were the most fragile element in ancient copying. The second reads the Hebrew eleph as a unit or a clan rather than always a literal thousand, held by John Wenham in Large Numbers in the Old Testament, Tyndale Bulletin 18, 1967. The third reads deliberate scale, the ancient historian's ordinary way of stating magnitude. This page states no verdict.
Where the chapter touches the ground
The dossier's archaeology section carries the Tel Dan Stele, an Aramaic victory inscription dated about 840 to 835 BC and found in 1993 and 1994 by the Tel Dan expedition under Avraham Biran. Its bearing line reads that the inscription names the house of David as a going concern within a century and a half of David's reign. The Arameans of verse 5 are the same northern neighbour whose later king had the stele cut.
The dossier also 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. The dispute is named on both entries rather than settled.
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
This site's published book guide, src/components/book/guides/1-chronicles/Book1ChroniclesGuide.tsx, the BANDS row "Wars, the Census, the Threshing Floor" at 18:1 to 21:30, whose form line reads compressed battle summaries, then one full chapter of crisis; This site's published book sections table, src/lib/bible/book-sections.ts, the entry "1 Chronicles": "history" and This site's published exposition for the chapter, data/commentary/1-chronicles-18-exposition.json, whose module note calls the chapter a restraint pass on the wars summary, parallel throughout to 2 Samuel 8.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; 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 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.