1 Chronicleschapter 18
17 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Key verse
Now after this it came to pass, that David smote the Philistines, and subdued them, and took Gath and her towns out of the hand of the Philistines.
It stands in Philistines, Moab, and the bronze and gold of Zobah, verses 1 to 8.
The chapter
Chapter summary
A campaign summary: the Philistines subdued and Gath taken, Moab made servants and bringing tribute, Hadadezer of Zobah struck as he went to establish his dominion by the Euphrates, the Syrians of Damascus defeated, Edom garrisoned. Twice the chapter states the reason in the same words: 'Jehovah gave victory to David whithersoever he went.' The Chronicler notes what David does with the plunder: the shields of gold and the exceeding much brass from Tibhath and Cun, out of which Solomon will later make the sea and the pillars and the vessels. Then the cabinet list (Joab over the host, Jehoshaphat recorder, Zadok and Abimelech priests) and the verdict that David executed justice and righteousness unto all his people.
Context
History · Ezra · 1 Chronicles overview
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 18The history
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.
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 rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
1 Chronicles 18 falls in David's reign: temple-framed (chapters 10–29). Saul's death framed as judgment; David's consolidation; the ark brought to Jerusalem; the Davidic covenant (ch. 17); the military victories; the census and the threshing-floor site (ch. 21); temple preparation; Solomon's charge; David's doxology.
Before it: Genealogies from Adam to Saul, chapters 1–9.
The whole shape of 1 Chronicles→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Philistines, Moab, and the bronze and gold of Zobah
1. (vv. 1-6)
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
1 Chronicles 18:2
“Brought gifts - Were laid under tribute.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
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
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
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
took Gath and her towns: Chronicles opens its wars summary running parallel to 2 Sam 8:1-6, already covered in the Samuel exposition: Philistines and Gath, Moab made tributary, and Hadarezer of Zobah struck back toward the Euphrates. What this chapter adds is the refrain that will bracket it whole, the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went at verse 6, repeated word for word at verse 13, framing plain conquest as evidence of the Lord's own hand. The Samuel account carries the battle detail; here the same wars serve the Chronicler's larger case that David's kingdom stands under a preservation not his own.
2. (vv. 7-8)
1 Chronicles 18:7-11
took the shields of gold: Where 2 Samuel simply records that David dedicated the gold and silver, Chronicles adds a detail forward-looking to the temple: the brass taken from Tibhath and Chun, Hadarezer's cities, is named at verse 8 as the very brass wherewith Solomon made the brasen sea, and the pillars, and the vessels of brass. The spoils of Zobah, Hamath, Edom, Moab, Ammon, the Philistines and Amalek all funnel into one dedication at verse 11, so the chapter reads David's wars as a supply line for a temple he will not live to build. Tou of Hamath's embassy through his son Hadoram folds foreign homage into the same offering.
B. Tou's gifts and garrisons planted in Edom
1. (vv. 9-11)
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
2. (vv. 12-13)
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
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
in the valley of salt: Abishai son of Zeruiah strikes Edom in the valley of salt, eighteen thousand men, a victory 2 Sam 8:13 credits to David himself as commanding king even though Abishai led the field. Verse 13 closes this movement with the same refrain that opened it at verse 6, the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went, so the whole run of conquests is bracketed by one sentence naming its true cause. Chronicles is content to let the field commander's name stand beside the king's without resolving which telling is fuller.
C. David reigns in justice, and his officers are namedvv. 14-17
executed judgment and justice: The chapter closes as its parallel in 2 Sam 8:15-18 does, with the officer list that shows a kingdom ordered as well as won: Joab over the host, Jehoshaphat as recorder, Zadok and Abimelech as priests, Shavsha as scribe, and Benaiah over the Cherethites and Pelethites. Verse 14's summary, David executed judgment and justice among all his people, reads the wars of the chapter as service to that end rather than an end in themselves. Two small differences from Samuel stand without comment, the scribe's name Shavsha where Samuel gives Seraiah, and the sons of David called chief about the king here where Samuel calls them priests, textual variations the commentators note without needing to settle.
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
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
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
This page carries no textual note on 1 Chronicles 18. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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 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; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.