1 Chronicleschapter 19
19 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire for themselves chariots and horsemen from Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacah, and Zobah.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 1 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for a people whose safety depended on the goodwill of officials around them, and it shows how quickly an insult becomes a war. It begins with an act of courtesy between two royal houses and ends with armies from several kingdoms in the field. The first hearers knew what an envoy was expected to do and what a shaved beard meant, and the story assumes they did. Two brothers command Israel's army in this chapter, and one of them speaks before the battle. Listen to what he says, because it has been remembered ever since. Then watch who ends up paying tribute.
Context
- Who
- A people who had learned how quickly an insult becomes a war
- What
- A narrative of Hanun's insult to David's envoys and the war with Ammon and its hired Aramean allies that followed.
- Where
- The Ammonite capital of Rabbah east of the Jordan, the plain before its gate, and the Aramean states to the north.
- When
- Shortly after the wars of chapter 18, about 995 BC, approximate on any reckoning.
- Why
- To record how the war with Ammon began and to show the LORD giving David victory over the kingdoms that joined it.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Hanun, newly king of the Ammonites, and to Joab, who commanded David's army in the field while David stayed in Jerusalem for the first campaign.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The time is shortly after the wars of chapter 18, about 995 BC, with the second campaign following in the same season.
The places are Rabbah and the plain before its gate, with the hired chariots drawn from Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacah and Zobah and camped near Medeba on the plateau east of the Dead Sea.
The occasion is an embassy of condolence. Nahash had shown David kindness, so David sends comforters when Nahash dies, and Hanun's princes read the embassy as reconnaissance.
A first hearer knew that both the courtesy and the suspicion were ordinary. Envoys did report on walls and gates, and a new king was right to wonder. Hanun's advisers were wrong rather than foolish.
He also knew what the shaving meant. A full beard was the mark of a free adult man and the visible sign of his honour, and exposure was the shame reserved for prisoners of war. Hanun turned David's ambassadors into a public statement that could not be taken back, which is why they wait at Jericho until their beards grow.
The mercenary contract was ordinary too. A thousand talents of silver bought chariots and horsemen from kingdoms that could field them, because a small kingdom could not.
Significance
Joab's words before the charge became the chapter's keepsake. He tells Abishai to be strong and to fight bravely for their people and the cities of their God, and then hands the outcome to the LORD.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
For readers whose own security depended on the goodwill of officials in Samaria and in Persia, the chapter was also a plain lesson in how fast an insult becomes a decade of war.
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 eight kept notes of Rashi for this chapter in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, under CC-BY. The longest of them answers a question the chapter raises and does not settle, which is what kindness the king of Ammon had ever done for David. Rashi supplies a story the text here does not tell. David had lodged his father, his mother, his brothers and his father's household with the king of Moab while he was a fugitive. The Moabites killed them all except one brother, Elihu, who escaped to Ammon and was taken in by Nahash. Rashi supports the survival of that one brother from the list of princes later in this same book, where Elihu of the brothers of David stands over Judah. He takes David's severity toward Moab in the parallel account as the answer to the killing (Rashi on I Chronicles 19:2:1). This is a tradition carried in the commentary rather than a statement of the chapter, and it is reported here as the commentary's.
The Ammonite princes' suspicion is read as an argument from the Torah. Rashi puts their reasoning in their own mouths. The law forbids Israel to seek the peace or the prosperity of Ammon. So they ask whether David would set aside the commandment of his God merely to comfort a neighbour, or whether the embassy is a survey of the city (Rashi on I Chronicles 19:3:1). The humiliation that follows is glossed word by word. The garments take their sense from the priestly term for a linen robe. The cut of the clothing reaches the body itself, with the wording of Samuel and Isaiah set beside it (Rashi on I Chronicles 19:4:1 and 19:4:2).
Three notes handle names and positions. At the sixth verse Rashi sorts out the Arameans. Aram-Maacah means the Arameans living in Maacah, and Aram-Zobah those by the Euphrates, while Aram without a surname is the main body of the nation. He explains the habit by the Ammonites and by the sons of Esau in Seir (Rashi on I Chronicles 19:6:1). At the ninth he reads the battle order as two arrays, the Ammonites at the gate facing Israel and the hired kings in the open field behind them (Rashi on I Chronicles 19:9:1). At the sixteenth he notes that the Aramean commander is Shophach here and Shobach in Samuel. He gives the Rabbis' reading of the two names from the tractate Sotah, one taken from his height and one from his shedding of blood like water (Rashi on I Chronicles 19:16:1).
The eleventh verse draws a note about the book's own spelling that is also a note about David's honour. Rashi observes that Abishai is called Abshai throughout Chronicles, in the written text and in the reading alike, with the exceptions the Masorah names. He then gives the reason. The shorter form avoids a name that could be heard as a claim to stand level with David through their common ancestor (Rashi on I Chronicles 19:11:1).
Metzudat David, Malbim and Radak comment on this chapter more than Rashi does. The corpus carries their refs with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they stand here cited and unquoted. Metzudat David comments at I Chronicles 19:2:1, 19:3:1, 19:5:1, 19:6:1, 19:9:1, 19:10:1, 19:13:1, 19:17:1, 19:18:1 and 19:19:1. Malbim comments at I Chronicles 19:1:1, 19:7:1 and 19:10:1. Radak comments at I Chronicles 19:4:1, 19:8:1 and 19:18:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries eight rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Two stand on the thirteenth verse, where Joab tells his brother to be strong for the people and the cities of their God. They are Bereshit Rabbah 49:8 and Otzar Midrashim, Chuppah of Eliyahu, Chuppat Eliyahu Rabbah 171. Two stand on the sixteenth, where the Arameans send beyond the river and Shophach leads them: Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 8:5 and Midrash Shmuel 26:3. Two stand on the eighteenth, where David kills seven thousand charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers. They are Midrash Tehillim 3:4 and Sotah 42b:11, the tractate Rashi draws on in his note on the commander's two names. The last two are single locators. Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Lech Lecha 7:2 stands on the seventh verse, where the hired chariots camp before Medeba. Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 83:4 stands on the fourteenth, where Joab advances and the Arameans flee. 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 19:2:1 to 19:16:1, eight kept notes in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Chronicles 19:2:1 to 19:19:1, ten refs cited because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on I Chronicles 19:1:1, 19:7:1 and 19:10:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on I Chronicles 19:4:1, 19:8:1 and 19:18:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-chronicles/19.json, the 8 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.
Kindness repaid with shaved beards and cut garments
1 Chronicles 19:1-2
Nahash king of the Ammonites died: Nahash's death and David's embassy of comfort to Hanun repeat 2 Samuel 10:1-2 almost word for word. Chronicles keeps the episode because it explains the war that follows. Kindness offered becomes kindness suspected, and in the next verses suspicion becomes the cause of a war neither side needed.
1 Chronicles 19:1
“Now it came to pass - See the same history, 2Sa 10:1 (note), etc., and the notes there.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Chronicles 19:1
“Compare the marginal references and notes. The writer here adds one or two touches, and varies in one or two of the numbers.”
David sends messengers to console Hanun son of Nahash, repaying the kindness his father showed. Matthew Henry reads the embassy as neighbourly and grateful. Albert Barnes notes that a Philistine king named Hanun appears in Assyrian inscriptions, paying tribute to Tiglath-pileser.
1 Chronicles 19:2
“That is becomes good people to be neighbourly, and especially to be grateful. David will pay respect to Hanun because he is his neighbour; and religion teaches us to be civil and obliging to all, to honour all men, and to be ready to do all offices of kindness to those we live among; nor must difference in religion be any obstruction to this.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 19:2
“Hanun - A Philistine king of this name is mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions as paying tribute to Tiglath-pileser and warring with Sargon.”
1 Chronicles 19:3-5
the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun: The princes' suspicion and the insult that follows track Samuel's account exactly. Hanun “shaved their beards, cut off their garments at the hips, and sent them away”, and a shorn beard was a mark of shame. Adam Clarke notes the Targum's plainer reading of what the cutting exposed.
cut off their garments at: Hanun shaves the beards of David's servants and cuts their garments at the hips. Adam Clarke, with the Targum and Jarchi, reads the cut as leaving the men exposed. The insult answers comfort with open shame.
1 Chronicles 19:4
“And cut off their garments in the midst - Usque ad eorum, pudenda. So the Targum, Jarchi, and others; leaving exposed what nature and decency require to be concealed. See on 2Sa 10:4 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
David hears of the shame and sends messengers to meet his men on the road. They wait at Jericho until their beards grow back. Adam Clarke's note on verse 4 sends the reader to 2 Samuel 10:4 for the same insult.
1 Chronicles 19:5
“19 And when the servants of Hadarezer saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they made peace with David, and became his servants: neither would the Syrians help the children of Ammon any more. How the hearts of sinners that are marked for ruin are hardened to their destruction.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joab caught between two armies: let us play the men
1 Chronicles 19:6-7
sent a thousand talents of silver: Samuel names Beth-rehob, Zoba, Tob and the king of Maacah. Chronicles names “Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacah, and Zobah” and adds the price: “a thousand talents of silver” for “thirty-two thousand chariots”. Albert Barnes flags the chariot count as hard to credit and suspects a word for horsemen has dropped out beside it.
1 Chronicles 19:6
“Chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia - These are not mentioned in the parallel place in Samuel; probably they did not arrive till the Ammonites and their other allies were defeated by the Israelites in the first battle.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
camped near Medeba: The king of Maacah and his troops camp near Medeba. Albert Barnes calls the count of thirty-two thousand chariots corrupt, and he thinks the words and horsemen fell out. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the Hebrew as riders, who fought on horse, in chariots or on foot.
1 Chronicles 19:7
“They hired thirty and two thousand chariots - The reading is corrupt. Such a number as 32,000 chariots alone was never brought into battle on any occasion. Compare the numbers in Exo 14:7; 1Ki 10:26; 2Ch 12:3. The largest force which an Assyrian king ever speaks of encountering is 3,940. The words “and horsemen” have probably fallen out of the text after the word “chariots” (compare 1Ch 19:6).”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 19:7
“So they hired thirty and two thousand chariots--Hebrew, "riders," or "cavalry," accustomed to fight either on horseback or in chariots, and occasionally on foot.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 19:8-9
David sent Joab and the entire army of mighty men: The Ammonites draw up “at the entrance to the city”, and the hired kings take the field on their own. The arrangement splits Joab's problem in two, a walled enemy at his back and open cavalry in front, the same pincer 2 Samuel 10:8-9 describes.
at the entrance to the city: The Ammonites hold the entrance to their own city, and the hired kings wait apart in the open country. Joab is caught between them, as verse 10 shows. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the hired riders could fight on horse, in chariots or on foot.
1 Chronicles 19:9
“Joab's address before the engagement displays the faith and piety that became a commander of the Hebrew people. The mercenaries being defeated, the courage of the Ammonites failed; so that, taking flight, they entrenched themselves within the fortified walls.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 19:10-13
he selected some of the best men of Israel: Joab divides the army with his brother Abishai, each ready to rescue the other. He leaves the outcome to the LORD: “May the LORD do what is good in His sight”. These words, unlike any others given to him, come from the man who elsewhere kills Abner and Amasa.
under the command of his: Joab splits the army of Israel into two parts. His brother Abishai leads the rest against the Ammonites, while Joab takes the best men against the Arameans of verse 10. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the Aramean riders could fight on horse, in chariots or on foot.
you will come to my rescue: Joab and Abishai agree to rescue each other. The Arameans are the hired force of verse 7, and the Ammonites hold the city gate. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown count those hired riders as able to fight on horse or in chariots.
May the LORD do what: Joab's charge has two parts, courage and trust. The men are to fight for their people and for the cities of their God, and the result is left to the LORD. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record the rout that follows at verse 18, with seven thousand men slain.
1 Chronicles 19:13
“Be of good courage - See the note on 2Sa 10:12.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 19:14-15
advanced to fight the Arameans: Joab advances and the Syrian mercenaries break first; seeing their hired strength gone, the Ammonites likewise flee. Joab does not press the siege but returns to Jerusalem, leaving the city standing for the second campaign 1 Chronicles 20:1 will open. The rout matches 2 Samuel 10:13-14 without variation.
So Joab went back to: The Ammonites see the Arameans flee and run from Abishai into their city. Joab leaves the city standing and returns to Jerusalem. The siege of this city, Rabbah, opens in 20:1, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown follow the Arameans to their second defeat at verse 18.
The Syrians beyond the River broken for good
1 Chronicles 19:16-18
they sent messengers to bring more Arameans: Defeat drives Hadadezer's Arameans to bring more troops “from beyond the Euphrates”, led by Shophach. David himself “crossed the Jordan” to meet them. Chronicles counts “seven thousand of their charioteers” where 2 Sam 10:18 counts seven hundred, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note the difference without settling it.
crossed the Jordan, advanced toward: David now takes the field himself after Joab led the first battle. He gathers all Israel and crosses the Jordan to meet the Arameans brought from beyond the Euphrates in verse 16. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown count its dead at verse 18.
killed Shophach the commander of: Shophach, the Aramean commander, is killed as they flee. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set this verse's seven thousand charioteers beside the seven hundred chariots of 2 Samuel 10:18. They report Keil and Davidson holding one text corrupt, while Kennicott, Houbigant and Calmet combine the counts with forty thousand foot soldiers.
1 Chronicles 19:18
“David slew of the Syrians seven thousand men--(Compare 2Sa 10:18, which has seven hundred chariots). Either the text in one of the books is corrupt [KEIL, DAVIDSON], or the accounts must be combined, giving this result--seven thousand horsemen, seven thousand chariots, and forty thousand footmen [KENNICOTT, HOUBIGANT, CALMET].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the Arameans were unwilling to help the Ammonites anymore: The Aramean kings “made peace with David and became subject to him”, leaving Ammon alone behind its city walls. Chronicles moves from this peace straight into the siege of that city at 20:1. It passes over what 2 Samuel 11-12 tells: David at Jerusalem, Bathsheba, and Uriah's death.
1 Chronicles 19:19
“They made peace with David, and became his servants - See on 2Sa 10:19 (note), and the concluding note in that place; and see for omissions in Chronicles, the preface to these books.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 19:19
“Commentary on Chapter XIX 7. Chariots - Thirty two thousand men, who fought partly from chariots, and partly on foot with chariots, or attending upon the chariots, as the ancient manner of fighting was.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative of a diplomatic insult and the two campaigns it caused, as guide classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Joab's two fronts, stated as a matched pair | Verse 12 sets the two halves of the plan in one balanced sentence, the Arameans too strong for Joab answered by Abishai, the Ammonites too strong for Abishai answered by Joab. The two clauses mirror each other word for word in their shape. The arrangement is the answer to the trap of verses 9 and 10, a walled enemy behind and open cavalry in front.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Chronicles 19:12. | 1 Chronicles 19:10, 1 Chronicles 19:11, 1 Chronicles 19:12 |
| Be strong, and may the LORD do what is good in His sight | Joab's speech at verse 13 is the only such word Scripture gives him, and it surrenders the outcome before a sword is drawn. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call it the faith and piety that became a commander of Israel, which is striking in the man who killed Abner and Amasa. The site's published exposition marks that the chapter carries no singers and no prophetic oracle, and the outcome is still handed over.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Chronicles 19:13. | 1 Chronicles 19:13 |
| The hired coalition, named by territory | Verses 6 and 7 list where the silver went, to Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacah and Zobah, and then what it bought, thirty-two thousand chariots and the king of Maacah with his troops. The price is a detail 2 Samuel 10 does not carry at all. The site's published exposition reads the Chronicler's habit with sums and numbers showing even in a war chapter borrowed from another book.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Chronicles 19:7. | 1 Chronicles 19:6, 1 Chronicles 19:7 |
The silence that begins here
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
The Aramean kings make peace at verse 19 and become David's servants, which closes the foreign half of the war. Chronicles then moves directly into the siege of Rabbah at 20:1. Across that same span of time 2 Samuel 11 and 12 tell David remaining at Jerusalem, the affair with Bathsheba, the death of Uriah, Nathan's rebuke and the birth of Solomon. None of it appears here.
The site's published exposition cites W. H. Bennett in The Books of Chronicles, Expositor's Bible, and reads the quiet ending as the point where the Chronicler's selection begins to show. The dossier carries the whole question as one of its six difficulties, with two positions named. Most of Chronicles scholarship reads the selection as governed by the book's subject, including Martin Selman in 1 Chronicles, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 1994, and Roddy Braun in 1 Chronicles, Word Biblical Commentary, 1986. Julius Wellhausen in Prolegomena to the History of Israel, 1878, and the critical tradition after him read a David idealized for a later and more devotional audience. The dossier's door on the omitted material is /featured/david-and-bathsheba, and this page states no verdict.
The numbers, twice over
Two figures in this chapter sit inside the dossier's difficulty on the size of this book's numbers. Verse 7 gives thirty-two thousand chariots hired for a thousand talents of silver. Albert Barnes flags the count itself, since no army of the period fielded a chariot force that size, and suspects a word for horsemen has dropped out beside it.
Verse 18 gives seven thousand charioteers killed where 2 Samuel 10:18 gives the men of seven hundred chariots. The site's published exposition records that Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note the divergence without settling it, some combining the two counts and others treating one text as damaged. The dossier's three positions on the numbers stand behind both verses. The first is copying damage in the Hebrew numeral notation, held by Keil and Delitzsch in Biblical Commentary on the Books of Chronicles, 1872. The second reads the Hebrew eleph as a unit or a clan, held by John Wenham in Large Numbers in the Old Testament, Tyndale Bulletin 18, 1967. The third is deliberate scale, an ancient way of stating magnitude.
Where the place names differ
2 Samuel 10:6 names Beth-rehob, Zobah, Ishtob and the king of Maacah as the hired allies. This chapter names Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacah and Zobah. The site's published exposition sets the two lists side by side and leaves the difference standing, as it leaves the chariot counts standing.
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; 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-19-exposition.json, whose module note calls the chapter Chronicles' close parallel to 2 Samuel 10.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. H. Bennett, The Books of Chronicles (Expositor's Bible).